Hartwick College Visit Report by northeastmom

Visit Activities:

Information Session: Yes

Campus Tour: Yes

---

Campus:

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

Off-Campus:

---

---

Campus Visit Notes for Hartwick College

Visit Description:

Hartwick is located in Oneonta, NY. I found Oneonta to look like middle America, USA. It looked very much like some areas not far from my home, which is about 4 hours away. The immediate area is residential, but there are many little shops and restaurants in the area. Everything in town seemed very dated, but not at all deteriorated. It looks like everything in town could use a face lift. There is a public transit bus that does stop on campus so one has access to these areas. You can also get to Cooperstown with the public bus system. Freshmen may also have cars on campus (extra fee for parking sticker). I have found that many liberal arts colleges are in remote locations. Hartwick is an exception. It is not in Boston, or New York City, but it is not isolated either. One can enjoy a restaurant, movie, or go shopping, and one can get there without a car.

There is a lot of construction going on at Hartwick. There is a large new academic center that is being built and will be completed by fall '08. Townhouses have just gotten a facelift (looked brand new from the outside, but I did not go in). Many dorms were upgraded. There were flowers hanging from many, if not all lampposts. The dorms, halls, and bathrooms were very clean. The floors were sparkling clean throughout all of the buildings. I only noticed one wall with some peeling paint in a stairwell. The dorm was average to larger than average size. Micro-fridges bought through the school are allowed. The lounge area in the freshman dorm was huge with 2 rooms that were semi-divided. There were a couple of table games (ie:billiards, pingpong, and a football game). There was a flat screen TV and fridge in the freshman lounge. The lounge area looked fairly new. The views are really breathtaking. This campus is very hilly. There are lots of stairs to climb, and that will help keep off "the freshmen 15". It is a beautiful campus.

In the music area there were plenty of soundproof booths, and I noticed some pianos in some of them. There are some unusual offerings, such as glass blowing in art department. Classes are generally small, but one could have an occasional class of 100 students. I believe the average class size is 18, and student to professor ratio is 12:1. Many professors do not put class notes online, but some tech savy ones do (as per our tour guide). Hartwick has a mandatory J term. This is the time that one either goes abroad, has an internship, or stays on campus to take one class. It is called J term because it is during the month of January. If one goes abroad, the extra cost often runs about another 4k. If one stays on campus, J term is covered through regular tuition cost. One can go abroad for a semester as well.

The popular sports are the 2 D-1 sports, which are water polo, and soccer. I had the feeling that these 2 sports are what bring some international students to Hartwick.

Info session- SATs are now optional. I was told that the caliber of high school will be considered for admissions when I specifically inquired. The acceptance rate to Harwick is 78%. They have an environmental campus(900+ acres) 8 miles away from the main campus (over 400 acres). There is a shuttle that is driven by students that runs between these two campuses. The environmental campus is rustic, with cabins and some students elect to live there. Occasional classes are held on that campus. I was told that it also has a theatre. We did not drive there to visit it. It was stressed that 96% of students get some financial aid. They mentioned that there are many merit scholarships. It was not clear to me as to how they are given out without SAT scores, but we were told that their board is meeting soon, so some scholarships and their criteria may change. I felt that there was a very tight budget in the admissions department. There were no pens, or other give-aways. No cookies, coffee or snacks were offered. When we toured with our older son there was usually some muti-media presentation, or a video showing school spirit, technology, and aspects that a school would like to show perspective students. Hartwick did not show either a multi-media presentation, or a video. Instead of a powerpoint presentation, the admissions counselor was prudently trying to make sure that she presented all of the information by flipping through a binder.

Dining-there seems to be two places to eat on campus. One of them is "all you can eat". The other seems to be ala carte, but I am not sure. The tour guide only mentioned the "all you can eat dining". We did not see it, because it was closed when we visited.

We visited in August, but would be interested in seeing this campus during the winter. It would be interesting to see how students negotiate the cold and the snow.

We found this school to be a hidden gem, a beautiful campus, and it had much to offer its students.