This Week’s College: Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Located in the Finger Lakes of Geneva, New York, Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS or Hobart William Smith), were originally founded as a men’s college (Hobart) and a women’s college (William Smith) but they eventually merged to create a single campus and faculty. With about 2500 students, HWS’s mission is to prepare students to live lives of consequence by creating a curriculum that emphasizes exploration, collaboration, and action.
Like many colleges today Hobart William Smith offers a First Year Experience seminar. The purpose of the seminar is to acculturate students to college and HWS in particular while developing students’ written skills and their ability to communicate while also exploring their ethics and values. With classes capped at 15, each seminar is based on a specific interest and is a chance to make connections to faculty and peers during their first semester. Recent offerings have included classes such as:
Hobart William Smith also has a unique program for first years where they offer a Learning Community. This is a residential, co-ed group of students who choose to take one or a series of classes together. They engage in discussions, go on field trips, attend lectures together, and live and learn together. This can be done by taking one or more FYE classes that are part of the Learning Community program. Some of the classes that are part of the Learning Communities are:
In addition to these Learning Communities, HWS also offers a Sustainability Learning Community. Using its physical location and the campus as a laboratory, Hobart William Smith students are able to take advantage of the entire campus to examine sustainable practices and to implement new initiatives to make the school more sustainable. With ample support from administration (the president, Mark Gearan was a charter signatory of the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment as early as 2007), the mission of the Sustainability Learning Community is to link classroom learning to real world application while improving the way the campus functions, the community thrives, that everyone benefits. It’s not required that you have a background in environmental science to be a part of this, but those who do find that they are extremely happy with this program and the freedom and flexibility it gives them.
You have a choice of 45 majors and 68 minors at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, so there is very much something for everyone here. If that’s not sufficient, you can always design your own as well. HWS has essentially eight curricular goals for their students which can be met in any of their majors. Every student must take a first year experience seminar and a writing enriched curriculum which builds on the FYE. All graduating seniors complete a capstone project, which is a culmination of their work at HWS. Ultimately though, students leaving Hobart William Smith will be able to meet what are considered the Aspirational Goals: reason quantitatively, understand scientific inquiry, critically and experientially understand the creative process, and understand and know why there are social and cultural differences and inequities. Finally, an education from HWS will give you an intellectual foundation for ethical judgement as the basis for socially responsible action in the world. In order to do all this (no mean feat), students must be encouraged to do many different activities in classes that promote the kinds of analytical and critical thinking that lead to the ability to lead a life of consequence. Students must be able to articulate questions, identify and access information that is relevant, organize and present appropriate evidence to support their positions, construct persuasive, elegant, complex, and defensible arguments, both orally and in writing, explore content, collaborate with one another, and act on their ides.
Students at Hobart William Smith are required to major and minor or double major. Majors are declared before students register for their second semester sophomore classes. Their minor or second major is not declared until early in their junior year. Students can choose between the majors and minors that are individual disciplines or from options that are interdisciplinary depending on what your desires are. In order to be successful at HWS, students must take courses that will certify that they have achieved learning in the realm of the Aspirational Goals. Every class taken is rated by how they fit in on the Aspirational Goals and what goal they cover. In this way, even with a double major, HWS students are getting an excellently well rounded education.
In addition to the regular curriculum, HWS has some interesting centers and add ons. For seniors there is an honors program that they can do as part of their senior capstone project which enriches their experience and also helps to get them career ready. For the entrepreneurs out there, Hobart William Smith’s Centennial Center host pitch competitions, an idea lab, a discovery lab, a hackathon, and a leadership institute. The Finger Lakes Institute is devoted to environmental research in conjunction with local stakeholders. Students in this institute conduct cutting edge environmental investigations that are then used to educate and promote changes in the local community and assist with the economic development of the region. The Fisher Center is dedicated to the study of gender (women and men) and social justice. It’s an interdisciplinary approach that focuses on arts, humanities, social, and natural sciences.
Hobart and William Smith Colleges offer several important merit scholarships to students who wish to attend there. The Seneca Scholarship is a full ride to HWS and given to three students who apply there. The Presidential Scholarship, for Inclusion ($35,000) is given to students who are underrepresented students: people of color, but also LGBTQ+, faith traditions, or disabled. The Elizabeth Blackwell Class of 1849 Pioneer in Science Scholarship ($30,000) is given to students with advanced coursework in science. The William Scandling ‘49 Trustee Scholarship ($25,000) is for students who show an aptitude for honors level work and research, and the Environmental Sustainability Scholarship ($25,000) is for students who are making contributions in the area of sustainability. There are others, but all of these are renewable for all four years of college.
