<p>Any comments/advice would be appreciated about Colgate and the town of Hamilton such as where to eat in town, what to see etc.
Thanks much....</p>
<p>graduates own the coffee shop, I have heard</p>
<p>not much to see in Hamilton haha</p>
<p>Great sushi place, believe it or not. You can't miss it. The college bookstore is very nice (in town). Town is small- I liked it a lot. Colgate was my favorite campus of all we visited. We were there with a light dusting of snow on the ground and it was gorgeous. I'm jealous that you get to see it in the summer! Give us a report.</p>
<p>Just don't take Amtrak! My D and her mom went up in April. What should have been a few hour drive from L.I. turned out to an agonizingly slow trip up and back and they almost missed most of the admitted student day.</p>
<p>The Colgate Inn (owned by the University) is lovely for dinner. Good coffee at The Barge.</p>
<p>Amtrak is a disgrace, at least here in the Northeast. I agree about not taking Amtrak.</p>
<p>It is very cold for a good part of the academic year with lots of snow. Don't get the attraction to Colgate-too remote. Other LAC's like Davidson, Holy Cross, and W&M offer more access to big cities Charlotte and Boston.</p>
<p>Big cities = Charlotte????</p>
<hr>
<p>A personal opinion:</p>
<p>I went to college in NYC, I lived in Manhattan after school. Then left for a few years of grad school and my first job, then came back and lived there for years again. My D was accepted at two colleges in NYC. We live close enough now to go in with a short train ride. NYC is wonderful, exciting, chock full of things for anyone with any interest to want to go to and see. And a perfect place to start many careers.</p>
<p>But....is college really the time for that?</p>
<p>NYC will still be there when you graduate. And will still be exciting. And will still be an incredible place for many careers. Leave it for something you want to shoot for after college. Someplace you want on visit on trips during college. Some of the best and most well known "New Yorkers" came here later, when they had something of themselves, developed and nourished elsewhere, to offer.</p>
<p>Stay in your school's "bubble". Develop yourself, your interests, your friends. And your network of support. NYC will always be there and if you want to live there and become part of it, will be even more exciting to come to later or for your first job.</p>
<p>I totally agree with the above post. My son last year got into NYU as well as other schools not in NYC. He was very excited about going to college in NYC. We live in the suburbs of NYC, I commute there everyday. But finally, he chose Swarthmore. "NYC will always be there, and I can always visit" was the rationale he gave. I don't think he regrets his decision.</p>
<p>I do not agree with mhc. Those were very broad statements. Some people are suited to be near or in city life, even in college, & especially if their major may be enhanced by such experience -- such as in various areas of the performing, visual, graphic, & other media arts. Similarly for journalism. Some very creative types draw their energy from the daily life of the city. Certain varieties of fiction writers depend on the City for material & inspiration. Different strokes.....</p>
<p>Other people, in and out of the arts, may have a reason to be near the city relative to internships cultivated during college or interspersing summers. One cannot necessarily "wait" until after the degree to begin making connections, as those may not be available in the "bubble." Nice to have the bubble, but some people may need both the bubble & the surrounding atmosphere penetrating the bubble from time to time. Depends on the personality PLUS the undergrad concentration PLUS the logical career inclinations.</p>
<p>And for some students, this may be the one and only time they will in fact live near or in a big city. Some people are ready to experience that for the first & only time in college. They may very well never do that later, but that exposure may be formative & broadening for them.</p>
<p>Colgate is a fine school with graduates who are proud to have gone there and who have a list of acheivements. The school is isolated and located in a generally rural, modestly impoverished area. If you drive from Colgate to Cornell, you'll see a car for sale in every 15th front yard or so . If this bothers you, not being Southhampton or Nantuckettown, or if you prefer to have an opera house next to your homeless shelters, you may decide on somewhere else, as has been noted. It is, objectively speaking, cold in the winter. Objectively speaking, there is not much to see, aside from Colgate</p>
