Hamilton College Top Questions

The college admissions process frequently favors candidates coming from legacies and, as a result, there is a population of students who are sliding by on their parents' name or donations and who really don't deserve to be here. Many of those students are the same ones who contribute to the stereotypes about Hamilton being "preppy," "rich" and "snobby." It's up to every individual to decide whether or not this is true.

While there is a concentration of conservatives on this campus, and while there is a disproportionate number of private schoolers in attendance, this campus is actually fairly liberal and accepting of differing viewpoints

Though some people here represent these stereotypes, Hamilton admissions does a really good job at trying to diversify the Hamilton community, even though the school is quite small, I think there are a lot of different types of people here.

Honestly, I am preppy and I am often a drunk. I LIKE that Hamilton is isolated and priviledged, and it is part of why I picked the school. However, 60{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the school is supposedly on financial aid....so who knows what the truth is?

Yea, I think a lot of them are true. The light side is definitely far too preppy(almost to the point that I completely avoid going there) and there are a lot of rich WASPs here. The partying is ridiculous at times but I think Hamilton's current policies of just trying to keep everyone safe instead of trying to prevent inevitable underage drinking at college does a great job. Lack of diversity is an issue, but I don't feel like my education is suffering unless they fix it.

Some students obviously meet the stereotypes, but on a whole there is much more of a variety of students.

Although ethnically Hamilton is not extremely diverse, I would not say that it is completely preppy and there are many different ways that the campus is diverse. There are many international students and I already have several friends from countries all over the world. Also, I don't find that the campus is over-run with preps. Although there are a fair number, there are many students who have their own unique style, who don't have a particular style at all or who just don't care. I think a lot of people when generalizing Hamilton's campus as preppy forget that there is a large population of students who are passionate for the outdoors-- Outing Club is the largest club on campus afterall.

Although you can find these students at Hamilton, they're not as plentiful as I expected. There are just as many stereotypical hippies, and everyone has a different story.

A lot of kids on campus might fit this description to a T. However it's all dapendent on how you look at things. Yeah a large percentage of kids are financially well off and there is not a ton of diversity (racial or geographic) but there is a ton of diversity in opinion and attitudes. It's incredible how a seemingly homogenious campus can have such different outlooks on issues such as, religion, politics, and human nature.

While many students fit the wealthy stereotype, most students are informed about the world outside Hamilton and are active in organizations on campus that strive to aid those less fortunate.