Hampshire College Top Questions

To quote Ricky Bobby, if you ain't first, you're last. Hampshire is a binary place - either you're one of the motivated, passionate autodidacts who came here seeking a new world free from the persecution of a core curriculum...or you're here for an easy ride, and the chance to get a degree for sitting in your incense-laden dorm and smoking ganja. Hampshire's biggest weakness is our consummate lack of school spirit. Little to no investment in the school is manifest by the students, and many community institutions are brittle or simply non-existant. We have a fragile student government, no year book and only one athletic team to speak of (Red Scare, our Ultimate Frisbee team) although we actually have other athletic teams, and could easily form more. The trouble lies in the students, many of whom preach "community involvement" by touting hurricane relief programs or attempting to support local farming efforts, but won't do more than charge a Hampshire College Hoodie at the store to rep their own college. We have a ton of beurocratic red tape, but at times that can be a boon - if you can get your stuff together, and are relatively persistant, you can get what you want from the school, putting your 40,000 dollar education back in your hands. The little blurb at the top here says I should comment on the college town: Amherst rocks. It totally pwns. The food is awesome (Fresh Side, what!) and the town itself is cute. It's a fantastic nexus for the five colleges, and there's a comic book store. The only drawback is that everything closes pretty early - you're hard pressed to find anything open after ten - but I'm told this is somewhat typical of rural life.

Hampshire is going through a very transitional time. It boasts small class size, and the flexibility to do independent work, but these factors don't always turn into fact for every student. Every year Hampshire is accepting more and more first year students, but they are not increasing the faculty size. This means, more students per class, and less opportunity (especially in the first 2 years) for independent studies. In my opinion, this also means less student support, and a high first year drop out rate. I don't actually know the numbers, but I can tell you that at least 4 people left school during the first semester off my 10 person hall, my first year. That is a pretty huge number. On the flip side, many students choose to look at this as the weeding out process. My advice...If you are coming to Hampshire because you think it sounds easy, look else where. Just because there are no grades and tests, doesn't mean there is no work. In the average semester, I probably write over 100 pages. But, a Hampshire education is only as good as what you put into it.

The best thing about Hampshire is the freedom that you get. Unfortunately, some people are not self motivated and need more guidance and are therefore kind of disadvantaged by the structure. If I could change things at Hampshire, it would be many things, but Hampshire does not have a large endowment. Though everyone gets their own room at Hampshire, there is still housing shortages. I spend most of my time on campus in my room or friends' rooms. Usually people complain about things like food and housing and the number of professors per department, but it all really comes down to Hampshire not having a lot of money- which is unfortunate. The Hampshire administration seems to be non-existent. I don't know where to begin if I have a problem with something, and even then, no one is very helpful anyways. Hampshire is very fend-for-yourself.

Hampshire has created its own little left-wing commune in the middle of nowhere. The majority of the student body is incredibly radical, and life at Hampshire doesn't even come close to reflecting life in the real world. The majority of the students stay in the area even after graduation. A big issue with Hampshire is the lack of money. The Smith College greenhouse has a bigger endowment than all of Hampshire College, and so Hampshire has had to resort to cutting back on staff and student activities, and they send out letters not only asking alumni for donations, but also current students. At the same time, Hampshire wastes the money that it does have on things that are unnecessary like the building of a new pavillion, the addition of a large screen television to the cafeteria, etc.

Hampshire has money issues. We are a tiny new school with no dead alumni (yet) and have a 39 million dollar endowment (read: no endowment). This creates many problems - we can never get enough faculty, we don't have a student center, and the administration raises tuition at least 5{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} a year. The school also has problems keeping up the financial aid it gives to students. I have heard too many stories of a student who got a great package first year, then got increasingly more screwed over in years following. BUT if you can hang onto those scholarships and loans, Hampshire can be cheaper than a state school. The school has issues with race, with class, with sexuality, with identity, and with funding important things on campus. Basically all the issues that every college and university faces all the time. But at Hampshire, nothing ever seems to get done about these issues. Maybe it's because we are less than forty years old, perhaps it's because the school is desperately trying to reform itself every four years. Whatever it is, there is always A LOT of talk and not much action. But hey, at least we talk about this stuff. At Princeton, shit just doesn't get said and those disenfranchised groups just keep getting screwed because it is all written in stone (literally). Little Hampshire was forged in some brick and vinyl siding that gets rebuilt every couple years because it's falling apart...better to be locked into hundreds of years of tradition and be at a standstill or to be in a constant cycle of rotting and rebuilding? I don't know.

The best thing about Hampshire is the people. In general, they're smart, fun, and very creative. You will most likely not get bored talking to a Hampshire kid. The worst thing about Hampshire is the ambiguity: since there is a lot of freedom in the curriculum, faculty will tell you to do one thing, while people in the advising office will tell you to do another, while your individual advisor will tell you to do another! That can be pretty frustrating. BUT, since it's Hampshire, if you argue hard enough, you can convince all of the adults guiding you to let you do whatever you want :). Hampshire is a pretty small place. You get to know most people pretty quickly. However, a very high percentage of Hampsters transfer out of Hampshire after their first year, so I have gotten to know some people only to find that they're leaving :(. The reason many people transfer out is not because Hampshire is a bad school--it's because many people can't handle all the freedom and ambiguity. We have some guidelines at Hampshire: for instance, in your freshman year, you are required to take 1 course in each of Hampshire's five "schools of thought." But within those schools of thought, you can choose whatever courses you want: this is the freedom that many people can't handle. They want someone telling them what to do, but this hardly happens at Hampshire. Hampshire isn't in a "college town," but buses come right to campus and take you to other "college towns," Amherst and Northampton, where Amherst College and Smith College are. Amherst and Smith, along with Mt. Holyoke, UMass Amherst, and Hampshire, are part of the Five College Consortium, so as a Hampshire student you can take classes at any one of these five schools. This has been a lifesaver for me, since, for example, Hampshire currently offers no Music Composition classes, so I took Music Comp. at Amherst.

