Hampshire College Top Questions

Circus club is pretty cool, as is Anime club.

Yes, there are parties, but they're often poorly attended. Gatherings phenomenally turn into parties at Hampshire - whoever's sitting on those two boxes of Franzia and a bit of herb is most likely having a party this instant. Dorm life is crazy that way, and it's part of why mods are preferable. Mod communities are welcoming, but not constantly consuming substance. The big parties every year are Hampshire Halloween in the Fall and Easter Keg Hunt in the Spring. There used to be a Drag Ball, but persons in the trans community expressed upset in 2009, ruining the tradition which had brought Kurt Cobain to Hampshire. Yes, people in the dorms leave their doors opened, but it's like I said: this environment becomes tiresome within a year. The dorms had ought to be featured on The Wire -there's more substance exchanged and more people tripping in those buildings than in the whole of Western Mass. That said, kids get sick of this fast - it's all part of growing up. We can't stay eighteen forever - your first evaluations may reflect this truth. The dating scene? Phenomenal or nonexistent. Sorry straight guys: you don't approach; you are approached. Otherwise you're doubtlessly behaving in an affronting and offensive manner - you'll be contrived as a misogynist for engaging in simple, sexually suggestive (equal) manners. The LGBTQ community seems to have the best sex and dating life - it still isn't as good as the less-standoffish LGBTQ community I witnessed studying abroad in Edinburgh. And this is funny to me, because Hampshire is one of few schools where your physical 'roommate' may be of the opposite sex, if you so choose. I only know a few couples of the opposite sex who do this - it seems to be a lovely set-up, though I could see disaster pending if the relationship weren't solid. Things to do not involving sex, drugs, and rock-and-hiphop: we host a variety of lecturers from all over the world, as do the other colleges, almost every week. Though we don't have competitive 'sports' or 'frats,' we do have a variety of athletic clubs and student groups. I'm a 'signor' for the new Roosevelt Institute public policy Chapter at Hampshire; there are a hundred plus other groups doing all sorts of exciting things. For those who don't drink (as I'm cutting back on doing): there are both sub-free designated living spaces and groups that meet commonly. On the average night, if you check your announcement-emails, you can usually score free pizza and a movie at these meetings. If all else fails: there's porn in the world. xD Off campus life is vibrant - there are all sorts of parties at the other colleges, few of which I can remember. Amherst and Northampton are feel-good towns with too much to do to list here.

Hampshire Halloween, Spring Jam, and the Easter Keg Hunt are big deals on Hampshire. Obviously, they involve a lot of debaucherous fun. The theatre community is thriving, but it can get catty (like any theatre department, I'm sure). Athletics are wayyy on the back-burner, although Hampshire guys are trying to build up a respectable soccer team. It can be hard to get students to regularly come to club meetings, because everyone is so in their own head space. Usually the promise of food helps. There is zero Greek life. That said, many a PBR is consumed each "weekend"--that is, Thursday-Saturday nights. There are usually one or two parties per weekend night, and everyone crams into a sweaty room and dances, drinks, and makes out. It can be really fun, and it can be really sketchy. Plenty of people are up all night playing guitar and ordering pizza.

Hampshire students play Vivaldi's Four Seasons

Giant Pillow fight during Halloween in 2007

most popular team is probably frsibee, although basketball does fairly well. I'm a signer for the Black Student Union, UMOJA, and play on the basketball and soccer teams. Dorms are mostly for freshmen, (we call them first years) the rest of us have apartment style living, so it's open. We usually cook meals together in our mods (houses). Traditions:: Keg hunt (hampshire kids go into the woods early easter morning and tap kegs, people stumble back onto campus drunkenly later), Hampshire Halloween (famous party every year the friday b4 halloween. everyone wants tog et on the guyest list, your off campus friends will thank you forever if you get them in. spring jam. concerts, free food and rides all day in the spring. usually the day accepted students visit too. this year we had Dead Prez...

The most popular groups... hmm... probably the twice yearly 5 college wide Dungeons and Dragons tournaments are the biggest draws in terms of raw numbers. There are tons of groups and clubs on campus and it's really easy to start any sort of club you would want to, even if you just want an excuse for the school to buy you and your friends a pizza every week. Athletic events are not a big deal on campus, though friends always go to watch each other play. I joined an a cappella group this year. We started UltraSounds, an all-girl group, this year after a large group of us didn't make it into the other two a cappella groups on campus. It's been great fun and we ended up sounding very good, if I do say so myself. Guest speakers get big crowds, though it depends on the topic. The ongoing lecture series on God and science gets great crowds for every speaker. Dorm life depends greatly on where you live, even down to which floor you're on. I was on the sub-free floor last year and it was wonderful! No noise, and while no one left their door open, why would I care? I just went off to my friends' dorm rooms. On the floor above me, however, all the students got to be (the rest of us thought) weirdly close. They had a very strong hall identity and were in and out of each other's rooms all the time. I met my closest friends in the dining hall in those first few weeks of frantic friend-making at the beginning of the year. There are no frats or sororities on campus. Parties abound, but no hazing. Best of all worlds.

Many students are bored on campus, and say that there is little to do. This is not true since there are many groups. But often, the groups are very specific to one cause and do not collaborate, see and understand that they are fighting for the same issues only from different perspectives. Still, there could be more activities geared towards students, more of an institutional role in getting students interested. People are concerned that many students smoke pot at Hampshire, why do they do this? Because they are not interested or do not know about what is going on. While this is in part their own fault, the administration is also not getting through to them either, something must be done about this as well.

Depends on where you live on campus and who your friends are. Its pretty split even between partyers and non-partyers. no frats. no sports, except frisbee. but i take karate and yoga and mountain biking and rock climbing, and i teach yoga too. there's some improv groups that perform a lot, and lots of bands.

People can be extremely studious, usually a typical weekend for me is studying on Thursday night, maybe smoking weed or just hanging out on Friday night, and drinking on Saturday night. There are usually parties on the weekends, but often its more fun to drink and talk in one persons room. There are a lot of events in the area if you want to get off campus, but during the winter thats really unappealing. Hampshire halloween is a really fun party, as is drag ball.