So what’s it like to go to Hobart and William Smith Colleges? HWS is ranked 18th in the nation on Princeton Review as the happiest college campus in the US. It’s easy to see why though. The campus sprawls along the shore of Seneca Lake and instead of dorms, students live in neighborhoods. First years live by their FYE class, but all students live by neighborhood which gives it more of a home like feeling. Housing is guaranteed for all four years, and students live in doubles, triples, and quads. There are plenty of sports to choose from at HWS. Both men’s and women’s sports are robust and there is football to enjoy, along with hockey, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, sailing, and rowing. The women have all the same sports except field hockey replaces football. There are more than these as well as plenty of intramural sports as well. As far as other activities, HWS has a rich theater and arts tradition. There is also Greek Life on campus for those who want to take part in that and there are over 90 clubs as well. No matter what your interest, there is a club for it. You can sing a cappella with Perfect Third, or join the Finance Club, join the Alpine Ski Club, or the Global Health Brigade, write for The Herald, or be a Young American For Freedom, be a part of the Women’s Collective, or the Koshare Dance Collective, join the HWS Sustainable Foods Club, or the HWS Improv Society. There are plenty of things to keep you busy at HWS.
Are Hobart and William Smith Colleges for you? Are you a curious person with a desire to learn in a gorgeous setting with a fairly traditional feel? Then it could well be. HWS isn’t a place for people to hide. Classes are small and that makes it a place where you will learn even if you try to avoid it. But it’s also a place where students who haven’t been the real leaders in class before can become leaders. One thing I love about Hobart William Smith is that it takes students who haven’t seen themselves as leaders or achievers in the past and turns them into leaders and achievers. This is a school students get into, get merit money to attend, and leave knowing that they are intelligent, competent, and ready to take the world by storm. I love that about this school. You can too.
Pros:
Cons:
Located in the Finger Lakes of Geneva, New York, Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS or Hobart William Smith), were originally founded as a men’s college (Hobart) and a women’s college (William Smith) but they eventually merged to create a single campus and faculty. With about 2500 students, HWS’s mission is to prepare students to live lives of consequence by creating a curriculum that emphasizes exploration, collaboration, and action.
Like many colleges today Hobart William Smith offers a First Year Experience seminar. The purpose of the seminar is to acculturate students to college and HWS in particular while developing students’ written skills and their ability to communicate while also exploring their ethics and values. With classes capped at 15, each seminar is based on a specific interest and is a chance to make connections to faculty and peers during their first semester. Recent offerings have included classes such as:
- Hip Hop Culture
- I Know What You Ate Last Summer
- School Wars
- Fight and Flight: Radical Women in Exile
- Ghosts and Hauntings in the Americas
- Fictional Facts – The Chemistry of Science Fiction
- Religion and Film
- Trust and Betrayal
Hobart William Smith also has a unique program for first years where they offer a Learning Community. This is a residential, co-ed group of students who choose to take one or a series of classes together. They engage in discussions, go on field trips, attend lectures together, and live and learn together. This can be done by taking one or more FYE classes that are part of the Learning Community program. Some of the classes that are part of the Learning Communities are:
- The Secret Science of Learning (co-registers with CHEM 110: Introductory General Chemistry)
- Playground Physics (co-registers with PHYS 150: Introductory Physics)
- Why Are Some Countries Rich? (co-registers with ECON 135: Latin American Economics)
- Through the Lens: French and Francophone Cinema (co-registers with a French class based on placement level)
- Violence in the Sea of Faith (co-registers with ENG 130: Medieval Genres: Swords, Hammers, Quilts, and Bathtubs)
- Pharaohs, Kings, and Generals: Politics and Power in Egypt (co-registers with ANTH 110: Intro to Cultural Anthropology)
In addition to these Learning Communities, HWS also offers a Sustainability Learning Community. Using its physical location and the campus as a laboratory, Hobart William Smith students are able to take advantage of the entire campus to examine sustainable practices and to implement new initiatives to make the school more sustainable. With ample support from administration (the president, Mark Gearan was a charter signatory of the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment as early as 2007), the mission of the Sustainability Learning Community is to link classroom learning to real world application while improving the way the campus functions, the community thrives, that everyone benefits. It’s not required that you have a background in environmental science to be a part of this, but those who do find that they are extremely happy with this program and the freedom and flexibility it gives them.
