Hamilton College

Hamilton College Introduction

No matter when you arrive at Hamilton College, your first drive up College Hill Road will make a significant impression on you. If it’s summertime, you’ll probably be amazed by the number of people you see bustling around. Many students choose to stay on campus dur- ing the summer to conduct research with professors, work in one of the offices, or help out with the various camps that Hamilton hosts. If your arrival takes place during the spring or fall, you’ll likely be caught off guard by Hamilton’s breathtaking campus—the tree-lined paths and stone and red brick buildings are especially gorgeous when flowers are blooming and leaves are either sprouting or turning an astonishing blaze of reds, oranges, and yellows. And if it’s wintertime, you’re definitely just praying your car triumphs over the snow and makes it up the hill! But whatever the season, you’ll probably be greeted by at least one passerby on campus, and you may begin to understand exactly what it means to be a part of the Hamilton College community.

Hamilton College is a small liberal arts institution set atop a rather large hill in the middle of Central New York. Because of its location, Hamilton almost demands that its students become part of a vibrant and close-knit campus community. At Hamilton, there’s no big city full of distractions to pull you away from the dorms (where you’ll likely live for all four years), and there’s nowhere near enough people on campus to let you even consider being anonymous. At times, particularly during the winter, this situation can be a bit frustrating, to say the least. But, because it absolutely necessitates that students get to know each other and become involved in campus life, it is also precisely this situation that leads to the creation of the unique Hamilton community that many Hamilton grads yearn for even years after they’ve left the Hill.

The bottom line is this: Your Hamilton experience is what you make of it. If you intend to spend your four years shuffling to and from class with your head down, making the occasional trip to the library or dining hall, and staring forlornly out your window at the snow, you’re going to have a miserable and isolating time indeed. But if you’re willing to take some risks, join some groups, go to some parties, and really, truly engage with some professors (inside and outside of class), you’re almost bound to have a rewarding experience. You’ll grow from being an uncertain, and perhaps unhappy, freshman to a senior who has gained some incredible friends and experiences and loves where you are.

It’s the things that weren’t expected or immediately perceived at Hamilton that were the most important to me. It’s the four-hour-long dinners in the dining halls that no one wanted to be the first to leave…the first walk in Root Glen in the spring…the sentence that your professor casually tosses over her shoulder that makes you adopt academia as your new religion…the omelet that you wait- ed 30 minutes in line for on a Sunday morning because the Omelet God was working that day. It’s the late nights spent chatting with friends, the sound of TVs booming over the Dark Side when The Bachelor or The Real World was on, the play you buy tickets to so you can cheer on your friend who you ran lines with for three months…I never imagined myself doing stand-up comedy, working in Admissions, or majoring in a subject that would require me to learn another language and use quantum physics, but four years on the Hill can encourage you to take some bizarre, wonderful, and relatively risk-free challenges that can change your life. Go Conts. — Jane Simmons ’04

Hamilton College Academics

At the heart of Hamilton’s academic mission lie two main goals:

1. Develop well-rounded, accomplished, critical-thinking individuals who continually thirst for knowledge and who are ready for nearly any challenge the “real world” might throw at them.
2. Produce students who are able to express themselves clearly and effectively through written and oral communication.

No small challenge. But Hamilton has a long history of accomplishing both of these goals, chiefly through its dedication to the quintessential liberal arts education. At Hamilton, students are encouraged to take a wide variety of courses in a number of disciplines so that they may develop the most balanced, informed perspective on life they can. In so doing, they become better prepared to meet life’s challenges because they are able to examine and analyze almost any issue from a variety of viewpoints, which is far more effective than seeing only one.

Consequently, although Hamilton students select their concentrations (typically one or two subject areas out of about forty options) and their minors (one discipline out of about forty-five options) during the second semester of their sophomore year, many spend their first couple of semesters—and many semesters beyond that—taking a variety of courses, a good number of which probably seem entirely unrelated to their intended or declared concentrations.

An economics concentrator, for example, may take dance or biology classes, and a religious studies major might find himself or herself in a calculus or a French class. The excitement and challenge for most students is figuring out how these seemingly disparate disciplines overlap, and the biggest reward tends to come when they realize they’re using information or perspectives they gained in one area of study to inform or improve upon their work in another.

