<p>anyone know anything about academics here, or anything at all?</p>
<p>I visted last summer and was very unimpressed. I guess they're trying to bring the academics up but they're really not there yet...tour guide who was from Geneva and went to HWS because he had waited too long to apply and it was right there and didn't have required classes... We had similar experiences with the interviewer and we kept trying to get a different idea from someone and we really couldn't. Not to sound elitist but I thought what I saw did not match at all what I had read about it.</p>
<p>Sounds like youtalked to one of those rare kids from Geneva that go to H/WS and therefore were given a faulty impression of the colleges as a whole. There are actually very few students there from Geneva.
Academics at H/WS are excellent. Grades are earned, not given and the quality of professors ranks right up there with any other of the top LACs. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by no required classes. Your class requirements depend on your major, plain and simple.
I hope you don't pass up H/WS simply on the basis of one misguided local student. You may be passing up a great place to get your education.</p>
<p>It was actually more the interviewere than the student, and I also notice how handpicked many tour guides at colleges are...it does seem odd that they would pick someone so unrepresentative to represent their school. I knew it was supposed to be good, which is why I kept talking to everyone I could but they all gave the same impression.</p>
<p>Who's going here?</p>
<p>i have several friends who are going there and continually raving about it. all of them are intelligent, all-around great people, so i'm sure that h/ws is a pretty great place. good luck to everyone considering it!</p>
<p>D has been accepted. Her visit was the best of all her visit experiences. HWS is probably her #1, but is the most distant (only 300 miles), and that is giving her problems deciding.</p>
<p>HWS has definitely been underrated in the past. The professors really are great and if you are willing to put in some effort you really will get allot back out of it. Our study abroad programs are really incredible, basically go to another country with a faculty member, take great classes and live in incredible housing. Our endowment could be better, but its growing really fast because of our current president who is as popular on campus as I've ever seen on any college campus.</p>