My child has been admitted to Hamilton and Colby and likes both schools. Looking for any thoughts or insight anyone may have in terms of choosing one or the other.
Thanks!
They’re both in remote places and DD loved them both and was admitted to both but went elsewhere due to weather. I think Colby has more of a global outlook and an emphasis on research. Hamilton prides themselves in making good writers requiring writing courses. You can’t go wrong with either. Hamilton reminds me more of Middlebury and Amherst with its grand Science Center and Adirondack chairs on the quad whereas Colby has that beautiful library and clock tower as the focal piece. I thought the food at Colby was outstanding and it had more of a feeling of an up and coming still (rising in reputation) feel. Congrats on two wonderful acceptances. Either opportunity will be what your student makes of it!
Hamilton: Benefits from the curricular, architectural, spatial and, to some extent, cultural legacy of having been two colleges of different characteristics, emphases and attributes. Strong in math and sciences, both natural and social, but also a writers’ college. For these reasons, has no direct peer within the NESCAC. Former fraternity houses are now beautiful residence halls.
Thanks for the feedback! Any thoughts on Hamilton’s open curriculum vs. Colby’s distribution requirements?
Personally, I’d prefer the freedom of Hamilton’s flexible curriculum. Thereafter, though, your son should probably, as a suggestion, consider course selections from fields such as classics, philosophy, religious studies, government, literature, history, geosciences and astronomy.
Honestly they are both excellent schools and are peers academically. I’d let your S decide. If you haven’t yet and if it is possible I’d try to revisit the two schools.
+1 to @happy1’s post.
If all else’s fails to differentiate…go to the one that’s easier to get to from home. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but getting through Boston / New York can be a real drag on Thanksgiving weekend. If you’re flying…Syracuse or Portland do anything for you?
PS - I would tend to agree with Merc81
These are peers in just about every sense of the word. There are enough differences – some of which have already been mentioned – that will help you choose based on fit.
Both are remote and the weather is similar. Which environment do you prefer in terms of campus layout and beauty, nearby cities and outdoor activities, town preference, etc.?
Dorms and food?
Open vs. Traditional curriculum w/ distribution requirements.
Do you feel more like a Mule or a Continental?
Students are of about the same caliber, faculty probably is too, they’re in the same conference, they both are known for having diverse student bodies interest-wise – some nerdy, some sporty, some crunchy, some preppy. There’s far more in common here and most differences (aside from curriculum) are subtle. God is in the details. 
Colby! Great orientation program, no frats, fabulous outing club, distribution requirements are easy to meet and guarantee some breadth and a “last look” at a few subjects before picking a major, makes great use of local area for classes, Jan Plan, awesome art museum.
But really, both are excellent. Choose on feel. Hopefully, you are going to the admitted student events to explore a little further (and assess the vibe) before choosing.
I 2nd @EyeVeee 's point about ease of getting back and forth. That can be a good tie-breaker.
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What Colby has is a very aggressive new Dean of admissions who has made no secret of his strategies to trim Colby’s accpetance rate by any means possible. It’s of course an excellent school, but rankings from USNWR paint a limited picture. At some point very soon USNWR is going to have to give acceptance rate less emphasis in its metric. A different ranking is going to tell you a different story.
Personally, when we were trying to help our kid make a final choice, as parents, we focussed on post-grad employment rates and incomes, along with rates of alumni giving. We figured those things were more lasting indicators of college quality rather than acceptance rates which are very fickle and can change yearly. We also paid attention to Fulbright Scholar numbers, because we felt that was probably a good indicator of the quality of both teaching and stduents. As far as our daughter was concerned, she wanted fit, and that’s what I advise the OP’s child to do.
Your child should go with the school she feels she will be happiest at, because academcially, it’s splitting hairs between the two. Amy employer or grad school is going to know that these schools are both excellent. One will not get a student a job over the other, except maybe from an alumni perspective, which is true of any school.
I agree with @Lindagaf about Colby’s foucs on rankings. They have basically doubled the number of applications in 2 years through every possible method.
Not to play geography wonk again, but if you’re stuck making decisions about 2 very similar choices, where do you want to be when you get done? If you aren’t planning on grad school right now, would you see yourself working in Boston? New York? If you want to be NY after graduation, Hamilton is probably better connected than Colby. Boston is probably more connected to Colby. It’s splitting hairs…but that’s where you’re at when asking strangers for input.
@Lindagaf , you make it sound like Colby cares only about lowering it’s acceptance rate for USNWR. Having watched the school for the last few years, I think you have interpreted the result of a goal as the goal itself.