The Hamilton Plan for Liberal Education

In a continuing effort to help students acquire the most solid education possible, Hamilton recently examined its academic requirements and instituted the Hamilton Plan for Liberal Education. Under this plan, Hamilton did away with distribution requirements and, instead, established a series of recommended academic goals for students. In this way, students have more responsibility, as well as more freedom, in obtaining the education they desire. Hamilton also began strongly encouraging students to participate in a variety of first- and second-year proseminars. These proseminars, which are comprised of no more than sixteen students, introduce students to Hamilton’s culture of close professorstudent relationships and emphasize the development of strong writing, speaking, and study skills via these relationships. Furthermore, Hamilton also began strengthening the advising system, placed renewed importance on writing skills, and created the Sophomore Program.

The Sophomore Program

As part of the Sophomore Program, each Hamilton student must participate in an interor multidisciplinary seminar at some point during his or her second year. These Sophomore Seminars are limited to twelve students per faculty member and culminate in a final project with a public presentation that once again emphasizes the interconnectedness of seemingly different disciplines. Many students find these classes to be quite challenging, but also quite interesting, because they tend to pair professors and subjects that normally wouldn’t seem to belong together. Food for Thought: The Science, Culture and Politics of Food; Freaks (which examines what has been considered “normal” by social, biological, and psychological standards throughout history); It’s About Time (which examines the concept of time from a physics, as well as a literary, standpoint); and 1968: Pop Culture in the Age of Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n Rollare just some of the Sophomore Seminar options available to second-year students.

Writing Skills

Because one of Hamilton’s primary objectives is to produce students who write well, all students are required to pass at least three writing-intensive classes, each taken during a different semester, during their first two years of study. In these classes, the majority of grades that students accumulate tend to come from writing papers, and students generally have the opportunity to revise most, if not all, of these papers to ensure that they understand the processes and principles behind good writing.

The Writing Center

In the event that students need or want more support in developing their writing skills, they may visit the Nesbitt-Johnston Writing Center. At the Writing Center, students bring in any piece of writing they’re working on— from essays for class to cover letters to senior theses—and meet one-on-one for an hour with a peer tutor. Usually, these conferences focus on grammar, organization, structure, ideas, or the writing process in general, and many students find that their writing improves dramatically over their four years, provided they invest the effort.

Hamilton also provides a variety of other kinds of academic support to students. The Quantitative Literacy (or Q-Lit) Center, for one, provides peer-tutoring services to students who are taking classes that require math/quantitative skills. Students may drop into the Q-Lit Center for assistance or they can make appointments for more ongoing help. In addition, the college maintains more than 4,200 high-speed Ethernet connections around campus, is working on expanding wireless Internet access throughout campus, and provides free use of more than 400 public computers and printers.

The Libraries

The Burke Library, the Media Library, and the Music Library together possess 610,000 volumes, subscribe to 22,000 periodicals, in print and electronic form, and participate in an interlibrary loan program that enables students to obtain books and periodicals that Hamilton does not own from other nearby libraries. The Burke Library also houses a Rare Book Room that owns a good deal of material related to religion, classics, local history, the Adirondacks, and Civil War regimental histories. Additionally, they possess a particularly extensive collection of Ezra Pound’s work that literature and Modernism scholars have yet to fully explore.

Academic Atmosphere / The Honor Code

Because Hamilton is a school that takes academics quite seriously, all incoming students must sign the school’s Honor Code, which basically says that students pledge to maintain academic honesty at all times. Students are thereby treated more or less as adults and their honesty is trusted and respected. As a result, professors do not generally feel obligated to police exams and may assign take-home exams that students are on their honor to complete fairly.

Collaborative Atmosphere

At the same time, although the Honor Code is quite serious and academics are rather rigorous, the general academic atmosphere on campus is far more collaborative than it is competitive. Many students hold themselves to high academic standards, so a certain degree of competition is created that way, but few, if any, students engage in the type of cutthroat academics that are rumored to be typical of many academically prestigious institutions. Hamilton students are much more likely to get together at Café Opus, the campus coffeehouse, for a group study session or to lend each other their notes to study from than they are to steal each others’ class materials. Because of this cooperative atmosphere, many students make some of their best friends by working on group projects or having late-night study sessions.

