Help me. I would have to take out 3.5k loans at Hamilton, whereas with Colby, I essentially have very little to pay. The school is also giving me a 3k stipend to pursue internships (it’s a scholarship thing for high-achieving minority students). I’ve heard that Colby has had problems with homophobia, racism, and alcoholism, so I’m not too sure if I want to attend. Also, the school seems to fit a certain “type”-- rich, white, and sporty. I want to go to Hamilton because of its writing program+ because it’s in my state; but, I don’t know because Colby is a financially better option. In regards to “prestige,” which school has more? I know that Colby’s acceptance rate has gone down to 19% this year, so I’m glad that I made it. Are H+C equal in terms of academics or prestige, or is one more rigorous than the other? I have NO idea what I want to major in, by the way. Any insight would be great.
Tough choice, but they are both excellent schools. I know someone who also had a difficult time deciding between these two schools, and she chose Hamilton at the end. She has not regretted her choice for a second, and loves absolutely everything about Hamilton.
In the grand scheme of things, $3.5k a year in loans is not a huge amount, but of course your personal financial situation will dictate how comfortable you are with any amount of loans.
If you can make a visit to both schools during admitted student days, I would highly recommend it, as you will hopefully get a much better idea of each school’s “personality” and fit for you.
Congratulations on your acceptances; it’s not a bad dilemma to have.
My D is at Hamilton. She absolutely loves it, especially the focus on writing. You have to take a certain number of writing intensive courses. She loves these courses and actually prefers these. One thing that helped my D make the decision is that there are no core requirements so she was able to get right into the classes that interested her. She is easily able to double major because of this. She has had two research opportunities, has started a club, and is about to go abroad. If there is something you want to do…Hamilton helps you do it. I think Colby and Hamilton are very similar as far as prestige goes. They are often compared and are both high quality schools. You really can’t go wrong with either!
“I know that Colby’s acceptance rate has gone down to 19% this year”
Is that true? I interpreted that as essentially unfounded speculation on the Colby forum.
I think both of these colleges are great, so that being the case, how would I distinguish Hamilton? (This particular post will be about Hamilton only.)
Hamilton is the only college that can be positively cross-referenced between a USA Today article, “The 10 Best American Colleges for Writers,” and a USNWR category, “Writing in the Disciplines.”
The College’s curriculum is balanced between physical sciences and math, humanities and the visual and performing arts, and social sciences – in a remarkably even proportion that is rare among colleges of any type.
Hamilton has a highly interesting Kirkland College legacy that sets Hamilton apart from its peers.
The College is set in a beautiful countryside location with easy access to the village of Clinton and the suburban area of New Hartford.
Bison have been spotted in the area. (From another thread. Don’t ask.) This would break any ties for me. But that’s obvious.
Best of luck with your decision.
omg i cant please help me idk what to pick. any information about colby? I also got a scholarship to U of Rochester so that’s added back to my list!! Fuck
I don’t know your situation, but something to consider is the required health insurance. A New York State Medicaid plan is accepted in-state, but out-of-state schools may require you to purchase a health plan that can be used in that state. That could be an expenditure of about $1500.
Are you able to attend their Accepted Student Days? That sealed the deal for my D. The more time you can spend at each campus, the better. If possible do a student overnight visit as well.
Last year, Colby admitted ~1400 students. The college received significantly more applications this year. Assuming that again ~1400 students were admitted, the acceptance rate would be ~19%
http://www.colby.edu/news/2015/01/22/applications-colby-college-class-2019-soar/
http://www.hardingfarm.com/american_bison_herd_at_harding_farm
My impression is that Hamilton is slightly more selective. In terms of location, both are pretty rural but I’d give Colby a slight advantage because its about an hour from Portland which is a really fun small city.
I’m very surprised to hear that. Colby seems like an extremely tolerant place with students that are too serious to fall into alcoholism. I assume that Hamilton is similar. A minor difference in the student bodies from what I’ve heard is that Hamilton’s might be slightly more conservative, but in general I’d expect the student bodies to be very similar - I would not expect either to be more rich, white and sporty than the other.
^^ CD: My objection relates more to the lack of analysis on the Colby boards, as well as to the similar myopia in the Colby press release itself. The real news in my opinion is that Colby saw at least part of this jump because they eliminated their application fee this year (as well as the supplemental essay four years ago). These types of changes affect yield, and yield must be known to calculate acceptance rate. I haven’t read it yet, but I believe this recent Bloomberg story relates to the topic: Colleges Use ‘Bag of Tricks’ to Juice Application Numbers.
So the rumors of the bison are true! I feared they might be a rural legend.
