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All liberal arts colleges emphasize the importance of exposure to a broad range of academic disciplines as a vehicle for developing strong analytic, persuasive, and creative abilities, while honing written and oral communication skills. However, the manner in which the overarching tenets of liberal arts education are implemented differs from institution to institution.

A common practice is simply to tell students that they must take a certain number of courses across all academic disciplines: two each in the natural sciences, the arts, the humanities and the social sciences. While distribution requirements, such as the ones described above are a kind of insurance policy, they are inconsistent with Hamilton College's long-standing commitment to individualized education and do little to foster intellectual independence and critical thinking regarding interdisciplinary connections.

Graduate schools and competitive workplaces expect students and employees to write, think and speak with clarity, but they also require them to take responsibility for their own work. Therefore, an undergraduate faculty needs to balance the goal of solid skills instructions with student independence. It is this balance that Hamilton aims to achieve through our Plan for Liberal Education.

** Freedom in distribution requirements: Rather than having a liberal education defined by standard distribution requirements, the Hamilton Plan enables students to work individually with their advisors to chart personalized courses of study across the liberal arts. The strength of the advising system is a product of both the institution's long-standing commitment to maintaining a low student- faculty ratio and small classes, and the devotion of a faculty committed to teaching. The student-faculty ratio at Hamilton is 10-1, the average class size is 15; 1/3 of the classes enroll 9 or fewer students; all courses are taught by professors; and 75% of students report having gone to coffee, lunch or dinner with a faculty member on more than 5 occasions. As a result of the deepened advising relationship, students not only have the freedom to fashion creative courses of study, but also the responsibility to think hard about just what their education should include.

** Writing-Intensive Experience: All students at Hamilton are required to take three writing-intensive classes. These are not writing classes, rather they are subject-based courses into which an emphasis on the continued development of strong writing skills is incorporated. Students are encouraged to take these courses early in their college career, in order to be best prepared for the rigors of higher-level course work.

** Limited-Enrollment Proseminars: The distribution of faculty resources at most colleges precludes a student from enjoying the benefits of small discussion oriented classes at the introductory level. At Hamilton, we ensure that all students have the opportunity to develop meaningful relationships with faculty members early in their college career, offering a series of seminars especially designed for first- and second- year students. With enrollments capped at 16, these courses are distributed across the curriculum in sufficient numbers that students can expect to take at least four during their first four semesters. The seminars cover a wide range of topics, but all emphasize oral and written communication skills.

** Sophomore Seminars: The Sophomore Seminars are team-taught, interdisciplinary classes that enroll no more than 12 students per faculty member, and that encourage students to make connections between different fields of knowledge.

Some examples of Sophomore Seminars:

  • Globalization (Economics, Comparative Literature, Art, English, Government, Religious Studies, Anthropology);
  • Race Matters (Classics, Africana Studies, Philosophy);
  • Forever Wild: The Cultural and Natural Histories of the Adirondack Park (English, Biology, Chemistry);
  • Nature, Art, or Mathematics? (English, Mathematics);
  • The Craft of Writing (Economics, Comparative Literature, Government);
  • Narratives of Nationhood (French, History);
  • Simulation: Computers and Society (Anthropology, Computer Science);
  • Education in a Liberal Society (Government, French, Education, Women's Studies, Psychology) 

 ** Senior Program: Building on their course work and showing their increasing ability to work independently, each senior will participate in a capstone experience. For some this experience will be a research project, for others a seminar or a comprehensive examination.

Some examples of Senior Projects:

  • Bosnian Immigrants in Utica;
  • Observing the Behavior of Colobus Monkeys in Tanzania;
  • Examining the Gender Gap in Science and Engineering;
  • Privitization and Restructuring: Evidence from the Baltic Republics;
  • The Origin of Markov Chains in Pushkin's Poetry;
  • Ecology Studies on Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondack Peaks

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