<p>I am a first-year at Hampshire, and have used this website in my college search. I feel that many people here have poorly represented Hampshire over the years. I am proud to go to Hampshire. I graduated in the top 10 percent of my high school class that consisted of over 400 students; I was an AP scholar with a SAT score of 2120. I had many options, schools with much more notable names. However, I decided to attend Hampshire, and have experienced a great first semester. The amount of work is sometimes insurmountable. I know 10-15 Amherst College students who do not have nearly as much work as my friends and me. The stereotypical Hampshire stoner does not last in this academic environment. It has become fashionable to attend an alternative liberal arts school, but only the hard workers (and occasional trust fund babies) make it through Hampshire. There are instances where people slide through, but for every person like that, there is a kid at Amherst or Smith with 2.6 GPA. Hampshire has garnered a lot of respect in the academic community, and rather than listening to someone with a username like "NewEnglandMom," one should look at the Fiske Guide or read Loren Pope's "40 Colleges That Change Lives." Sitting through class, talking to current students, and staying overnight are also very important. I feel as though many people ridicule Hampshire, because they simply do not understand it.</p>
<p>I can also attest to how challenging a Hampshire education can be. Our son will graduate at the end of this Spring semester, and he has been putting in massive amounts of research and writing towards his Div III (senior) project. I’ve read some of the drafts and it looks like grad-school level stuff to me.</p>
<p>Hampshire is an easy school to misunderstand, because it doesn’t fit well into any of the convenient academic boxes. It also attracts individualists and iconoclasts who make it all too easy to ridicule.</p>