The brochures the college sends out might seem cheesy with their over-the-top anecdotes about how much time students spend drinking coffee with their advisors or having a review session at a professor’s house, but they’re true. Some of the best conversations I had at Hamilton took place in my professors’ homes. Professors became more friends than teachers at times like these, and discussing academics, careers, or life in general tended to be easier and more interesting outside the formal atmosphere of classrooms and offices. Meeting a professor’s family is a very pleasant and personal aspect of a small college—and when I discovered that my French professor’s nine-year-old twins spoke French ten times better than I did, it motivated me to work much harder in her class. — Jane Simmons, ’04

And this cooperative atmosphere tends to extend to professor-student relationships as well. In fact, as previously mentioned, close professor-student relationships are one of the hallmarks of a Hamilton education. Currently, Hamilton employs 180 full-time faculty (95 percent of whom hold the most advanced degree in their fields), and maintains a student-faculty ratio of 9.7:1. Accordingly, one-third of all classes have ten or fewer students, and three-fourths have twenty or fewer students. Students therefore have ample opportunities to engage in their education and almost have no choice but to participate in class. After all, it’s hard to slip through the cracks or fade into the background in a class of fifteen students!

In terms of academics, the thing I like best about Hamilton is my relationship with my professors. Because it’s a small school, professors and students get to know each other really well. And because it’s solely an undergraduate institution, the professors aren’t there to do research while some grad student teaches their classes. They’re there because they truly want to be teaching undergrads. Consequently, I find my relationships with a lot of my professors to be collaborative. It feels more scholar-to-scholar than teacher-to-student. This relationship keeps me invested in my coursework because I feel like my professors truly value my thoughts. — Ann Horwitz, ’06

Hamilton College Unique Programs

Because Hamilton is so committed to the concept of a liberal arts education, it offers—and strongly encourages—a variety of options to get students off the Hill and out into the world. Three of the most noteworthy are described below:

Study Off-Campus

Approximately forty percent of each junior class studies away from campus, and Hamilton has its own programs in Paris, Madrid, Beijing, New York City, and Washington, D.C. Hamilton also encourages its students to seek out other schools’ programs if they wish to go elsewhere in the world. As Katie McLoughlin, ’05, a government concentrator, notes, “Acquiring permission and processing the paperwork for spending my semesters in Washington, D.C., and Athens, Greece, was one of the easiest things I’ve done at Hamilton. The school is very non-bureaucratic, and there is very little red tape standing between you and your abroad experience.”

Alternative Spring Break

To do something philanthropic with one-half of their two-week spring break, several groups of ten or so Hamilton students take school-owned vans to poverty-stricken areas and work to make a difference for a week. Regardless of whether they are painting churches or volunteering with local Boys and Girls Clubs, almost everyone who participates in these trips comes back raving about the bonding experiences they had, the people they met, and how good helping out felt.

Antartica

Each year (since 1988), geology professor Eugene Domack takes several students to Antarctica to conduct research funded by the National Science Foundation. Hamilton is the only U.S. college with this type of program.

Hamilton College Admissions

Hamilton is a small liberal arts institution that takes great pride in its commitment to personal instruction and independent research. As such, the size of each entering class is kept relatively small, with a target of 470 students. At the same time, because Hamilton is growing in notoriety, the number of applications the Admissions Office receives each year keeps increasing, and Hamilton’s acceptance rate is now around thirty-three percent.

So, how do you get yourself noticed (and accepted!)? When making its decisions, Hamilton’s Admissions Office looks first and foremost for students with a proven record of academic achievement and for those with strong academic potential. In fact, eighty-one percent of accepted students ranked in the top ten percent of their high school classes.

Not to worry, though, if your GPA isn’t quite as high as you’d like. Hamilton also seeks out well-rounded and involved students, so a strong activity resume demonstrating your leadership skills, extracurricular involvement, athletic accomplishments, or community service may make up for a slightly lower GPA. Additionally, it never hurts to showcase your special talents or interests, so if you have tapes of your athletic, theatrical, or dance performances, or if you have samples of your art, photos, poems, stories, or music, feel free to send them along. (Contact the Admissions Office or check the Admissions pages on Hamilton’s web site for the preferred format of these submissions.)

In terms of actual admission requirements, Hamilton is like most colleges in that it accepts the Common Application and requires an application fee ($50 that can, at times, be waived), a school counselor evaluation, a teacher evaluation, a personal statement, your choice of standardized test scores, and a midyear grade report. Hamilton also requires that students submit a graded sample of their expository writing, such as an analytical essay or a research paper (but not lab reports or creative writing), and that they complete Hamilton’s own supplement to the Common Application. An interview is not required, but is strongly recommended.

Hamilton is unlike many schools, however, in the recent decisions it has made about standardized test scores. Because Hamilton believes that students can demonstrate their academic potential in a variety of ways, it no longer requires that applicants submit scores from the SAT I test (though the middle fifty percent of accepted students have submitted scores between 1320 and 1480, based on 1600). Instead, for students applying, Hamilton now simply requires either the SAT, ACT, or three AP/IB, or SAT Subject Test scores: one that reflects quantitative skills, one that reflects verbal and writing skills, and one test of the student’s choice. (The Admissions Office can provide a list of tests that satisfy the quantitative and verbal requirements.) And when in doubt, you can submit a variety of tests and The Admission Committee will select the best scores from among them.

