Open Curriculum
Hamilton is one of the few U.S. colleges with an open curriculum, which means you’ll have the freedom to choose courses that reflect your interests, while still fulfilling the faculty’s expectation that you study broadly across the liberal arts.
How does an open curriculum work?
Imagine being in a class where everyone is there because they’re attracted to the subject, not because they have to fulfill some requirement. That’s the beauty of Hamilton’s open curriculum — smart students engaging actively with each other about material that genuinely interests them. In such an environment, students choose subjects they’re passionate about, while still having the flexibility to pursue new passions. As a result, our students discover new interests and nearly 70 percent graduate with two majors or a major and a minor.
Advising
Working closely with a faculty advisor, you’ll create an individualized plan of study that reflects your interests and graduate as a critical and creative thinker, writer, and speaker — skills that will help you stand out in the job market or when applying to graduate school.
Areas of Study
Hamilton offers 44 majors (we call them concentrations) and 58 total areas of study.
Educational Goals
Although Hamilton’s curriculum has relatively few requirements, our professors have many expectations that reinforce the educational values of the College.
Frequently Asked Questions
For the most part, yes, but Hamilton’s professors believe so strongly in the importance of writing that they will require you to enroll in three writing-intensive courses. In these courses, which are offered throughout the curriculum, you often will write drafts, receive feedback on composition, form, and content, and pursue substantive revisions. We also expect you will demonstrate facility in quantitative and symbolic reasoning by completing one or more courses in at least one of the following three categories: statistical analysis, mathematical representation, and logic and symbolic reasoning. Finally, Hamilton maintains a physical education requirement.
To graduate from Hamilton you must complete 32 units (almost all Hamilton courses are one unit). This includes three writing-intensive courses, at least one quantitative and symbolic reasoning course, the physical education requirement, and the requirements for your concentration (what most colleges call the major), including a course that addresses how social categories structure the world in which we live.
Many students do not start their Hamilton education with a clear idea of which major or concentration to pursue, and many others change their proposed concentration during their first two years. Some choose more than one concentration or combine a concentration with a minor. You will declare your concentration in the spring of your sophomore year. Each concentration includes a Senior Project.
