Hamilton College ED Class of 2024

Is the aid offered substantially different than what the NPC showed (you did run the Hamilton NPC, right?) or what you may have gleaned from talking with the financial aid office before an ED application was submitted? Did the financial aid office provide anything in writing that you may have relied on?

Chance me for RD?

(I applied ED1 and got deferred.)

I go to a pretty competitive boarding school and have a 3.75 GPA and a 1450 SAT. (I also have a solid amount of extracurriculars.)

Also, I’ve visited multiple times and shown lots of interest- my mom went there and it ended up being my dream school!

I should’ve mentioned I’ve also taken 6 total APs

@hberesford: Hamilton states “that most students who are not admitted under Early Decision are denied admission so they are free to pursue other colleges.” However, a “small percentage of students . . . are deferred to Regular Decision so that they can be considered within the context of our larger applicant pool.” Since you have landed within this small percentage of applicants who will be considered further, you still may have a realistic chance of admission. Best of luck!

@hberesford, after having 2 sons go through the process of applying to small liberal arts schools all I can say is that it’s a crap shoot getting accepted to these type of schools. Great grades, good test scores and being in leadership positions in extra curriculars are definitely helpful, but it’s impossible to say just from that how good your chance is of getting accepted.

Sometimes it’s just really hard to know exactly what admissions is looking for. I know students who got accepted to Ivy League schools but didn’t get accepted to Hamilton. I also know some of my son’s friends who didn’t get accepted by what would generally be acknowledged as easier to get into schools than Hamilton but then got accepted to Hamilton.

You got deferred so there is obviously something they liked or else you would have gotten denied. Keep the faith and I hope you get accepted. But as I’ve said before in this thread if you don’t get accepted to Hamilton you’ll get accepted to a great school and I hope you take advantage of the opportunities that whatever school you attend offers.

Hello! I’m just finding this thread now and was accepted as a jan. I’d love to hear about it.

My daughter received a an offer from Hamilton for the January admittance. We would like to understand the pros and cons of this offer. We are worried that she will miss out on a lot of the bonding that goes on in the first semester at college. We also don’t know if she will be housing with a freshman when she returns or an upperclassman. Will she feel like a transfer student when she starts in January? Any insight would be helpful.

@JerseyGirl2001 and @coliet27 , my son was a Jan class of '22. Currently a sophomore. He went to London thru the Arcadia University program his first semester with approximately 37 other Hamilton Jans. He enjoyed the London experience very much.

Pluses: London. The students are housed in a dormitory style building owned by Arcadia U. in the Highgate section of London, nice area. The building is nice and clean. Rooms are doubles. Students from Brandeis University were there also. Hamilton students room with other Hamilton students. Classes are Monday-Thursday, no classes on Friday. Many students would take off for the long weekend to other parts of the UK or Europe. My son traveled to Ireland, Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid and the Canary Islands. Students take four classes. Students can elect to take, I believe, once class at a UK university in London as well. Arcadia provides a few day trips around London, to Stonehenge and Bath.

What could be perceived as negatives: Highgate, where the students live, is about a 30-40 minute tubes right down to Arcadia’s academic building. There is no meal plan. There are full kitchens on each floor of the dorm, but students are responsible for their meals. London is expensive. My son found the Arcadia classes very easy. The credits transfer to Hamilton, but not the grades. There are no course offerings in the sciences and no economics course was offered when my son was there. Perhaps this has changed. Most of the Jans go to London. I believe that there were around 11 Jans in my son’s class who didn’t go to London but did something else. If your child doesn’t elect to go to London, I don’t know how difficult it would be to make friends the spring semester. I guess it would depend upon the student.

My son already had a strong “Jan” friend group when he arrived on campus for the spring semester. The Jans are all housed on the third floor of Dunham and they can choose with whom to room. Jan’s also got first priority when signing up for spring classes. Hamilton provides a three day orientation for the Jans right before spring semester. It helps to get involved quickly on campus. My son joined the rowing team and the newspaper. He later joined a fraternity.

My son viewed this semester as kind of a gap year/study abroad. He absolutely loved being in London, but he’s a city kid. Remember also, that the drinking age in London is 18. That’s good or bad, depending upon how you look at it.

Feel free to reach out to me with more questions/concerns. There are a few other parents on here who had Jan students as well.

If you consider Hamilton’s August orientation adventure trips — to which January admits are invited — to be integral to the first semester, then your daughter will return to Hamilton’s campus with a rolling start after her fall experience.

Congratulations to your daughter on her acceptance!!

@HamilyDad
Hi can you share your thoughts about the open curriculum and how that all works.