Hamilton College Financial Aid

Admittedly, Hamilton is an expensive school. Very expensive. Fortunately, though, every year, Hamilton offers financial aid to about fifty-five percent of its students via scholarships, loans, and campus jobs. In 2006–2007, for example, the average financial aid package for an incoming first-year student was $27,502. This award was paid toward an estimated student budget of $45,500, and was calculated to take into account expenses such as books, personal needs, and travel, in addition to tuition, room, and board.

If you have your heart set on going to Hamilton and you need financial aid, though, you should seriously consider applying Early Decision. Hamilton is unable to be “need-blind” during the last five percent of its application decision process; however, the college is committed to meeting 100 percent of the demonstrated need for any student it admits. At the same time, although you may have a less nervewracking time obtaining financial aid if you apply Early Decision, the amount of your award will be the same whether you apply via Early or Regular Decision.

Hamilton College Students

So, if Hamilton is moving rapidly toward the future, who is going to take it there? The answer: its 1,800 students, sixty percent of whom come from public high schools and forty percent of whom come from private high schools. Hamilton students originate in forty-three U.S. states and forty countries, and the student body is 5.3 percent international, 4.3 percent African-American, 0.9 percent Native American, 6.6 percent Asian/Pacific Islander, 4.2 percent Hispanic, and 71.0 percent Caucasian. Although Hamilton is admittedly lacking in racial and ethnic diversity, it is taking steps to attract and admit a wider array of students by engaging in a more concentrated recruiting effort.

Basically, regardless of their backgrounds, Hamilton students have several traits in common and, as such, comprise a unique group. They tend to be fairly conservative people who highly value a strong liberal arts education and a commitment to excellence. They appreciate being seen as individuals, and not just as numbers, in a close-knit and vibrant community. And they have a wry sense of humor about, and a curious appreciation of, their rural surroundings and often less-than-favorable climate. Ultimately, they are intelligent, well-rounded people who tend to look back fondly on their time “on the Hill.”

Social Life and Activities

Hamilton students know that mixing work and play is the key to a rich, fulfilling college experience, and it is this universal commitment to balance that makes Hamilton the vibrant community that it is. Although Hamilton students take their studies seriously, most are involved in at least one extracurricular activity that gets them out of the library at crucial times and allows them to meet other students with similar interests.

Clubs and Organizations

Activities are very accessible to everyone on campus. Unlike at larger schools where you can’t work on the newspaper unless you’re a journalism major or you can’t debate unless you’re pre-law, at Hamilton hard work and interest can usually make up for no prior experience. — Alex Sear, ’05

Other students occupy their time by joining one (or several!) of Hamilton’s approximately 110 clubs and organizations. These groups cover just about any interest under the sun, so there really is something for everybody. These clubs and organizations plan and participate in their own events, and many also hold a variety of social functions—both with alcohol and without—that are open to the entire campus.

In addition, because Hamilton is so small and nonbureaucratic, if a particular interest isn’t already represented by a club or organization, a dedicated student should have no trouble startinga group to reflect that passion. Within the past several years, for example, over two dozen new groups have cropped up. In fact, Hamilton students are so open-minded about extracurriculars that interested students have started up a “varsity streaking team” that actually travels to other colleges and (for better or worse!) has gained national attention. On the other hand, though, because the school is so small, when interest in some of the smaller organizations begins to wane, certain groups may go dormant until someone new revives interest.

Get Involved!

Alex Sear, ’05, a philosophy concentrator, says, “I actually picked Hamilton over other NESCAC schools because the students seemed to have such active social lives with many networks of friends, and the college encouraged them to do so.” And she’s right—in any given year, Hamilton students can choose to participate in around 110 different clubs and organizations. The ones listed below are just a sampling.

