Question about culture/vibe/students at Hamilton

merc81
Tue, 11 Apr 2023 00:22:54 +0000

STL1972:

is there an intellectual vibe?

With respect to this, a Hamilton professor, when interviewed (Meet the New Faculty: Jason Cieply, Russian Studies - News - Hamilton College), noted a distinctly stronger intellectual atmosphere at Hamilton than at the large university at which he previously taught:

Why did you choose Hamilton?

As a grad student I taught at a big research institution, Stanford, and there are very smart students there as well, but they weren’t the ideal I had in mind, which was the engaged, enthusiastic liberal arts student who’s in it for the ideas, for the love of knowledge …

Nonetheless, the professor notes that the college includes students with various proclivities:

I also found that there are different varieties of liberal arts students; there are the ones who are more academically inclined, the ones who are more athletically inclined, the ones who are more counterculture, and the ones who are more mainstream. So far, I’ve found Hamilton students to be a similar variety and disposition to the ones at my undergrad school, so I think I was lucky in that respect.

STL1972:

Are most of the professors engaging?

Based on survey data from attending students, Hamilton rates highly in this area:

princetonreview.com

Best Colleges for Classroom Experience | The Princeton Review

Check out our ranking list of colleges with the best classroom experience, based on ratings from real students about professors, class discussion, and more.

As an opinion, the individual intellectual experience at Hamilton will be determined partly through course selection. The courses chosen as a first-year student will be especially important since the experiences in them will strongly influence later intellectual experiences.