Hey everyone! I was recently accepted to Colby, Bowdoin, and Hamilton and could not be more excited! I am most likely attending the accepted students days before deciding but I just wanted to reach out to this thread. In your opinion, what do you think sets Hamilton apart from other schools in terms of academics, student life, and overall undergrad experience? I am interested in possibly majoring in biology or chemistry. Thanks and I look forward to hearing back from you all!!
I am researching Hamilton for similar reasons. There are posts here going back to 2006 or earlier, many written by students. Everyone says that Hamilton offers a welcoming atmosphere, an interesting and quirky mix of students, not a majority of any one type, and it is socially liberal while having some politically conservative kids on campus.
There was one from a Hamilton sophomore comparing Bowdoin (where her/his sister was graduating from) and Hamilton—said Bowdoin was more uptight, preppy, type A kids, Hamilton friendlier, kinder, better social life, and that the food at Hamilton was equally good, but that sister loved Bowdoin.
Hamilton has an open curriculum, which is somewhat unique. When we visited we thought the students were very down to earth and friendly, the food was amazing (we had some delicious sushi), and the campus was beautiful. We actually visited all the campuses where you were accepted and Hamilton is the only one still on my daughter’s list.
My DD’s spent a lot of time at both Bowdoin and Hamilton - both are great schools, and while Bowdoin is considered slightly more prestigious they felt the students at Hamilton were as @GanAinm said “friendlier, kinder, less Type A/uptight and had a better social life”. It is clear that Hamilton picks students that are community focused.
After much thought, my student athlete DD committed at today’s Hamilton’s Accepted Students Day - it was a very special day for her.
@Chembiodad Congrats to your D! My D also had a very special day at Hamilton’s accepted student day yesterday. It was her first time having the chance to visit and she absolutely fell in love for all the reasons mentioned here. She still needs to do her return visit to Smith (where she got a Stride scholarship) but Smith is going to have to fight to win her back after yesterday!
Hamilton (in brief): 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, Hamilton has no direct peer within the NESCAC. Beautiful residence halls overlook the Oriskany and Mohawk valleys.
My D also had to decide between Hamilton and Smith.
Interestingly, when students are admitted to both colleges, 67% choose Smith.
My guess is the fact that Smith is located in a vibrant college town and is part of the 5 college consortium accounts in part for the significant discrepancy.
http://www.parchment.com/c/college/tools/college-cross-admit-comparison.php?compare=smith&with=Hamilton+College
@CrewDad Interesting! It may also be that many of the girls admitted to both Hamilton and Smith would be eligible for Smith’s Stride scholarship (as my D was), which provides a pretty nice financial incentive to a lot of “donut hole” families who may not qualify for any or much need based aid, whereas Hamilton is need-based aid only. We have specifically told our D that she should choose based on fit, not finances, but I know a lot of families are not in the same position.
@thermom, we had a similar process with several Midwest schools providing great merit scholarships, but for DD1 it hit her half way through the Hamilton accepted students day yesterday and she was all in.
Given Hamilton’s relatively small size and fairly remote location, it’s been very interesting and enlightening to read so much great feedback about the school. My DW and I toured 20 schools with our DD’s over a 2 year period, and while we knew there was something special going on there the first time we walked the quad it took a couple more trips up the hill to truly understand the community they have created.
One other thing worth mentioning, Hamilton has some very passionate and dedicated alumni. I know this is true for many schools, but for my D, her experience with Hamilton’s alums has been unique.
Not only did the alum who she interviewed with give her a congratulatory call after she was accepted, he tapped another local area alum who graduated more recently to reach out to D to put in a word for the school and see if she had any questions. The first is a very successful financial planner, the second is the co-founder of a local craft brewing company - both busy guys who went out of their way to check in with my D. That definitely made an impression.
@thermom Only ~50 women who are award the STRIDE matriculate. Perhaps a couple of STRIDE recipients are deciding between Hamilton and Smith, which is too few to affect the percentages. It’s also possible that because the merit award replaces need-based aid dollar for dollar, the aid awarded by Hamilton and Smith is similar for those qualifying for > $20,000 in need-based aid.
Both Hamilton and Smith are great colleges. Had D2 not been accepted ED1 at Vassar, she would have applied ED11 at Hamilton.
@Chembiodad Well, my D made it official with Hamilton yesterday. I agree, that it’s been great to get so much positive reinforcement here on CC about the school - it feels like it confirms what my D (and I!) sensed/saw when we visited about the community they’ve built up there on the hill.
Maybe we’ll see you in August! 
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@thermom, Congrats to your DD as we too feel the sense of community amongst a group of really accomplished students every time we visit. Now that DD1 has committed to Hamilton as a student-athlete, her twin is awaiting waitlists at two other NESCAC schools, but short of either of those coming through she will be on the hill in the Fall as well.
My twins also both really like Hamilton…unfortunately, they are also both pretty adamant about NOT going to the same college. Any suggestions @Chembiodad about how your Ds are thinking about that? Part of the problem is that they are likely to be in some of the same major activities (running and outdoor club) and have the same/similar majors.
S has acceptances from Middlebury and Bowdoin, but Hamilton really seems to have made a more overall positive impression on him. They are both willing to go elsewhere, but he is the one with the strongest options, and so is deferring to her and trying to decide between his other great options. May 1st can’t come soon enough…
@WhataProcess, our DD’s were attracted to, visited and essentially applied to the same basket of LAC’s. with exceptions that our xc/track DD wasn’t interested in or in the case of some Ivies didn’t have the marks to be recruitable at the time.
So, we told them both that they would have to decide on their own to “opt out” if they both wanted to go to the same school and had an issue in attending with their twin - so, we used an “opt out” rule where they individually, not us, would have to take ownership as we weren’t going to tell either that they had to pick another school if it was also their first choice.
Our xc/track DD decided/committed at the Accepted Students Day, so we told her sister that she had 6 other choices to pick from if she didn’t want to go to school with her sister. While she is still hoping for two waitlist choices, we haven’t heard anymore chatter so I think our DD’s are fine with it as it remains the first accepted choice for both - makes it easier that one’s major/minor is on the dark side and other is on the light side.
We did hear that they admitted 17 sets of twins this year so it won’t be unusual to see…
@WhataProcess, One of DD’s waitlist choices is Middlebury - to her there were a lot of things in common with Middlebury and Hamilton, in particular the science buildings which is her focus.
@reynoldspz38 where did you end up choosing?
@reynoldspz38, @Dontskipthemoose, excited to hear your decision! Our DD will be attending Hamilton with her twin, but she is leaving the door open for the waitlist spot at Middlebury as that was a top-3 choice for her initially.
@CrewDad, @WhataProcess, same question.
DD will be attending Hamilton (running with @Chembiodad 's DD!)
DS chose Bowdoin (really struggled with the final decision Bowdoin vs Middlebury.)
Twins had preference for not being at same small school, so DS pretty much took Hamilton off his final short list even though he liked it a lot. Not sure that’s the result Hamilton Admissions was hoping for with all the sets of twins they admitted this year! We feel a bit bad about that actually, because we felt it would be a good fit for them both. If they weren’t likely to be in so many of the same activities and classes they may have felt differently, but in any case, both are landing at great schools with lots of opportunity.
@WhataProcess, congratulations on two great choices! Her twin is still waiting to see if she’s gets off waitlist at Middlebury; otherwise will also be attending Hamilton, but with a completely different academic focus - I need to change my name to neuropoliscidad.
PM if you would like so we can introduce our DD runners - Coach was feeling good about her recruits, so looking forward to them being scorers in the Fall!