Hampshire College Top Questions

They're bullshit. You learn next to nothing in your classes, and if the professor doesn't like you they can do whatever they want.

Every professor I've ever had at Hampshire has been brilliant, helpful, and flexible. The Five Colleges also have a wealth of amazing, world-renowned professor. That said, classes can get bogged down by flaky, metaphysical discussions on the students' part, and some students get by only doing the bare minimum. There is always that one kid in your class who never does the reading yet still insists on ruining really great discussions by veering off into incomprehensible weirdness. Plenty of intelligent, hard-working students exist, though.

MORE READING A WRITING THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE. Seriously. Think of the most you'd be willing to do in highschool and tripple that. The application to Hampshire has like sceighty-eith essays...that's just the beginning folks.

One of the great things about Hampshire is the individual attention you get from teachers. Everyone has office hours and they are very willing to go the extra mile to help you. Classes are small - usually around 15 students, so you will not get lost in the crowd. My favorite class, On Terror, was wonderful in that the texts we read for each class were wonderfully diverse: an article about postmodern poetry, the movie "Brazil," a scholarly article on the conflict in Israel, a series of articles written for magazines about 9/11. All building a picture of the many meanings of "terror," but an incredibly diverse and multidisciplinary one. A multidisciplinary approach to education represents the best of the Hampshire education. There aren't really tests at Hampshire, so people don't "study" very often unless they have classes off campus, which they do with some frequency. However, Hampshire is very writing intensive, so people are always working on essays or projects, if they're into the sciences or arts. How much work you have to do depends heavily on which courses you take. Even some 100 level courses can spawn hours of reading every week, but some of them are barely any work at all. There are no grades at Hampshire, so people aren't very competitive. There's simply no way to compare when everyone is doing there own self-designed major. Most classes have significant discussion elements if they are not completely discussion based, so class participation is very common. People do continue discussions outside of class, though abstract discussions tend to morph into political ones.

I have had a good relationship with my professors, who all have wanted me to call them by their first name. Many professors have the idea that students have good thoughts to contribute to discussions and that their opinions are truly valuable. This works really well and has given me a lot of confidence to express myself. Still class participation have not always been as good as they could have been. I myself do not talk that much because often I do not understand the material as well as I should. There is a responsibility to ask, so that other students who feel the same understand as well.

NO TESTS!! I took a science class at Hampshire and learned nothing because I wasn't required to memorize anything, but for other classes that are especially writing intensive it is great. The professors that I have had are mostly in it to make you a stronger student-- not just academically, but in the way that you see the world and yourself. After my first year I took most of my classes at Smith because they have more to offer, but still worked very closely at Hamp with my advisor to cater my studies to my needs. It is however pretty typical that people graduate and end up working in the Hampshire mailroom or dining hall, or poor on the streets of Noho or New york.

Classes are small, and discussion based. In order to get a really great evaluation, you have to do all the reading, which there is plenty of, and participate a lot. A lot of times, students will be debating teachers and students, and there is a lot of critical thought involved. However, some students don't take their classes seriously, and that thought and dialogue doesn't happen. Philosophy classes tend to be very strong, as well as the arts program. Another great thing about the college is the consortium, where one can take classes at Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Amherst, and UMASS. In my experience, classes tend to be easier at the other colleges in terms of reading and discussion, but you still have to take mid-terms and finals, unlike at Hampshire, where you write 15 page research papers as your final.

Hampshire academics are amazing!!!! small classes, discussion based. no tests. no grades, just evaluations. professors are almost always available to help you outside of class. I have been invited over with my whole class to my professors house.

It's a very challenging program with incredible opportunities if you know how to find them and make them happen. People complain a lot about not being able to take care of business or get good advisors but really you just need a hell of a lot of self-determinism and you can make it work. You need that anyway to get through the program. Div III was the best thing I could have spend tuition on.

classes are small and intense. come prepared to argue. likely enough you will not leave hampshire with any life skills whatsoever, but we have one of the highest graduate school acceptance rates in the country. students are not competitive, because there's no grades, no curve, no percentages, no rankings; everyone is studying something just a little bit different. hampshire students are just as likely to talk passionately about their work while smashed at a party as they are in class or while studying with friends...