• Student Assembly
• Hamilton Outing Club
• Capoeira Club
• Mock Trial
• Model United Nations
• Chess Club
• Student Dance Alliance
• Emerson Literary Society
• WHCL (campus radio station)
• Ornithological Society
• Asian Cultural Society
• Residence Hall Council
• West Indian African Association
• Ski and Snowboard Guild
• Rainbow Alliance
• Christian Fellowship
• Hamilton Outing Club
• Hamilton Environmental Action Group
• Sailing Team
• Rhymelab (open-mic hip-hop poetry slam)
• Black Student Union
• Atheists, Agnostics and Freethinkers
• Hamilton Monty Python Horde
• The Spectator(student newspaper)
• Vox – Voices for Planned Parenthood
• Equestrian Team
• Ultimate Frisbee League
• Hamilton College Democrats
• Hamilton College Republicans
• La Vanguardia
• Students Against Sexual Assault
• Hamilton Action Volunteer Outreach Coalition

Entertainment

Because Central New York is not exactly an entertainment Mecca, many groups work to bring diversions to campus. The Emerson Gallery, Hamilton’s on-campus art gallery, for example, spices up its regular offerings of primarily American, British, and Native American work by bringing lecturers and special exhibitions, and the Department of Theater and Dance brings a variety of solo performers and ensemble groups. (Note, too, that student exhibitions in art and performances in theater and dance are also quite common, either as part of class requirements or as part of the fun had by some of the more artistic extracurricular groups.) Moreover, a variety of student groups work to bring guest-lecturers that pique their own interest and that might not correspond with the offerings of any one particular department.

Movies

If the silver screen is your thing, the Samuel Kirkland Film Society brings both classic and relatively current movies to campus several times a semester and shows them multiple times over the course of a given weekend. Many students enjoy recruiting their friends, popping a bag of popcorn, and going to watch these free films, which are shown movie-theater style in one of the larger lecture halls on campus.

Music

The Campus Activities Board (CAB) generally brings comedians and larger-name musical acts to the Annex, and those coordinating the Acoustic Coffeehouse series ensure that interested students can sip free coffee while taking in the soulful stylings of well-known artists as well as up-and-coming stars. Within the past few years, the likes of Guster, They Might Be Giants, Jason Mraz, Naughty by Nature, Dar Williams, Dropkick Murphys, Howie Day, Lucy Kaplansky, and Ellis Paul have all graced the Hamilton stage.

Music makes its way to the Hill in a variety of ways outside of CAB and Acoustic Coffeehouse events, too. The Music Department brings visiting artists and lecturers, the school runs eight different ensemble groups that perform regularly, and students taking classes in the music department also give the occasional recital. Additionally, Hamilton is home to four student-run a cappella groups that perform several times each semester: Special K (all female), the Hamiltones (coed), Tumbling After (all female), and the Buffers (all male).

Cold Weather Activities

No doubt about it—Hamilton can be a cold place. In fact, from October until at least March, there’s a very good chance of there being a heaping helping of snow on the ground. The following are some Hamilton favorite ways to stave off a whopping case of Seasonal Affective Disorder.

• Recruit some friends and build a snowman…or snowwoman.
• Rent some gear from the Hamilton Outing Club and go snowshoeing in Root Glen.
• Take bets on the amount of time that will pass before the next avalanche of snow careens off the roof of Kirkland, Dunham, or Root Hall.
• Two words: snow angels.
• Ski.
• Steal (er, borrow) one of the plastic trays from the dining hall and go sledding behind Bristol Campus Center.
• Snuggle up in your dorm room with a warm blanket, a cup of hot chocolate, and a good book.
• Watch the snow fall. Wax poetic.
• Get involved in “Feb Fest,” Hamilton’s annual winter carnival. The week of festivities features concerts, snow-sculpture contests, snoccer (snow-soccer) and snow-football tournaments, all-campus snowball fights, wine/beer/chocolate tastings, and a variety of other events that all aim to alleviate the winter blues.

Greek Life

Currently, the school recognizes ten fraternities and seven sororities, some of which are national and some of which are local. Unlike at many colleges, though, frats and sororities at Hamilton do not have their own houses, a situation that some students feel is beneficial for Hamilton’s social life because it means that societies do not tend to isolate themselves from the rest of the campus community by having friendships, living arrangements, and social events that revolve entirely around the society. On the other hand, some students do feel that there is a real divide between Greek-affiliated students and Independents. This ongoing debate creates an interesting Greek/non-Greek dynamic on campus at times, and conversations revolving around fraternities and sororities can become quite heated. Regardless, fraternities and sororities do tend to contribute substantially to Hamilton’s social scene by throwing parties, coordinating lectures, and organizing philanthropic events.

Parties

In terms of the late night social scene, there are usually a variety of parties—both with and without alcohol—that students can attend. As mentioned before, many different clubs and organizations hold parties, and most of these gatherings tend to be open to the entire campus. They also very often have a theme, and many Hamilton students seize the opportunity to venture out to the local Salvation Army for appropriate (and cheap!) attire for the evening.

