Does Hamilton have a facebook group for admitted students?
Yeah! You can find the link in your My Hamilton portal @collegesucks111
@rjjxv26, any pointers on how your son got in? My D just toured the school and loved it! She’s only a sophomore so any pointers would be appreciated.
@frutsun I know that my stats were probably average for a white male applicant from MA, but I feel like my key to admission was the fact the I fit into exactly the kind of student they are looking for. I participate in class and my recs (most likely) and my supplement indicated this. I also felt like my commonapp essay fit very well with the school and its message on human interaction and inclusion. My ECs had (I thought) a nice flow to them geared toward my interests.
I think I’ll be declining my waitlist offer. I got into Upenn with a lot of aid. It was nice meeting you lovely people.
@frutsun, I was at Hamilton with my S last summer on a beautiful day. It was certainly one of my own favorite campuses.
One factor that I think helped some was application updates. My S was able to report on two pretty decent accomplishments after the RD application was submitted, in the Jan to Feb period: his team won the state championship in a constitutional law competition and he began an internship with an international aid organization. The Hamilton acceptance letter made reference to the program he’s in that facilitated these accomplishments. He also submitted a portfolio of piano videos as part of his application. He’s been playing since he was young and is an OK pianist but it’s not something he’ll likely pursue in college in any substantial way (shocker: he never liked practicing). Still, he got a follow up letter after his acceptance from a music faculty saying how impressive his playing was. That may have been Hamilton trying to grease the skids but I think the music portfolio definitely helped.
Also, he showed quite a lot of interest. He did a visit last spring; did a soccer ID clinic in the summer and went back sometime after that for an interview. I forget why he didn’t interview when he visited the first time but he showed he was willing to visit three times (we live about 2 hours away). He was not recruited as an athlete, but was able to say that he was a 4 year varsity soccer player (and captain senior year) and played premier club soccer.
His SATs were comfortably within Hamilton’s range (780/680/760, 780/760 SAT2). His grades weren’t stellar: about a 93-94 average, though he always did very well in history and english, faltering more in math & science. He declared as a history/classics major.
I think his interview went well. It was one of the last ones he did so he was pretty seasoned by then.
Hamilton admissions were very responsive and positive with every update he sent. Some schools could barely muster a grunt of acknowledgement and for others there was no response at all. Both during application and after acceptance they were a school that seemed to be the most in contact with us. So I had a very good feeling toward Hamilton and feel a bit like @momof2eagles because he’s probably going to Middlebury. The list of peer schools he got into goes: Bowdoin, Middlebury, Bates, Colby and Vassar. BTW, we sought financial aid at all schools. The awards are very similar.
Good luck to you and your D. Good that you’re starting early.
@rjjxv26 Thanks for the detailed information. How would you compare Hamilton and Colby?
@social321, I liked the Hamilton campus more. The Colby campus only dates back to the mid-20th century and while it is lovely, it lacks the old beauty of Hamilton, IMO. Academically, they’re similar but for my son’s major(s) it looked like Hamilton would be a better fit. But my son had a good interview at Colby and came away with a positive impression.
I don’t know what Colby’s admit numbers will look like after this year. They claim to have had > 9800 applicants for what appears to be about 475 seats.
Also, although I said that all the LACs my S got into were roughly the same, when I sat down to crunch the numbers the other night I saw that they were not. Colby gave the best aid – significantly better than Middlebury’s.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that Hamilton provided the best financial aid package of any of the NESCACs that I crunched the numbers for - Middlebury, Williams and Colby included. This is likely because Hamilton does not consider primary home equity in their FA formula, while other NESCAC schools factor in home equity, some up to 100% (Williams).
So if you own a home and have substantial equity in it, you may find that Hamilton is able to provide very good aid as compared to the other NESCAC schools.
@BelknapPoint, I had known that Hamilton ignored home equity whereas Middlebury uses up to 1.2 times income, which drops it well down for us. Still, it’s another source of savings/investment/equity that’s subjected to the 5.5% drawdown.
I don’t know what Colby’s policy is but they gave the best grant/tuition ratio and the lowest cost to attend. Middlebury had the lowest tuition but the highest cost. Hamilton was only slightly cheaper than Middlebury. Bowdoin came in somewhere in the middle.
So Hamilton found some way to reduce the award while not considering our home equity, it would seem.
Yes, it’s hard to know how the final number is determined, when the schools all use their own formulas to distribute need-based institutional aid, and none of it is very transparent. Obviously different family financial circumstances will lead to different results at the same college. My understanding is that Colby considers home equity on a case-by-case basis, thus bringing even more confusion and uncertainty to the whole process.
@goldy410 thanks for the tips! I’ll let my D know.
@rjjxv26 , thanks so much for your detailed answer. I’ll let my D know. may I ask if your S is coming from an independent high school or a public one?
@frutsun, my S is coming from a small city public high school.
@rjjxv26 thanks! Good to know. My daughter is also in public so suggestions are even more relevant.
@frutsun, I don’t know if coming from an urban or semi-urban high school helps or hurts. Somewhat related is the notion (provided by a Hamilton soccer coach) that admissions doesn’t like to have too many kids from the same high school in the college.