Ignoring Colby’s alleged myopia for now, I was commenting on the purported admission rate, which is in my opinion not speculation. Admissions has no alternative than to rely on historical yield. Without being clairvoyant, it’s impossible to ascertain how a change that happened only this year will affect yield. It will take a number of admission cycles before the change(s) can be reliably evaluated regarding yield and quality of applicants. I’d be very surprised if admissions didn’t use the historical yield in its calculations and admitted very close to the equivalent number of students as in the past few years. I could be wrong, in which case I have no doubt that you’ll bring my error to my attention. 
CHD, one doesn’t fall into alcoholism any more than one falls into diabetes. 
Alcoholism is a disease that is in many cases inherited.
Overindulging is prevalent on almost all college campuses. Colby included.
Of interest:
@crewdad - My guess is Colby could observe what’s happened to other schools like Kenyon who made similar policy changes, or Colby’s own change in dropping supplemental essays (2010 I believe) and make a some kind of conservative adjustment to their historical yield rate. That’s what I’d do if I was Director of Admissions.
CD, you noted some of the variables and expressed your opinion with this in mind. Then 2chicos took it a little further. That’s all I would have liked to have seen on the Colby boards, especially since that’s where the OP may have gotten his figures from. There’s a wager in here somewhere.
Swarthmore “dropped one essay and reduced another to a maximum of 250 words, as well as stepping up recruiting and waiving fees for students from low-income families” resulting in a 42% increase in applications."
They college stated the acceptance rate will drop from to 12%. Assuming the college intends to admit a comparable number of students as in past years, the decrease correlates to calculating the acceptance rate using past yield. There’s no reason to believe Colby has done otherwise.
“Analysis of another data set found that people with larger vocabularies tended to drink more.” Nice to know there is a benefit for having a smaller vocabulary…
My son and I toured both Colby and Hamilton last Spring. Colby did not resonate with him for 2 reasons: one being the campus, although nice, did not have a warm feeling to it, and felt dominated by sports facilities and playing fields (which is not his priority, maybe its yours); and two being the small town where Colby is located simply felt odd to both of us - the feeling we had was that there is little integration between town and gown. So 2 very subjective reasons. However, I do not agree with the judgement that there is a racist or homophobic vibe at Colby. Admissions went out of their way to share stories and mention clubs which involved all walks of life. I have no facts or anecdotes to back this up, it was just what we heard and had no reason to disbelieve. And I agree that there is a drinking culture at almost all colleges, perhaps even more so at remote campuses, which include both Hamilton and Colby.
We looked at 10 schools all together and my son chose to apply ED1 to Hamilton, and was accepted. Besides being a beautiful campus in a charming town (which mattered to him), he loved - among other things - their open curriculum, the high percentage of math majors, their jazz band, and the eclectic student body. He starts in the Fall.
At one university, according to the Bloomberg article, yield went from a third to 8% due to the increasing ease of their application process.
Such great information! Thanks guys! Still deciding, but Hamilton is in lead right now.
Green 1997, I just posted some information that you may find valuable in making up your mind. See link below: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18319311/#Comment_18319311
Three years ago I was choosing between Colby and Hamilton too! Now, as an upperclassman preparing to write my thesis, I can say that I made the right decision to attend Hamilton. While both of these schools are excellent and quite frankly, very similar. There are a couple of things that set Hamilton apart from its peers:
(1) Hamilton’s open curriculum is amazing. You are an adult, this is college, you should be able to choose what you want to study. While there are obviously still degree requirements, the lack of gen ed requirements, frees you up to take courses that you want to study!
(2) The communal atmosphere–Hamilton’s nightlife is centered around events, parties, and concerts held in “social spaces,” and these events are oftentimes open to the whole campus. No more cramped dorm parties that you need an invite to. Hammy boasts a very inclusive social scene.
(3) The Kirkland-side of campus or the “dark side”. Colby and Hamilton are both fairly preppy, but the Kirkland, hipster, crunchy lifestyle is still very much a part of the Hamilton student culture. I found that Hamilton had a better mix of future wall street workers, artists, musicians, athletes, etc.
(4) The streaking team.
No matter which school you choose to attend, you will be happy there. Nevertheless I hope to see you on the Hill next fall!
CD: After researching it further, It appears I was in error. Although Colby does not have an application fee, there’s no indication that this was new for this year. So – even though Colby only had a 21% yield for RD applicants last year – with this year’s dramatic increase in applications, a <20% overall 2015 acceptance rate could be possible. If this turns out to be the case, Colby will have an extremely polarized admissions process – the acceptance rate for ED1 applicants was over 50% this year.