<p>I have been accepted to all three schools and is having a hard time deciding where to go. I value:
a good library
student body diversity
reputation ( esp internationally)
grad school acceptance</p>
<p>also while I'm willing to try a small town environment, I grew up in Guangzhou, Toronto, Hong kOng and Shanghai, all of which are very urban.
any advice and knowledge about those schools would be great ( and I cannot visit campus due to my current location in china).</p>
<p>What are your academic interests, graduate school plans and career goals? All 3 schools are really different.</p>
<p>I want to major in Econ and will probably apply to grad school. Career goals--working for a multinational company that can use my fluent Chinese. Open to other careers like law.</p>
<p>well I personally like Grinnell a lot better than the other two, but McGill may be the best fit for your criteria.</p>
<p>I admittedly know almost nothing about Grinnell or McGill, but here's some info on Hamilton:</p>
<p>-Econ is one of the most popular majors at Hamilton, and the department is very good.</p>
<p>-Networking at Hamilton is also good, because alumni are really invested in helping current students - this is a plus for your career goals.</p>
<p>-There is a junior year in China program, but it focuses on gaining fluency with the language (perhaps I misunderstood your post, but if you are already fluent this program may not be of interest to you).</p>
<p>-The library has great resources, but it's not the most aesthetically pleasing building, and some students find it too social for effective studying. However, if you're interested in good study spaces, the science center is amazing and everyone hangs out there to do their work.</p>
<p>-I'm always impressed with the diversity at Hamilton, but I can't really compare it to the other schools (again, because I don't know much about them).</p>
<p>-Clinton is a small town, but Utica and New Hartford (and even Syracuse) aren't that far away. I have heard a few students who live in or near NYC complain about the lack of things to do, but I find that there are a lot of good on-campus events and local attractions to fill my time.</p>
<p>I hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions!</p>
<p>stargazer115 : Thanks for all that info!!!
I want to know how hard it is for a Hamilton grad to get into top grad schools for law and econ. Also, how hard the grading is ( this will impact grad school, so..I'm a bit worried).
How's the swimming pool there, and how strong is the MUN, dance clubs?? What about learning French as a second language? And Chinese lit? ( I'm already pretty fluent in Chinese).
Thanks!</p>
<p>I'm not very well-versed in grad schools stats, but I know that at least two seniors this year got into Cornell law school, and the pre-law advisor from the career center is very good. Also, because Hamilton has such a focus on writing, that would help in law school. Grading really varies depending on the department and professor, but my general feeling is that if you work hard and take advantage of the resources (free tutoring, writing center, quantitative literacy center, seeing your professor when you need help), it's not hard to do very well. I'm not a swimmer, but I have a lot of friends who swim and the pool is nice, it's in a very cool room with lots of translucent glass on the walls. Dance clubs are very popular, and there are a lot of different ones - latin, ballroom, jazz, hip hop, step. I'm not sure about how great the MUN team is, but the Mock Trial team just placed 4th at nationals.
I study French, and so far I love the department. Languages are very strong here, and I'm impressed with the faculty. Taking a quick look at my catalogue, it looks like there are a good number of Chinese lit courses in the East Asian studies department. Some of them seem sort of comparative literature-esque, in that there's a focus on film as well. The course catalogue is on Hamilton's website if you want to check out some course descriptions.
I'm sorry I can't be more specific, I'm into theatre/comp lit and not so much econ.</p>