First off, Hampshire has a very different educational structure from most other schools. There are no grades- instead, professors write evaluations of student progress at the end of the semester- usually one to three paragraphs' worth, detailing the work you've completed, your progress on course objectives, and the like. There are also no pre-planned concentrations or majors: every student is required to assemble a faculty committee and create his/her own program, with the committee's advice and approval. Progression towards graduation goes in 3 Divisions- Div I usually lasts the first 2 or 3 semesters, and simply requires that a student take 8 classes across the 5 schools of thought (we also have no departments- all classes are sorted only into "Cognitive Science," "Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies," "Interdisciplinary Arts," "Natural Science," or "Social Science." This leads to a lot of great interdisciplinary classes, and many classes are even cross-listed over 2 or 3 schools.) and get to know the Hampshire system, with an assigned advisor. Sometime in the second year, a student begins Div II, which requires pulling together a committee of 2 or 3 faculty members and setting up a plan to complete 12 learning activities- usually classes, but also independent studies, internships, community service projects, and the like- anything that relates to the concentration you've designed and that your committee approves of. Div II usually lasts through the second and third years, and then comes Div III, which is a lot like a thesis- you assemble a committee, which may or may not include the same people as your Div II committee, and plan and carry out a very substantial year-long project. Div IIIs complete 2 learning activities- usually an upper-level class or seminar and a TAship. The Div III is almost the defining feature of the Hampshire education- it is a capstone of everything the student has done before. Because Hampshire requires faculty committees for every student, student-faculty relationships are usually very good. Students have to get to know faculty well enough to know if they'll be able to work together, and, once they've entered Div II, need to meet with their committees to make sure that their education is proceeding in a way that makes sense. Professors have to know students well enough to be able to write an evaluation about them at the end of the semester, although some are quite guilty of relying very heavily on student self-evaluations. I've had great relationships with most of my professors, and usually take advantage of opportunities to go to office hours and talk about my final projects/papers- because we don't take tests, we usually do significant projects at the end of each class, often relating the class to our own concentration and interests, and these projects can sometimes require a lot of consultation. I've also taken quite a few 5 College classes, and find that I also spend a lot of time talking to 5 College professors, trying to tailor their class to my personal needs- something most of them aren't expecting, but something Hampshire professors encourage. I've had really amazing classes with less than 10 students- classes where a reading assignment is given, and the class time is spent discussing it. These classes have really expanded my critical and analytical abilities, and probably encourage the level of discussion that spills outside of class- I've been known to linger over dinner for hours, debating gender theory or talking about history with my friends. Hampshire students are very intellectual, often pretentiously so, and love to talk about the things they're passionate about. When Hampshire students slack off, it's obvious, and there are definitely times when class discussion suffers for it. When the class is really into the topic, though, fascinating discussion can result, and most professors don't spend the whole class time lecturing- they want to hear what students have to say. Without grades, there's no such thing as GPA or rank at Hampshire, and it makes the atmosphere delightfully non-competitive. Hampshire students rise and fall by their own willingness to do the work- if someone's doing "better" in a class than you, it's likely because you aren't really putting as much effort out. Hampshire professors tend to be pretty understanding about things like deadlines and attendance, and will almost never make you write a paper on something you don't want to write about- there is always a way to tailor an assignment so that you're actually interested in it. Because everyone is so busy doing their own thing, looking for something that they really love and want to do, the atmosphere is pretty supportive- I love hearing opinions from other disciplines on the topics I'm interested in. Hampshire is definitely not for everyone, academically. You have to be pretty self-motivated: because Hampshire professors are often pretty lax on deadlines, you have to be able to force yourself to complete your work on time- people have failed out because they just aren't motivated to ever finish their final projects. You have to be willing to go out and get what you want- Hampshire is small and doesn't offer that many classes, and, because we hate prerequisites, it's very easy to get caught in a loop of very similar near-introductory classes. A Hampshire student has to be motivated enough to make his/her work for a class be at the right level, and most Hampshire students are going to have to design some sort of independent study. Div III is obviously also a very daunting task, and not for the weak of heart or will. Those skills- the skills in self-motivation and making the world work the way you want it to- are pretty useful in the Real World, I've been told. As for the actual topics you study at Hampshire- probably not. Most Hampshire students get pretty esoteric with their concentrations, which is great for Academia, less for "real jobs."

