I’ve narrowed my college choices down to these three amazing schools. I know they are each very different from each other. I know a lot about each of these schools, but I wanted to see if any current or graduated students have any insight or anything they would want to share with me about their experiences.
In terms of a story, a close relative started her search by looking at these schools (and others) on paper, chose to visit Hamilton and Colby (and others), liked Colby a lot, but liked Hamilton more, and decided to apply ED1 to Hamilton. She’ll be a Hamilton first-year beginning a few weeks from now. Good luck moving forward, @samantha827.
I would strongly recommend spending a day at each while they are in session to get a feel for them. Wesleyan is the most liberal. Hamilton and Colby are more similar. Hamilton has Greek life. Colby students seem to take advantage of their Maine environment - lots of outdoorsy activities. Academic requirements are different at each. They’re all great schools – you need to pick the one that’s right for you.
Hamilton’s fraternities are not residential, so not an overwhelming social force on campus, there are many other options if you wish to avoid Greek life. The college offers an abundance of outdoor activities, along with a charming town (Clinton) and access to a mid sized city (Utica) with a mall, restaurants, etc. Colby is perhaps the most remote, and attracts students with a passion for the outdoors. Wesleyan is a little more suburban in feel.
Take a close look at each school’s academic departments. See which school has courses and majors which might be of interest to you. Hamilton has open curriculum, Colby has distribution requirements, and Wesleyan has a form of open curriculum (you can choose to follow an open curriculum track but there distribution requirements to fulfill if you wish to graduate with honors).
My daughter visited all three. Hamilton was her favorite.
Colby was well over a century old when it discovered their original campus was landlocked and had no room to grow. So, they built an entirely new one a few miles out of town. The move to its present site (dominated by a near perfect replica of Dartmouth’s Baker Library) wasn’t completed until the early 1950s.
Bump