Colby’s goal, under its new president, has been to improve the college in many ways. First and foremost, they want a strong student body. One way to achieve that is to diversify the student body, and as a school that has been well known in New England for decades but less so nationally, the goal is to attract applicants from beyond the region. It has also been a goal to attract have more SES diversity, which it has done in part by working with posse and questbridge. Some of the initiatives around applications were intended to increase accessibility. The new dean of admissions was hired by this president to make this a priority. But mostly, what every school, including Colby, wants is to admit the best students it can, and that doesn’t happen if they don’t apply. I would hope that more applications ultimately allows the school to enroll a “better” class than it would have had it just sat back and seen what rolled in.
Of course, there are lots of other things going on at the school to improve it. Every school has initiatives underway to be “better” and more relevant, but having a student body that reflects institutional goals is really important! Schools like Denison and Dickinson have been doing this effectively by “buying” the best applicants with large merit scholarships. It’s hard to attract the best professors if they aren’t going to teach great students. Really, it all starts here.
I agree that selectivity probably drives people’s decisions too much. But I think, to be fair, that the landscape of colleges admissions has changed so much - with students applying to more schools - and schools now having to fight much harder with each other to win the students they want - that it’s a bit of a chicken and egg problem. To repeatedly point to Colby without recognizing the context is missing the point.
@gardenstategal , I am not picking on Colby, it’s just an easy and obvious example of what’s going on currently. You are absolutely correct, and their strategy is working. Next week it will be another school I will be talking about, no doubt. My kid never applied to Colby, so I don’t have sour grapes or anything:-) Heaven forbid I find out what tactics my beloved Bates has been up to.
Yes, and my point is that it’s less easy to pick on Colby if the facts are right. As for Bates, they had a pretty major, and impressive, makeover under the previous president (from Haverford ). Case and point of how schools pursue institutional goals. Admissions selectivity changed dramatically as well, but again, which came first, the chicken or the egg. As you know, I am a fan of all the BBC schools.
As they’ve currently weighted it, it counts for 1.25% of the total.
The USNews is pretty much a proxy for the amount of per capita spending by each college and that’s mainly a function of endowment per student. In fact, if you could look up each school’s tuition discount rate, which is heavily influenced by endowment size, I’m pretty sure it would line up nicely with its USNews rank. It’s part and parcel with that magazine’s view of colleges as the sum total of their hard assets.
But, there are other data points, including the NYTimes Mobility poll, which point to the outcome or results of those assets. One of them is the metric that measures the number of graduates who are, at least metaphorically, in “the poorhouse” by the time they are age 34, or earning no more than $20,000 a year. It’s a little noticed statistic and one that is remarkably stubborn regardless of which elite college or university you go to. Even Harvard can count on 9% of its graduates living in their parents’ basements nearly fourteen years after graduation:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/harvard-university
What’s particularly unnerving here is that the number of kids who wind up living in genteel poverty has nothing to do with how many kids from poor families attend the same university. In nearly every case, the elite university - be it an Ivy, a NESCAC, a Hopkins, or some other cohort - the percent of graduates with incomes in the lowest quintile nationally outnumber the kids who arrive freshly on campus from families in that same income range by a factor of at least two and in some cases more. I call it, the “Poorhouse Index”. One surprising discovery: LACs with DI athletics do a terrible job of lifting poor kids out of poverty and don’t seem to do a particularly good job keeping wealthier kids out of poverty.
Of the schools mentioned in this thread, Hamilton has the worst PI with 4x as many graduates earning <$20,000 by age 34 as typically matriculate from families earning that same amount; Colby is next with a PI of ~3.8x; Bates is next with nearly 3x. The figure for Wesleyan is 1.5%. The United States Military Academy at West Point was not included in the Times poll.
@circuitrider,
If the “poorhouse” statistic measures only individual income, not family income, it could be highly misleading, as it would label stay at home parents who choose not to work outside the home as indigent regardless of how much money their spouse makes.
Ironically, I would expect the number of adults making less than $20,000 to rise with the percentage of wealthy attendees at a school. A kid coming from a relatively poor family is a lot less likely to be able to choose a creative but low-paying career or to be a SAHP than than a kid from a wealthy one who may have graduated with no loans, substantial savings, and an inheritance in their future.
Hamilton and Colby are both fine schools. So congrats on admission to both.
Forget the comments about admissions – @redhead13’s issue has been admitted. The funny thing is that historically Colby was criticized for not having a sufficiently diverse student body (at one time being known as the school where all the students came from 20 minutes outside of Boston). Once it increases its recruiting effort to increase diversity (both geographic and national origin), it is criticized for that. I suggest that the poster simply decide which school is the best fit.
One point about Colby that should be underscored. Colby’s new Pres is a dynamo who is moving the school to new heights. The art museum could be the best at any college or university, and it just received another major donation. Colby is the impetus behind a major renovation of downtown Waterville, which always had “great bones.” Not only will there be a new boutique hotel, there will be a dormitory available for students to ensure a walking presence throughout the day and evening. The Pres also has brought new quality employers into town. Most recently, Joe Biden will be this year’s graduation speaker. All of this speaks to a vibrancy that will move the college into even more prominent circles.
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