Will commit to one of these two colleges. I am undecided on my major, leaning toward econ for now but could end up with bio. Location (suburban or rural) is not an issue for me. Comments please, thank you,
Are any of the peripheral, almost random, aspects of these colleges important to you?
Hamilton has a pool and an ice rink, and varsity football, hockey, swimming. Hamilton is NESCAC; Haverford, Centennial.
Haverford doesn’t have fraternities. Hamilton has fraternities, though they are non-residential and appeal to a minority of students.
Hamilton gets snow that is suitable for the adventurous. Bison have been spotted in the area (see another thread).
Less random:
Haverford benefits from a consortium, but the consortium also creates a collegiate gender imbalance.
Though both are “small colleges,” Haverford takes the model close to the limit with about 1200 students. Hamilton has about 1900 students.
Both should be great for econ or bio. I know of Hamilton as having a nice curricular balance: from math to history to geoscience to, particularly, writing. Haverford combined with Bryn Mawr will as well.
I’ve recommended both of these colleges to a very bright relative. So obviously I think especially highly of them.
Feel:
Really hoping you go to accepted-students days and can pick up on the intellectual and social climates at these schools. This will be more important than what I just wrote.
And, whichever college you choose, you will have an honor code.
Good luck!
@merc81 Thank you.
When I visited Hamilton, they talked about having academic and career advising from the start. Yes, writing was mentioned more than once. As for Haverford, they shared more on off-campus/going abroad opportunities. It was homey with honor code in the air.
I am grateful with the two great choices. I must find ways to do the revisits so that it won’t be a toss between bison or no bison.
I think of Haverford as homey as well. Hamilton may be more sporty/woodsy. But Hamilton still has a family feel, which can be enhanced by freshman programs such as REAL.
Some of the presentations at information sessions in general can confusing. Are the colleges really highlighting their meaningful distinctions? Or have the presenters just been given talking points – which may change next year.
Ideally, you should not just prefer one these colleges, but be impressed by one. The students should be intellectually curious, articulate and genuine. These should be people you would both want to be like and be with. The bison would be a nice bonus, but only if it goes that way.
^ S/b: “one [of] these”
I agree with merc81 on this. For all of their similarities, visiting the schools for an extended period will reveal their differences. Your child will recognize a better fit at one of these schools. You’re fortunate to have such great choices.
I visited Hamilton when I was college touring and loved it, so I can understand how this could be a hard decision. In the end I ended up choosing Haverford for the amazing science program, the community, and the location. Hamilton has a family vibe as well, but the Honor Code at Haverford puts the sense of community on a whole other level. Every semester, as a community, we all meet to decide to amend and ratify the Code, which is an amazing experience that is hard to describe. Additionally, the social scene here is all inclusive and very supportive.
Science at Haverford is incredible. You have access to amazing Lab opportunities if you want to do research (I got involved as a Freshman), and the professors are funny, interesting, and intelligent. Also, the econ department here is very strong. Econ is one of Haverford’s most popular majors, and the classes are very engaging. One additional plus is that Haverford students have access to Penn (which is very well known for strength in econ), Bryn Mawr, and Swarthmore classes. The consortium between Haverford and Bryn Mawr is particularly strong, but I know people who take classes at the other schools as well. This consortium makes the academic (and social) offerings at Haverford much larger than the average small school, which I believe is a huge plus. However, the on campus academic opportunities are incredible as well. Many students from Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore come take classes at Haverford, and you will always see people from those schools around.
With all that said, both schools are amazing and the decision will be hard. There is so much more to these schools than can be typed, so I really recommend you go to both school’s accepted students days and see which one you like. Best of luck, and enjoy the rest of your senior year!
@thatscienceguy - which of the sciences are you focusing on at Haverford?
@Epeemom - I’m interested in Biochemistry with a Chemistry major.
So I’m a Haverford student (freshman) and my best friend from home just committed to Hamilton so you may end up meeting one of us at some point! But anyway, to your question.
I’m planning on a bio major and Haverford really does have a great science/math department. I worked in the bio labs doing prep stuff this year (making media, pouring plates, and other basic lab-upkeep things) and this summer I’ll be living on campus and working in a Bio lab helping with research.
As for econ, I’m not very sure but I’ve heard good things about the department.
Haverford has a great first year program (called Customs), that I absolutely love. We don’t have RAs, instead we have a Customs team consisting of upperclassmen, some of which live on our hall. It doesn’t just last past “customs week” which is just the orientation program, the support network is built in for you all year.
Partying is really easy if thats what you want. If not, there are plenty of people who don’t like to go out to parties and/or drink. I didn’t drink in high school and now I do occasionally. The most important thing is that no one ever has pressured me into drinking/trying other substances before. The parties here aren’t super wild compared to other universities, and generally only occur Thursday (only on occasion), Friday and/or Saturday nights, with the biggest parties on Saturdays.
The honor code is another aspect of Haverford that I love. Coming in I respected it, but I didn’t really see its value until more recently. Part of the awesomeness of this is that professors will sometimes give take-home exams allowing you to take it any time you want within the time frame they give you. Also, self-schedue finals are literally the best thing ever. There are three times a day you can go take a test ever day of finals week and you just go take a test when you feel like your ready (this way you never will have to take two tests back to back).
Student governing is a huge (and I mean really huge) part of life on campus. There is literally a committee for everything. Its really easy to get involved (or not) if thats what you want.
So these are a lot of little things that I enjoy/like about Haverford! Overall, I find the atmosphere pretty laid back, friendly and accepting. While everyone takes their academics very seriously, its not a competitive atmosphere at all (people don’t really talk about grades here).
P.S. One negative is that there is an athlete, non-athlete divide on campus… While it must be worse at other schools, it does exist to a certain extent. I have plenty of friends on sports teams, its just that they usually spend most of their time together, especially when in season.
Hamilton also operates by an honor code, but it doesn’t sound as “interactive” as Haverford’s is. From an outsider’s perspective (my D applied and was accepted to both but didn’t attend either), I would say that Hamilton has a more traditional college experience because of its larger size, NESCAC athletics, and greek system (although no longer residential, it still has some presence). Haverford is significantly smaller, and the quaker roots of Haverford have a great influence over the culture of the school and the student body. I think it draws a more intellectual group of students. If you are inclined to academia and graduate school, Haverford is a bit stronger by reputation. If you want to work in finance on Wall Street, Hamilton is the better bet. Those were my general impressions of both, for what it’s worth.