Colgate University Top Questions

I like the size of our school. I do wish it was a little closer to shopping centers. The good thing about a small town is that it is easy to get into trouble and stay innocent. The library is a great tool to go do work out or just chill with friends.

Colgate is located in the middle of no where New York. It took me a year and a semester to finally get used to that, but since then I have found myself amazing group of friends and I am still always meeting new people even with a small student population. By senior year Colgate begins to feel more like a family. You are able to build awesome relationships with professors and faculty that is rare at larger schools. Gary Ross, Dean of Admissions, is the most amazing guy in this earth!

Colgate is a SMALL (2,800) private liberal arts college located in the middle of no-where, Up-state NY. The winters tend to come early and stay long, and the weather can become depressing if you are used to a lot of sun exposure (i.e. Texans, Floridians, Californians, etc.) Hamilton, NY is deffinitely a college town, but a small college town. The population of Hamilton is around the same size of the school, which makes for a tiny community. However, because the town is so small, everything is accesible via walking. There are bad things I could say about Colgate but overall my time here was more positive than negative. The biggest thing about Colgate is how safe you feel- I never locked my doors over my four years here.

I think Colgate is great, maybe a little small with only 2800 students. When you say you go to Colgate it automatically seperates from most college students because Colgate is a very prestigious school. Hamilton is not really a college town, but it has some good bars and places for students to hang out. A good amount of food places. There is not a great amount of school pride, as most students just come here to get a good education. The alumni connections, though, are some of the best in the country. Pretty much a garunteed job upon graduation. The best experience at Colgate is Spring Party Weekend which takes place near the end of April every year. About 4 days straight of frat parties, BBQ's, and more partying. It gets crazy and is fun as hell.

Small enough to know a lot of people, big enough to not see everyone you know on a daily basis; everyone from my hometown thought I was going to a dentistry school and asked me if I also applied to Crest and Aquafresh; I spend most of my time in the library or in my room studying 24/7; complete college town; administration is way too traditional; biggest controversy was the gun threat that happened during March, yet the kid still attends the school; fair amount of school pride; best experience is freshman night at the Jug

What they say about the "Colgate bubble" is true. We're in a very isolated and rural area, 45 minutes from Syracuse and Utica. Great for fostering college community, but unless you try especially hard, you won't meet many people off campus.

One thing many people wonder about is Colgate's relative isolation, and connected with that are queries about its size. Yes, Colgate is in a very small town - Hamilton, NY is only 2800 people, roughly the same size as the school. I come from a big city and often miss much of the conveniences of home, but I actually love living in a small town. You see people you know everywhere, as there are only so many places to frequent. You can greet shopkeepers and salespeople by name, and know all the bartenders well. Not having very many options of things to do really makes you find your own fun, and people don't often leave on the weekends. If you find yourself itching to get out, there are malls and larger movie theaters within 40 miles, and it is always fun to road trip to NYC or Boston on the weekends. As for Colgate's size, I think it is perfect. It is small enough that you see people you know everywhere you go on campus - you can always go to the dining hall alone and find people you know to sit with, or you run into people at the gym, the library, and just walking around. The same goes with professors; I run into professors in the hallways of my buildings all the time, and they are always eager to chat with me about how my life is going. That is also a benefit - my professors actually know my name, my interests, my activities, and my background, since classes are small enough where we can get to know each other. I really like to actually TALK to my professors... they are most often very interesting people with neat lives outside of the classroom. At the same time, Colgate is large enough that you continue to meet new people all the time. I have met fellow seniors this year whose names I had never even heard before. All in all, it is a comfortable place where you never feel alone, yet not small enough to be boring.

The best thing about Colgate is the community. During orientation and any other event that gathers huge groups of people, presenters will always elaborate on this quality until it is ingrained in everyone's head. When you are a freshman, the school seems huge, but once you become an upperclassman, you realize how small it actually is and how you practically know everyone in your class by name. Professors here know you by name and will embrace anyone who shows a true passion in their studies. Furthermore,they are able to provide personalized attention and excellent recommendations that you wouldn't be able to get at a larger university. Students are generally happy with their decision to go to Colgate. They enjoy their classes and are extremely active in varsity sports, club sports, clubs and groups, volunteering, campus jobs, mentoring, tutoring and other extracurricular activities. There is a decent amount of school pride, although varsity sports teams such as basketball struggle to maintain a fan base. Living in Hamilton, New York for four years can be trying on some due to limited stores, bars, restuarants, activitites and students often feel ready to leave when it is time.

If you don't think you belong at Colgate, you probably don't. One of the biggest issues the school has been dealing with is diversity (or lack thereof). Of course, the school creates things like an African-American themed dorm, but kids end up living there starting freshman year and never end up mixing with everyone else. The school's administration is really incompetent when it comes to things like that. They have increased the school's endowment by about $200 mil since I've been here (if that matters to anyone). There are two main problems with Colgate: the location and the weather. Colgate is located in central New York, i.e., the middle of nowhere. If you drive a mile in either direction away from Colgate, you're in the cornfields. The closest cities to Colgate are Utica and Syracuse, and those are about 45 minutes-an hour away. One interesting attraction is Turning Stone Casino, which 30 minutes away and allows 18 year olds to play. The town itself is the intersection of Lebanon and Broad. It is very small, but more or less has everything you need. A complaint I hear from other people a lot is the notoriously slow service in all the restaurants, which are operated by townies who very clearly despise Colgate students. The main problem with the town is that the locals consider Colgate students to be walking in on their turf. The town does not cater to the needs of the college, as all restaurants except 1 close early (even on weekends). As for the weather, I believe it truly ruins the school. We have a beautiful campus, but you will never, ever see people lying out on the grass or chilling outside other than the first two weeks in the fall and the last two in the spring. One of the main results of this, I think, is increased emphasis of cliques and little social mixing. Either way, Colgate would be a million times better if there were nice weather for more of the year. The school really undergoes a transformation during the brief time when the sun comes out.

I feel that Colgate is just the right size, it's bigger than the average liberal arts school but smaller than a state university. You get to know people very well, but there's always someone to meet. Outside people are impressed with Colgate students--we have a very good reputation. Classes are divided, freshman and sophmores live "up the hill" and the upperclassmen live "down the hill", therefore the younger students spend much more time on campus. We live in a very small town, so it basically revolves around Colgate and the students. Colgate's administration is pretty bad. They try hard to please the students but don't listen to the students wants. The same things have tried to be passed in the past four years, unsuccessfully--especially aspects about the "cruiser" or bus system we have. If you like Colgate as it is when you get here, that's great, because it's not going to change. Colgate has a lot of school pride, not as much as it had, but we are still a big sports school so that has a lot to do with it.