<p>I thought the school had some of the best groundskeeping of all the schools we saw, and had a genuine interest in recruiting able and energetic students. The buildings are a mix of newer and very old, but the older buildings had received a large dose of updating. The school takes pride in its athletic success, and routinely has a group of highly competitive teams. Fraternities are apparently an important part of social life at the school. Because of the location and history, the school has a heavy New England and NY/NJ demographic, I believe. You'd have to check the stats to be sure. </p>
<p>Anecdotally, the list of Colgate grads with whom I'm aquainted includes high ranking producers and top executives at major networks, and successful financial executives.</p>
<p>Bring a toothbrush. ;)</p>
<p>The town is quaint with several small restaurants to choose from. I suggest you take a good look at the campus and speak to as many students as you can. Colgate does a supreme job of making everyone that visits there welcome. As mentioned previously, there is a huge amount of student and alumni pride. As far as a remote location, I believe the location is what makes it such a tightknit and welcoming community. Syracuse is 40 minutes away with Cornell about the same distance in the opposite direction. My d attends and is a rising sophomore who thought she wanted UCSD until she was accepted and spent two nights there. She found the campus to be massive and cold, not to mention the large class sizes that she sat in on. Anyway, I digress, Hamilton Village is lovely and Colgate is what most people hope their college campus looks like. Of course, it is all a matter of opinion. Good luck!!!</p>
<p>One thing to note about Colgate is the intense loyalty of its alums. With deference to Par72 who's a big promoter of Holy Cross, BTW, the remote location of Colgate creates a bond among the students that is quite passionate. Recently, an HR executive that recruits at the highest levels in the corporate world and private sector noted that the three schools with the most intensely loyal alums (and who will do anything to help fellow alums and recent graduates) are Princeton, Dartmouth and Colgate.</p>
<p>The admissions office gives you an ice cream sandwich. What more could you want?</p>
<p>Can anyone comment on the academics at Colgate? Also any thoughts about the Jewish community there? Thanks.</p>
<p>Professors are excellent, just as you would expect from a fine LAC. They're there (and "there" is the middle of nowhere!) because they truly enjoy teaching and mentoring undergraduates. My daughter just completed her first year at Colgate, and she gives high marks to every prof she had. </p>
<p>The Jewish community is fairly large for a small school -- close to 500. It is not, however, a very active community. My daughter is transferring, in part because, despite the relatively high absolute numbers, the Jewish community was not robust enough for her. I'd be glad to discuss this further with you off the public board, but your PM function is disabled.</p>
<p>wjb, Thanks. I sent you a message. Any other comments about academic strengths or weak spots?</p>
<p>Our visit to Colgate was quite nice. The weather held and, yes, we did get our "Byrne Dairy" Ice Cream Sandwich. Our guide, Jeff, was a Philosophy and Religion major who was a recruited football athlete. I expected him to be a bit haughty but he was very kind, respectful and very intellectual. There was a bit of hilly walking, to my dismay, but my son said he "got good vibes' from the campus visit so that was a plus. The new addition to their library will be amazing and they are now breaking ground for a new science bldg. that an alum donated 25 mil to get started with. I too felt the intense love of the univ. from all we met there. We were taken into a newer dorm and then an older one. Interestingly, the older dorm was bigger and very accommodating. The eating areas on campus were clean and spacious. I asked about the general feel of the campus population regarding liberalism, conservatism, etc and Jeff told us that the students typically tend to be on the moderate side with a bit of conservatism. There is a tremendous housing project going up immediately down the road which will be for students. It looks like very nice apartments.
We live only 112 miles away (my husband has a thing for precise facts) from Colgate in a rural town of 9.000 where the occassional smell of manure permeates the early morning (sorry) and the echo of the 800 cows mooing from the dairy farm can be heard through the still morning air 1 mile south of us... So the rural-ness of Colgate was just fine for our son. When we asked him his thoughts, he said this was one of his top school choices. We were fine with that. He recently received his Colgate Supplement to fill out and the question they want answered this year is, "What one thing will you bring to Colgate with you?"
We will certainly come back in the fall when students are around.</p>