Bon Appétit!

You might not think about it much—or you might not have considered it at all—but the quality of the food in the dining halls is a very important aspect of college life. After all, you’re most likely going to be eating this food two or three times a day, at least five or six days a week, for four years. That’s a lot of meals. Fortunately, Hamilton’s food service provider, Bon Appetit, does a great job of making a variety of fresh and largely healthy dishes for the Hamilton community. Sure, they have some “misses,” but the majority of the time the food is quite good, particularly for college standards.

But what’s even more impressive about Bon Appetit is its connection to the students. If you have a favorite recipe from home that you’re just dying to have on campus, bring it in and Bon Appetit will look into making it. If you’re sick of seeing only apples, oranges, and bananas as your fruit options, let them know and you might walk in to find kiwis, mangos, plums, and pears the next day. And if you and your friends want to have a picnic in the pavilion, just give Bon Appetit the meal card numbers of everyone involved and they’ll set you up with hamburger patties for grilling, buns, chips, sodas…the whole shebang.

It’s a small detail, but it’s just one more aspect of Hamilton that makes the on-campus community feel a little more like home.

The Little Pub

One location on campus that generally tends to attract a crowd both on the weekends andduring the week is the Little Pub. In addition to serving lunch during the week, the Pub serves wine and beer in the evenings and is host to Monday Night Football, live jazz music on Wednesday, happy hour on Friday, bimonthly karaoke nights, and monthly “senior nights,” during which liquor is served and only students who are twenty-one and older may enter. Many students cite the Pub as being their favorite on-campus place to relax and hang out with friends.

College may be your last time to act like a kid, and parties are often a lot more fun when you and your friends can laugh about the fact that you’re dressed like a farmer for the Farm Party, a devil for Heaven and Hell, or a disco diva for Studio 54. — Marla Nasser, ’04

Local Bars

Should a curious Hamilton student have the desire to venture off campus for his or her entertainment, though, Don’s Rok and the Village Tavern are the two main watering holes down in the village of Clinton. And, in an effort to keep students safe at night, Hamilton runs free jitneys (twelve-person vans) between the village and the center of campus well into the night so that students are not tempted to drive up and down the Hill.

The Diner

Finally, whether Hamilton students stay on campus or venture off at night, many ultimately find themselves at Hamilton’s Howard Diner after the festivities.

The on-campus diner serves breakfast late night until 5 A.M., and is somewhat of an early-morning pilgrimage on the weekends as students straggle in from the bars on a quest for bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches with a side of hash browns. — Céline Geiger, ’04

Hamilton College Athletics

For about thirty-five percent of the student body, the extracurricular activity of choice is playing on a sports team. Hamilton sponsors twenty-eight varsity sports (fourteen men’s, fourteen women’s), which are affiliated with the NCAA Division III, the New England Small College Athletic Conference, the Liberty League, the Eastern College Athletic Conference, and the New York State Women’s Collegiate Athletic Association.

One group that always makes its presence known at sporting events is a rambunctious crowd of students known as the Dawg Pound. This group, which is comprised largely of other athletes, dons ridiculous costumes, amps up Continental spirit, and heckles the opposing team. To be honest, though, despite the Dawg Pound’s enthusiasm and the talent of many of Hamilton’s athletes, Hamilton’s athletic events are generally not that well attended. True, some sports, such as men’s hockey and basketball, tend to be a little more popular than others, but, on the whole, Hamilton is not known for having throngs of people at football or field hockey games. That being said, however, student spirit hasseemed to be on the upswing in recent years and the games are generally free and open to the public, should you have the desire to cheer on Hamilton’s dedicated Conts.

And even though Hamilton’s organized athletics do not dominate life on campus, approximately sixty percent of students participate in intramurals at one point or another. Hamilton sponsors about fifteen intramural activities and over a dozen club sports each year, and because Hamilton is such a small school, it is relatively easy for anyone to set up an intramural league or pick-up game.

Hamilton College Traditions

As a newcomer walking around Hamilton’s campus, you’d probably notice that the parts of campus you see on your left look quite different from those that you see on your right. This is because College Hill Road once ran between two separate colleges. On the right lies the north side of campus and the origins of Hamilton College. Founded by Samuel Kirkland in 1793 as the Hamilton-Oneida Academy and chartered as Hamilton College in 1812, the Hamilton of today (which was once all male) is the third-oldest college in New York State. On the left lies the south side of campus, which used to be Kirkland College, an independent, experimental, all-female college that was founded by Hamilton in 1968. The two schools merged in 1978, but the vastly different architecture—stone and red brick vs. poured concrete—makes their history hard to forget.