Most people haven't really heard of Hampshire, but when I tell them there are no grades or tests they think it's a major joke. Then I explain that I transferred from one of the new 'ivy league' schools, and that I found Hampshire MUCH more challenging. Everything is put on the students, its their responsibility to finish work... You get what you put in.

I love the size of Hampshire. The last school I went to in Texas was huge and had over thirty thousand students. At Hampshire, you really get a chance to know people. Of course, small communities do have a lot of gossip, but that hasn't been a problem for me. Hampshire has a great campus, its beautiful. You look around and see trees, mountains and fields. I love it. Its farmland. One of the best aspects about Hampshire is that its part of the five colleges in Amherst/Northampton. The bus system is great and you can always get off campus for a change. You can take classes at any of the other schools too. Some people think its great when I tell them that I go to Hampshire, but other people think that I am just a crunchy hippie. This is not a bad thin to me, but I can see how some Hampshire students could be offended by this. Also, just because you are a so called hippie, doesn't mean that you aren't a good student and a hard worker. To be a Hampshire student can be difficult. Because you have to gather a committee and get to know faculty well, you have to be very motivated and independent. For some people its hard to take the initiative to do so. Also, because there are a limited number of full time faculty, it can be tough to get a committee together. One of my favorite things about Hampshire is that when you finish your Division III, you get to ring the bell in front of the library whenver you walk by it. I cannot wait to ring that bell!

I believe Hampshire College is the most unusual, interesting, wacky, suprising, evolving college in the country. The most unique component to Hampshire is the educational pedagogy - as a Hampshire student, you design your own curriculum and indepenently complete a final project (thesis, documentary, performance, traditional, non-traditional) in your fourth year that is the culmination of your studies. I believe "DYI" (Do It Yourself) is the mantra at Hampshire - students live in single dorm rooms, do independent studies, design their own curriculum. Hampshire is TINY - 1,400 students - and although the college over enrolls each year, the size remains a constant because the drop-out/transfer/field study/defer/travel/ect. rate is very high. The reason for this overturn is because of the aforementioned "DYI" mantra - most 18 year olds are not ready to be self-motivated, driven, living on their own, choosing what courses they need to take to develop their studies, ect. At Hampshire, the quality and the rigour of the education you recieve correlates to the amount of effort and heart you put into your studies. Advice to prospective students: critically examine your study habits, self-efficacy, self- motivation, and relationships with teachers - if you are organized, know how to manage time effectively, are highly motivated to learn and know what you want to study, and are comfortable expressing your needs and goals with teachers - you can succeed at Hampshire.

Hampshire College is an "alternative" school. Unfortunately, most of the student body seems to think that this means the Hampshire College is politically or socially "alternative." With that said, the school is often the home of loud political/social "protests" (which are rarely well thought out, almost always rash and reactionary and often leave as soon as they come). Hampshire College was designed to be a school where things were taught differently. It has become a place where different things are taught. These "different subjects" occasionally turn out to be taught and executed exceptionally well. Often, though, they are unbacked, subjective nonsense that students take to be 100{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} true. Some basics: Hampshire College exists on a good amount of land, most of which is undeveloped. There are two dormitories, Dakin and Merrill, which houses most of the first years and a sizable number of the second years (although with a little luck, a second year can move up to the mods). These mods are on-campus apartments and are named Prescott, Enfield and Greenwich. The former of the three is often thought to be the place to go for parties, and while this was true at the beginning of the semester, it became less so as the year moved on. Enfield is generally more suburban-looking, with buildings designed to form very open communal areas. The social life of Enfield takes advantage of these areas, and is often the home to more environmentally-conscious and socially-active folk. There's even a Greenhouse mod. Greenwich, originally designed to be temporary housing, is made of relatively isolated "pods," and is the physical counterthesis to Enfield. The people in Greenwich are, from what I've experienced, less loud than the other two communities, both physically and figuratively. Currently, renovations are taking place for Greenwich. The architecture of Hampshire College is in the late '60s Brutalist style, which some view as prison-like, but I found to be rather nice. Not all of the buildings are well-designed, none are very inviting to students (classrooms are hard to find sometimes), but you live with what you can. The student body of Hampshire College is medium size, about 1400 kids. There is considerable separation, not by grade but by living area. People in the dorms tend to hang out exclusively with others in the dorms, and the same goes for the mods. Nonetheless, it is easy to have everyone caught up in everyone else's business. Hampshire is definitely more difficult to handle for those with a misanthropic or introverted bend. With that said, most people spend their time anywhere where other (preferably intoxicated) people are. And those locations are easy to trace.