I've had amazing teachers and terrible teachers. Some are boring but brilliant. Others are Incredibly interesting. Students aren't competitive with each other.

The academics at Hampshire are all over the place. I mostly study science so that is what the following comments will be pertaining to. The professors (as stated earlier) range from awful and bitter to by far the best teacher that I have ever encountered in my life. Some of them are very bitter and refuse to fully teach science because after all it is a liberal arts education that we attend for, and so the only reason (in some of their minds) that we could be there is to be getting a requirement out of the way. The science department lacks good funding as well as instruments/materials, but the other colleges in the area are open to letting us use their state of the art equipment (most times). The class sizes are very small (especially in the science department) I have had one class with I think five students one with three, and a great deal of lab time with two to three other students. This is however not as good as it always seems. Although the upsides are a very personal relationship with your professor, which breaks down the barriers to asking questions outside of class, the downsides are sometimes catastrophic. In many instances it only takes a few bad students complaining about how quickly the professor is teaching to greatly slow down the entire class, or distract from the lecture, or ask repeated and annoying questions. The lack of tests or grades seems to often have a negative impact on students drives which in turn makes their studies plummet. Outside of class the professors are often much more engaged and energetic. It is my experience though that I have been refused help more often then I would have thought at such an independent place. Independent studies are hard to convince professors to do with you at times which is at least disheartening.

I often get teased by my friends at other schools because I don't get grades here at Hampshire. In their minds not getting a grade must automatically equal a slacker education and a lack of serious academics. However, I can tell you that I have a significantly stronger theoretical and critical background than any other student I've meet outside of Hampshire. I also can say that I've just taken more interesting classes over all. I've taken classes as interesting and varied as "The Politics of Pop Culture", "Sex on the Brain", "Politics, News, and Irony", and "Psychoanalytic Approaches to Psychotherapy with Children". Classes at Hampshire are almost always fascinating and often the readings in the classes are worth the class alone, although overall the professors are some of the most brilliant and fascinating people I've ever met. If you don't like reading or discussion, Hampshire is definitely not the place for you, but if you do than its a paradise.

Your academics are what you make of it. You can easily get by and not do much, but that would be a waste.

I call all my professors by their first name, and they call me by mine. They are involved in my personal life, and some of them are good friends. Class participation is incredibly common and most classes are basically just discussions. The cognitive science program rocks, and the natural sciences represent, to quote a recent alum, "all that is good about Hampshire College." It is especially in the sciences where collaboration and mutual discovery take place, and fankly, I haven't been impressed by the social science department (or, for that matter, the humanities department). It seems fragmented and bitchy. The NS (natural science) is a school with absolutely no resources, just ingenuity and enthusiasm. Oh yeah, you can also take courses at Amherst College, UMass Amherst, Smith College, Mt. Holyoke. All are good schools, and the PVTA lets you ride at an amazing schedule between them (av.g ride is 15 mins). So you get a GPA (from other schools) on top of your written evals. (oh yeah, no grades at Hamp, just evals. A blessing and a curse.) Oh yeah, and if you want to do some weird shit (I do neurophysiology and creative writing), it is completely possible and even encouraged. Professors love that kind of thing, and will support you.

You call the professors by their first name. You email them weekly. They have you over for dinner at their house. Because of our division and committee system, you spend a LOT of one on one time with the teachers. It couldn't be better in that sense. There is no such thing as class ending. Most of the classes are discussion based and usually intense, so there is little chance that you are going to leave class and stop talking about the discussion. The requirements are interesting. The division system where you design your own major is incredible, but if you do not make it a point to badger anyone who can help you, you are going to be in the dark.