Hamilton does not encourage its students to forget its long history. Hamilton has worked hard to preserve and promote the ideals of both Hamilton and Kirkland Colleges. From the Hamilton side comes the current emphasis on developing writing and speaking skills, and a strong association with science, social science, and government service. From the Kirkland side comes a keen interest in the arts, a more liberal view of what a college education should include, and a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary studies. In many ways, Kirkland complemented Hamilton very well, and students today benefit from a greater diversity of academic offerings due to Hamilton’s continuous incorporation of both schools’ strengths.

Despite its strong ties to the past, though, Hamilton persists in looking toward the future. Its new, $56 million science center was completed in 2005, it is investing over $60 million in renovating and expanding facilities for the social sciences, the arts, and student activities, and it is constantly examining and reinvigorating its academic offerings. One of Hamilton’s biggest assets is its careful blend of tradition and progress—it is truly a college that knows where it has been and eagerly anticipates where it is going.

The Sacerdote Series: Great Names at Hamilton

Established by the family of Alex Sacerdote, Class of ’94, the Sacerdote “Great Names” Series provides the opportunity for Hamilton students, faculty, and staff, as well as the surrounding community, to benefit from the insight and opinions of some of the world’s most prominent individuals. Once or twice a year, these noteworthy personalities come to Hamilton to give a speech, participate in a question-and-answer session, meet with selected students, and, generally, teach a class or two. Students, faculty, and community members alike have been encouraged to think critically and discuss openly the opinions and positions of the following individuals:

2005

Tom Brokaw, NBC News

2004

William Jefferson Clinton, Former President of the United States

2003

Bill Cosby, Comedian, actor, and author

2002

Madeleine Albright, Former Secretary of State (March)

Rudolph Giuliani,Former Mayor of New York City (September)

2001

Jimmy Carter, Former President of the United States

2000

Desmond Tutu, Archbishop of Capetown, South Africa

1999

Lady Margaret Thatcher, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1998

F.W. de Klerk, Former President of South Africa (April)

B.B. King, Musician (October)

1997

Elie Wiesel, Author

1996

Colin Powell, Former Secretary of State (April)

James Carville and Mary Matalin, Political Strategists (October)

Hamilton College Local Community

Although Hamilton and the surrounding area certainly can’t offer the same variety of restaurants as, say, New York City, Hamilton students have nevertheless found some surprisingly unique and tasty places that are great for a study break, a relaxed Sunday brunch, or a weekend dinner out with family or friends.

The Only Café

Comfort food prepared in a home-y setting. There’s no set menu; the chef makes what he feels like making that day, from mac ‘n’ cheese to pulled-pork pizza.

The Phoenician

Family-owned restaurant with authentic Lebanese food.

The Mason Jar

Big portions of hearty food—think Frisbee-sized pancakes, steak and eggs, and biscuits and gravy. Very popular on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

La Petite Maison

Fine, sophisticated French cuisine. Popular on Family Weekend.

The Rio Grande (or “Tex Mex,” as it is more commonly known around campus)

Moderately priced Mexican food. Perfect for Friday and Saturday night dinners.

Nola’s, formerly the Adirondack Coffeehouse

Small café and coffeehouse with homemade soups and salads. Located just down the Hill on Park Row in Clinton.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Known for its hit-the-spot, early morning (think 2 A.M.) eats.

O’Connor’s Alexander Hamilton Inn

Another Family Weekend hotspot. The restaurant upstairs is fairly upscale; the pub downstairs is more low-key.

Piggy Pat’s Barbecue

Their motto is “Put some South in Yo’ Mouff”…’nuff said. And if you’ve got a craving for Italian or Indian food, just take a drive into Utica and explore the many options the city has to offer.

Hamilton College Alumni

Thanks to their broad liberal arts back- grounds, Hamilton graduates go on to engage in a wide variety of pursuits. In terms of statistics, in recent years, around seventy-two percent of graduating seniors chose to take jobs and about twenty-three percent chose to enter graduate or professional school immediately after graduation and three percent pursue fellowships (Watson, Fulbright, etc.). About fifty percent entered graduate school within five years of graduation.