@lime2020, the open curriculum was one of the reasons both my sons chose Hamilton. There are no core curriculum requirements at Hamilton except that each student needs to take 3 writing intensive courses to graduate. There are writing intensive courses in almost every discipline. So for example if you are a math/science person and don’t like history/literature/English type classes there are writing intensive courses you can take in math and science. If you’re in interested in disciplines such as music or art there are writing intensive classes in those disciplines too.

They say the open curriculum promotes more interest from students in their classes outside their majors since students choose the classes they take rather than are required to take them. My son said he feels that is definitely true.

Here’s a video of a student describing the open curriculum. She probably does a better job than I did here.

https://youtu.be/g4XkZWYRUWc

There are also a few FAQs here on the Hamilton web site about the open curriculum on the bottom of this page:
https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/study-what-you-love/open-curriculum

Re #'s 69–70, notwithstanding Hamilton’s flexible curriculum, non-science majors may want to consider enhancing their understanding of the natural world through one or two courses in Hamilton’s excellent geosciences department and through elementary physics-department courses in astronomy and quantum and relativistic mechanics.

I appreciate this information. Thank you!

Since it wasn’t specifically mentioned above, note that Hamilton requires one quantitative and symbolic reasoning (QSR) course and some physical education classes and tests (e.g., swimming).

Hi, I really don’t know how to use this tool but I was hoping HamilyDad could share some thoughts on his children’s experience with the social life at Hamilton. My daughter is choosing between Hamilton and another school and trying to find utube videos and the like of what goes on at Hamilton on the weekends. She has looked at the events calendar and clubs/organization pages but looking for some insight from a current parent. Thanks,

There were a few questions on this forum about Hamilton’s open curriculum. Hamilton is having a virtual event on April 20 at 7:00 focusing on this aspect of the school. See the link below for information and to register for the event.

https://www.hamilton.edu/admission/accepted-students/virtual-event-q-a-with-dean-keen-about-hamiltons-open-curriculum

@lime2020, good question. Is the other school a small liberal arts school? If so my impression is they’re all pretty much the same.

My older son is a senior and he has a very active social life that mostly revolves around his good friends on campus that hang out together and do varied things. They go to school sporting events, especially to support their friends on teams. The school hosts events on the weekends for students (movies, speakers, comedians, etc.). There are clubs that host their own events such as concerts and plays.

There obviously is plenty of drinking on campus. My son didn’t drink when he went to college but he did start going to drinking parties, even freshman year. There are frats and sororities on campus (they don’t have houses though) that host parties but I’m pretty sure you have to be of legal drinking age to attend. Although I remember him saying he went freshman year so maybe they don’t always serve alcohol. My son says he doesn’t go to parties every weekend and the school’s social life doesn’t revolve around frats. There is The Little Pub on campus (https://hamilton.cafebonappetit.com/cafe/the-little-pub-2/), which is sort of like a sports pub (TVs, pool tables, electronic dart boards, dance floor, etc.).

There are also weekend trips planned by some of the clubs. Skiing, hiking, etc. There is a movie theater and a bowling alley in New Hartford that you can take the school jitney to.

My son says he always has something to do. Sometimes he says if nobody in his social circle feels like doing anything they just watch movies on Netflix in his room. If you have good friends you can have a good time doing anything.

Hamilton is not like a big state school. It’s not a party school. But if you’re looking at Hamilton I doubt that is important to your daughter. What does your daughter like to do? I can ask my son what someone with those interests might be interested in at Hamilton.

Thank you for your response. She loves the outdoors and is interested in the outdoor club, she skiis and loves to cook. She is the Editor of her HS Literary Magazine so I think she will try and get involved in the school newspaper and the liteary journal as well. She not into the drinking scene but from the reviews we have read most kids say it’s no big deal if you don’t do that. I’m glad to hear that they try to have activies on the weekends. With almost 100% living on campus, I would imagine they have to offer events for the students. I think Hamilton is the right fit for her. The open curriculum is the driving force behind that. We were watching a video from another school and the student made a great suggestion. She said she wasn’t into rushing a soriority but went to the meetings to meet people. I thought that was a great idea. She said she met alot of people and even though she didn’t rush she became friends with some of the freshman that did rush. I don’t think my daughter will rush but she took it as a good idea. Alot of people say sign up for different clubs and check them all out, you will eventually find the ones that work for you. Again thank you for your response.

Hi! As a current Hamilton freshman I’d be happy to answer any questions you or your daughter have about the social life at Hamilton. You can private message me or respond directly on this thread!

Could anyone weigh in on how prevalent the light side/dark side divide at Hamilton really is? And if assigned to one side as a freshman, are you likely relegated to that side forever due to making friends on that side or do students typically move back and forth easily?