<p>I am currently a freshman at Hendrix and although I absolutely love it here, it was not my first choice school since it does not offer the languages I would like to study. I applied here late and to make a long story short, I am only here to complete some prequistes and I am hoping to transfer to Kenyon, Bucknell etc. (btw I was waitlisted at Kenyon and rejected at Bucknell last yr)...I love languages and Hamilton seems like a good fit..but I havent heard much about it. What do you think of the school? Are the transfer rates good? Any other schools you think I would like? Please do not suggest Ivys or Middlebury etc. because I do not think I am looking for something that competitive. Thanks!</p>
<p>bumppppp please!</p>
<p>Hamilton's always had an excellent reputation.....for some reason in recent years its gotten a little easier to get into....I have two friends who's kids are there now and both LOVE it......sorry I can't be of more help. Go take a look if you can....and go on the Hamilton thread here on CC.</p>
<p>Middlebury, Smith, Hamilton, and Grinnell are the four LACs which, as far as I am aware, have the largest percentage of majors in languages/area studies. Hamilton is part of a consortium of Ham., Smith, and Middlebury in Paris, and it is one of the few colleges where you can take science courses abroad. </p>
<p>What language is it, though?</p>
<p>i would study anything from russian to arabic to portugese...i just want to avoid the basic french german italian thing</p>
<p>If that's the case, why don't you consider some place a little bit bigger. You've done the small college thing already, and if you really want linguistic breadth, (with the exception of Russian), you might decide that a larger place will have more robust offerings, and deeper departments in the less studied languages. Anyhow, just a thought.</p>
<p>valuable - </p>
<p>If it wasn't for the language issue I'd say stay at Hendrix. Nothing against Hamilton, but I think it's status has a lot to do with its proximity to NYC and it's recent popularity/selectivity. In contrast, Hendrix is underrated.</p>
<p>Regarding your language interests, I would not hold anything against languages commonly studied in America here. You learn a lot about language and culture in general by learning any language. For me, key critieria for study should be: (a) a specific personal or business reason to study a particular language; (b) gross number of people or number of countries that speak the specific language. . .the idea here is the more people or communities with which you can communicate, the better. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>mini- I disagree. It seems apparent that valuable would like a small school, like hendrix, kenyon, bucknell (or hamilton). Even small schools can have quite a few language offerings. Kenyon, for example has Spanish, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Arabic (plus Latin and Greek in the classics dept). I'm sure there are other smaller schools that have plenty of languages to choose from.</p>
<p>As for Hamilton, I visited and I liked it a lot. It had a pretty campus, friendly students (that seem a lot like those at the other schools you're looking at), strong academics. Although you say you don't want the suggestion of Middlebury, it reminded me a lot of it, but a little less competitive. I think it would be a good choice for you!</p>
<p>My d. is an Italian minor and attends one of the four LACs with the highest concentrations of language/area studies majors, and I can tell that while small schools often have "offerings", they are equally often threadbare, with little in the way of upper-level courses. </p>
<p>Kenyon is great example. Do you know how many "upper-level" offerings there are this year in Italian, other than second-year language?
I won't keep you guessing - the answer is nought, as in zero.</p>
<p>reidm- i dont have a bias towards those languages, but to be a UN translator you need to know 3 languages out of the 6 (Obviously I speak English and fairly fluent in Spanish..and I would need to choose from either French, Arabic, Russian or Chinese.) French is at Hendrix, but personally I have no urge to learn French or be that involved in the culture. Not saying I wouldnt learn it eventually, but I rather spend my college years learning something complex like Arabic or Russian (Chinese is out of the question!) The only reason I brought up Portugese, even though it isnt an official UN language, is because I absolutely love the culture and with that said, I would probably learn it better due to my interest. German, Italian, etc. are very interesting and I would love to one day speak them. Yet, most of Germany and Italy speak English quite well. I guess I am looking for something a little more unique. </p>
<p>What about Wesleyan in CT?</p>
<p>Mini, </p>
<p>One of my best Kenyon friends is in advanced Italian this semester, and next semester there are a few Italian classes (in Italian, but not language-skill classes). While it may be small, there ARE other classes besides two years of the language.</p>
<p>At Kenyon,.there is (occasionally) a course in Dante - in translation, and one (in Italian) in Italian cinema. That's it. It's great that they have it, but I think that "threadbare" is a fair description. And there is no department (it is folded into a department of modern languages).</p>
<p>This is not to pick on Kenyon (you'll find pretty much the same at AWS or even less, and the same would be true at a ton of other places) - it just is to say that there is a lot more to be found elsewhere.</p>
<p>All this is by way of suggesting that the OP do due diligence (and figure out what language is desired!)</p>
<p>I don't know if this has been said, but on a side note, Italians are very poor in foreign languages, I'm not sure where you got that they were strong in English. </p>
<p>(I'm not saying the US is any better!)</p>
<p>Just a thought.</p>
<p>But you're cool for liking languages, don't get me wrong.</p>
<p>ciao</p>
<p>Scott</p>