It was so nice having someone to talk to at work during those first weeks, and I think Andrew’s gesture really exemplifies what’s so special about Hamilton—that shared sense of community and history you feel with other Hamilton grads even when you’re nowhere near campus. — Elizabeth Backer, ’04

The Career Center

One resource that helps prepare students for their post-Hamilton pursuits is the Career Center. Students may make appointments at the Career Center at any point during their time at Hamilton and, in fact, are encouraged to do so as early as their first year of studies. During these appointments, students meet one-on-one with either a career counselor or a Career Center intern, depending on their needs, and they discuss a wide variety of topics, including career assessment materials, graduate school applications, cover letters, interview strategies, finding an internship, and networking to find a job. If students so request, they may schedule a “mock interview” to prepare for either graduate school or professional interviews.

The Career Center also offers a variety of recruiting opportunities, workshops, and lunches throughout the year that students are encouraged to attend. The workshops often center around choosing the right graduate school, crafting a resume, writing a cover letter, or learning computer skills such as Microsoft Excel, and the lunches often feature Hamilton alumni who have returned to campus to talk about their current careers, how they have gotten to this point in their careers, and the industry in which they work in general. The workshops and lunches not only help prepare students for continuing their education or entering the professional world, but they provide valuable networking experiences as well.

Alumni Relations and the “Hamilton Connection”

These meetings are not the only way that members of the Hamilton community network with each other, however. Hamilton has alumni associations that plan outings and events in many large cities throughout the United States. And because Hamilton is such a tight-knit community, alumni actually attend these events, which is not always the case with alumni of larger colleges and universities. These events are great ways for recent grads to make contact with older, more established alumni, and they provide a venue in which newer alums can network to find a job, make new friends, or learn about the city to which they have just moved.

Other times, older alumni will simply make the effort to connect with more recent grads on their own. When Elizabeth Backer, ’04, a public policy concentrator, began her first day of work at a market research company in Boston, for example, the company’s HR department sent out an e-mail introducing her as a new hire. Within hours, Liz received an e-mail from Andrew Stockwell, ’96, a new colleague who wanted to take Liz out to lunch based purely on their Hamilton connection.

When I think of what being from Hamilton means, I am brought back to a Friday afternoon I spent at a skating rink in Aspen, Colorado. I spent a winter out there, and every day the local ice rink opened up for noon hockey. One Friday, there were eight of us playing, and I happened to be wearing a Hamilton jersey. One by one, the guys came up and asked if I went to Hamilton, and then told me what year they graduated. Five of the eight skaters that day were alums, ranging from ’99 (I had just graduated that May) to sometime in the early ’60s. Three of them were retired, and only one of them was old enough to truly be retired by rite. I think it says something about the school, the lifestyle it fosters, and the people who attend the school in snowy Upstate New York that five skaters show up for noon hockey in Aspen on a workday. It made me smile that Hamilton alums have both success and enough knowledge to enjoy it. — Ari Fingeroth, ’99

Prominent Grads

• Elihu Root, 1864, U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of War, Secretary of State, Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
• James S. Sherman, 1878, Vice-President of the United States
• William M. Bristol, 1882, cofounder, Bristol- Myers Co.
• Ezra Pound, 1905, poet
• B.F. Skinner, 1926, behavioral psychologist
• Sol M. Linowitz, 1935, former Ambassador to the Organization of American States, Chairman of the Board of Xerox, Co-Negotiator of the Panama Canal treaties, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Paul Greengard, 1948, 2000 Nobel Prize Winner in Physiology or Medicine
• Thomas E. Meehan, 1951, Tony Award-win- ning playwright (The Producers, Hairspray)
• Robert Moses, 1956, Leader of the Civil Rights Movement (1960s), currently a pioneer in algebra education (The Algebra Project)
• Edward S. Walker, Jr., 1962, Professor at Hamilton, Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates
• Terry Brooks, 1966, author, Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace
• Barry Seaman, 1967, Former Special Projects Editor and Former White House Correspondent, TIME Magazine
• A.G. Lafley, 1969, President and CEO, Procter & Gamble
• Kevin Kennedy, 1970, Managing Director, Goldman, Sachs & Co.
• Melinda Wagner, 1979, 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Music Composition
• Mary Bonauto, 1983, Civil Rights Attorney (gay marriage amendment)
• Stephen R. Foley, 1984, Commander, U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron (Blue Angels)
• Guy Hebert, 1989, Former Goalie, Anaheim Mighty Ducks; 1998 U.S. Olympic hockey team

Carnegie Foundation Classification

Baccalaureate Colleges — Arts & Sciences

General Characteristics

Highest offering	Bachelor's degree
Calendar System	Semester
Years of college work required	N/A
Variable Tuition

Special Learning Opportunities

Distance Learning
ROTC — Army / Navy / Air Force	— / /
Study Abroad
Weekend College
Teacher Certification