Facts about Hamilton

Academics

All the challenge; all the choice.


College Purposes and Goals

Hamilton College is committed to the intellectual and personal development of students. We seek to nourish a love of learning, a creative spirit, and an informed and responsible engagement with an ever-changing world. To promote these qualities, the College challenges all of its students to work with their advisors to devise an educational program that fosters:

  • Intellectual Curiosity and Flexibility
  • Analytic Discernment
  • Aesthetic Discernment
  • Disciplinary Practice
  • Creativity
  • Communication and Expression
  • Understanding of Cultural Diversity
  • Ethical, Informed, and Engaged Citizenship

Learn more about Hamilton's College Purposes and Goals


Curricular Distinctions

At Hamilton, where faculty-student advising matters, we provide academically focused students an individualized education characterized by intense student-faculty interaction, an emphasis on oral and written communication, and the ability to make thoughtful choices about their intellectual pursuits.


No Distribution Requirements

Students take courses because they are interested in the subject, not to fulfill a requirement.


The Writing Program

All students are required to take three writing-intensive courses offered throughout the curriculum.

 

Proseminars

Optional, small, rigorous courses of no more than 16 offering intensive interaction among students and faculty members by emphasizing writing, speaking and discussion.


Quantitiative Literacy

All students are required to take at least one of the quantitative and symbolic reasoning courses offered throughout the curriculum.


The Advising Program

Faculty members help students develop their own individualized academic programs.


College Seminars

Team-taught seminars that emphasize the connections between different fields of study and culminate in an integrative project with public presentation.


The Major (third and fourth years)

Typically, eight to 10 courses, depending on the department or program.


The Senior Program

Each department and program has designed a senior program to serve as an integrating and culminating experience for the major by requiring students to use the methodology and knowledge gained in their first three years of study. For many students, the Senior Program takes the form of a graduate-level honors thesis.


Undergraduate Research

Through independent projects, the Senior Program, and summer internships with faculty members, Hamilton provides an increasing number of opportunities for students to engage in significant -- often publishable -- research at the undergraduate level.

Learn more about Undergraduate Research at Hamilton.

Preprofessional Advising/Cooperative Programs

Business
Education
Engineering
Law
Medicine
 

Writing Center
  • 29 peer writing tutors
  • 91% of writing tutors graduates with College honors in the past five years
  • 2,787  individual writing conferences in 2010-11
  • 94% of students have had one or more Writing Center conferences during their four years
  • 2/3 of seniors said their writing "greatly improved" while at Hamilton

Learn more about Hamilton's Writing Center.
 

Most Popular Majors
  • Economics
  • Government
  • Mathematics
  • Psychology
  • English/Creative Writing
  • World Politics
  • History

Off-Campus Study

More than half of Hamilton students study off-campus at least one semester. Most popular destinations:

  • New York City
  • Washington, D.C.
  • France
  • Spain
  • Italy
  • China
  • England
  • Argentina
  • Australia
  • Scotland
  • Denmark
  • New Zealand
  • Czech Republic
  • Sweden
  • South Africa

Learn more about Hamilton's off-campus study programs.

 
Honor Societies

In addition to Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest and most prestigious honorary society in the country (Hamilton's chapter was established in 1870), Hamilton maintains chapters of Sigma Xi (science), Lambda Pi Eta (communication studies), Omicron Delta Epsilon (economics), Phi Alpha Theta (history), Phi Sigma Iota (foreign and classical languages), Pi Sigma Alpha (political science), Psi Chi (psychology) and Eta Sigma Phi (Classics).
 

Learn more about academics at Hamilton.

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