Hamilton College Admission
Hamilton College Undergraduate Program
Hamilton College Application

The Facts

Hamilton College is a small, private liberal arts college located in the town of Clinton, New York, and is home to over 1,800 undergraduate students. The school offers its students a chance to construct their own educational plan (in general) and is known for providing students with amazing critical thinking and debating skills, due to the small class sizes. The school has some distinctly unique academic offerings, including an East Asian languages program, a study abroad program in China, and a partnership that allows students to study at Oxford University in England. The college offers a huge, varied array of majors; some of the most popular choices include economics, government, psychology, English, and computer science.

Admission to Hamilton College is quite competitive, particularly for a school of such diminutive size. Last year, over 4,500 students applied for admission to the school, and approximately 1,500 of those students were accepted; of those, about 460 matriculated. The admitted students had an average combined SAT score ranging from 1280 to an impressive 1440, and an average comprehensive ACT score ranging from 28 to 33. Additionally, over 68% of those admitted were ranked in the top 10% of their high school graduating class, with an average high school GPA of about 3.88.

Hamilton College has an amazing student to faculty ratio of 9:1, and is well known for its tiny classes, usually containing no more than 15 students. The classes are always small and discussion based, and encourage intellectual discourse and debate to continue on after class has ended. The teachers are often available, and always willing to help students out, however, they are also not afraid to push students and challenge them on a daily basis. Don't expect to be babied here!

The Social Scene

The town of Clinton, New York is quite small, and doesn't really offer students much in the way of excitement besides a drug store and a supermarket. The area surrounding the college is heavily wooded and very rural, so there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy the great outdoors. The Hamilton campus itself has plenty of greenery, and the buildings are typically collegiate: bricks covered with ancient ivy in the neo-Gothic style.

The school has several national fraternities and sororities, and the Greeks tend to govern campus social life. They throw some huge parties that are quite popular with students, and infamous with the administration for heavy drinking and general debauchery. The school also has a great student life center with a nice diner and activity spaces that house the school's 80+ student clubs. The college also has an impressive list of guest speakers, including Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, and Lady Margaret Thatcher.

The dating scene is what you make of it; the student body is small, so you are bound to run into someone compatible sooner or later.

What’s Good

“Everything is really centralized and compact, which makes it easy to find your way around.”

“The housing is really nice, and you have plenty of space to get some peace and quiet.”

“The administration does a really goo job of communicating with students, which is a rare quality in colleges today.”

What’s Bad

“There is nothing to do in Clinton besides tip cows and eat corn.”

“The campus is too small for me, and you get really sick of seeing the same people over and over and over.”

“The people here are pretty conservative, and are often pretty homogeneous and close-minded.”

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