You have a choice of 45 majors and 68 minors at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, so there is very much something for everyone here. If that’s not sufficient, you can always design your own as well. HWS has essentially eight curricular goals for their students which can be met in any of their majors. Every student must take a first year experience seminar and a writing enriched curriculum which builds on the FYE. All graduating seniors complete a capstone project, which is a culmination of their work at HWS. Ultimately though, students leaving Hobart William Smith will be able to meet what are considered the Aspirational Goals: reason quantitatively, understand scientific inquiry, critically and experientially understand the creative process, and understand and know why there are social and cultural differences and inequities. Finally, an education from HWS will give you an intellectual foundation for ethical judgement as the basis for socially responsible action in the world. In order to do all this (no mean feat), students must be encouraged to do many different activities in classes that promote the kinds of analytical and critical thinking that lead to the ability to lead a life of consequence. Students must be able to articulate questions, identify and access information that is relevant, organize and present appropriate evidence to support their positions, construct persuasive, elegant, complex, and defensible arguments, both orally and in writing, explore content, collaborate with one another, and act on their ides.
Students at Hobart William Smith are required to major and minor or double major. Majors are declared before students register for their second semester sophomore classes. Their minor or second major is not declared until early in their junior year. Students can choose between the majors and minors that are individual disciplines or from options that are interdisciplinary depending on what your desires are. In order to be successful at HWS, students must take courses that will certify that they have achieved learning in the realm of the Aspirational Goals. Every class taken is rated by how they fit in on the Aspirational Goals and what goal they cover. In this way, even with a double major, HWS students are getting an excellently well rounded education.
In addition to the regular curriculum, HWS has some interesting centers and add ons. For seniors there is an honors program that they can do as part of their senior capstone project which enriches their experience and also helps to get them career ready. For the entrepreneurs out there, Hobart William Smith’s Centennial Center host pitch competitions, an idea lab, a discovery lab, a hackathon, and a leadership institute. The Finger Lakes Institute is devoted to environmental research in conjunction with local stakeholders. Students in this institute conduct cutting edge environmental investigations that are then used to educate and promote changes in the local community and assist with the economic development of the region. The Fisher Center is dedicated to the study of gender (women and men) and social justice. It’s an interdisciplinary approach that focuses on arts, humanities, social, and natural sciences.
Hobart and William Smith Colleges offer several important merit scholarships to students who wish to attend there. The Seneca Scholarship is a full ride to HWS and given to three students who apply there. The Presidential Scholarship, for Inclusion ($35,000) is given to students who are underrepresented students: people of color, but also LGBTQ+, faith traditions, or disabled. The Elizabeth Blackwell Class of 1849 Pioneer in Science Scholarship ($30,000) is given to students with advanced coursework in science. The William Scandling ‘49 Trustee Scholarship ($25,000) is for students who show an aptitude for honors level work and research, and the Environmental Sustainability Scholarship ($25,000) is for students who are making contributions in the area of sustainability. There are others, but all of these are renewable for all four years of college.
So what’s it like to go to Hobart and William Smith Colleges? HWS is ranked 18th in the nation on Princeton Review as the happiest college campus in the US. It’s easy to see why though. The campus sprawls along the shore of Seneca Lake and instead of dorms, students live in neighborhoods. First years live by their FYE class, but all students live by neighborhood which gives it more of a home like feeling. Housing is guaranteed for all four years, and students live in doubles, triples, and quads. There are plenty of sports to choose from at HWS. Both men’s and women’s sports are robust and there is football to enjoy, along with hockey, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, sailing, and rowing. The women have all the same sports except field hockey replaces football. There are more than these as well as plenty of intramural sports as well. As far as other activities, HWS has a rich theater and arts tradition. There is also Greek Life on campus for those who want to take part in that and there are over 90 clubs as well. No matter what your interest, there is a club for it. You can sing a cappella with Perfect Third, or join the Finance Club, join the Alpine Ski Club, or the Global Health Brigade, write for The Herald, or be a Young American For Freedom, be a part of the Women’s Collective, or the Koshare Dance Collective, join the HWS Sustainable Foods Club, or the HWS Improv Society. There are plenty of things to keep you busy at HWS.
Are Hobart and William Smith Colleges for you? Are you a curious person with a desire to learn in a gorgeous setting with a fairly traditional feel? Then it could well be. HWS isn’t a place for people to hide. Classes are small and that makes it a place where you will learn even if you try to avoid it. But it’s also a place where students who haven’t been the real leaders in class before can become leaders. One thing I love about Hobart William Smith is that it takes students who haven’t seen themselves as leaders or achievers in the past and turns them into leaders and achievers. This is a school students get into, get merit money to attend, and leave knowing that they are intelligent, competent, and ready to take the world by storm. I love that about this school. You can too.
Pros:
- Learning Community Program
- Aspirational Goals Curriculum
- Gorgeous Location
- Greek Life
- Football
Cons:
- On the smallish side
- Cold in the winter!
- Hard work
- Greek Life
- Football