Academics at Hampshire are split up into three Divisions, and it's set up a lot like grad school. Division I is your first three semesters- you take about four classes a semester and take anything that interests you- there's not a set of core classes that one has to take, though there are a few requirements that one must fulfill to pass their Division I. During Div I you have to take at least one class in each of the five schools of thought (humanities/arts/cultural studies, social science, natural science, cognitive science, and interdisciplinary arts (there is also a 6th, optional outdoor/recreational school)), and you have to satisfy all 7 learning goals (reading, writing, project work, presentation, multicultural, quantitative, and creative expression) through these classes. It sounds like more of a hassle than it really is, and still allows you to take the classes that really interest you. Next, Division II is where you start focusing on a specific interest and taking the right classes for that interest, while also performing community service of some sort. There are no set majors, so this period is a little challenging, as one has to choose what he or she wants to study- for some it's easy to combine their interests, for others it's a little harder. Finally, there's Division III, where you spend your time working on your final, big independent study project (that relates to the work you did in Div II). The Div III project is much like a final thesis in that the completion of it is what allows you to receive a degree. While all this work sounds like a difficult thing to handle, there's always plenty of help available and you work with either an advisor or a committee the entire time. The professor's at Hampshire are great- they are always eager to help or provide you with extra information, and they typically try to avoid treating the class as if it was theirs or as if they are in charge. Classes at Hampshire range in size from about 13 to 25 people and professors typically know your name after about two weeks. In terms of interests, there is something for everyone and you're given plenty of opportunity to explore academically- last year I took class about aliens! Classes are typically discussion based, so participation is always a huge factor. Intellectual conversation does not end outside the classroom- with all of the activities, speakers, and conferences going on, it's hard not to find someone who wants to have a serious talk about something, and you're guaranteed to learn something new every day.

Hampshire's application form is exemplary of (the latter parts of) its pedagogic program: the essays permit you to give detailed responses, and represent yourself in a nuanced manner, which is probably for the best. The school, at least in the admissions phase, takes a great deal of interest in the individual student, and the student as an individual. Once you're in, you begin a career in Division One (the distribution requirement section of the program; a constant work in progress and arguably the weakest link in Hampshire's curriculum), then move to Division Two (which is more like a self-desigined major. For this section you select a committee of two faculty, theoretically involved in your chosen field, who help you pick your courses and guide you career wise) and finally Division Three (a giant project of your own design. You have a committee again, and it's a lot like a senior thesis at another school, except with fewer limitations - Blades of Glory status, if you can dream it, you can do it. Hampshire is unequivocally a phenomenal research college. Our professors are, by and large, pretty good, and you cannot match us for the amount of time they spend in direct contact with the undergraduates. Independent studies and tiny, specialized classes permit a virtually one-on-one learning environement, and your professors often become more like career-mentors. There are requirements, which Hampshire will try to hide from you before you get here, but they're not hard to deal with, and once you're out of Division One (at the time of this writing anyway - June, 2008) your only real requirements are that you fulfill a certain amount of community service (easy to do by working for a Div III, or TAing, or volunteering in Amherst), do some kind of multicultural perspectives thing (which is as vague as it sounds: you could take a Spanish immersion course for a month or you could go to Papua New Guinea for a year), get twelve courses related to your subject completed during your Division II (these are more heavily regulated for our most popular majors: studio art and music) and to complete two "advanced learning activities" during Division Three (anything from mentoring a noob in your subject to taking a 300 level class). Our course catalogue is spotty and heavily politicized - we have some really strong programs in what would generally be considered fairly random subjects (we are one of the best schools in the nation for animal behavior, for example) but are almost devoid of basic curricula items (like econ courses. We have like two, and they're both about the middle east). However, the presence of the five colleges makes up for this paucity in a lot of ways. You can (relatively) easily take a course at Smith, Holyoke, Amherst or UMass, and it will count in full (we don't actually have official credits) towards your Hampshire education. At the end of the day, a Hampshire Education is what you make it. Building the right program takes endurance, initiative and some blind stumbling, but if you can figure out how to fit yourself for it, you're guaranteed a personally tailored college education, with the full faith and resources of the institution at your back.

Hampshire classes tend to be discussion based, and on a very narrow topic. The brilliance of Hampshire, is that you have the 5 colleges to draw from. Generally, I take most of my courses off campus. I have had some really great Hampshire classes, and some really horrific Hampshire classes. It's a small enough campus that you can generally find out what professors are good and which are not. Hampshire professors tend to be overloaded with work, so if you don't make an effort to become acquainted with them, and you are doing well, they wont make the effort either. As far as class discussion goes, again, it depends on the class. Hampshire kids try really hard for the most part to participate in discussion and make comments that are constructive, but it doesn't always work. Generally, with first years, there is a learning curve to this. Rarely have I seen a first year come in and engage in discussion at the same level as most of the older students, but that is o.k., so long as they are able to take constructive criticism. Hampshire is set up so that if you want to better yourself, for the most part, you have the resources to do so, but you have to take the first step.