Hobart William Smith Colleges Top Questions

What is your overall opinion of this school?

John

Some of the greatest things about Hobart include: -The beautiful campus -The variety of people -The variety of athletics and intramural activities -It's environmental awareness -The personable faculty -The small class sizes If I could change one thing, it would be the presence of academic goals. At a liberal arts college, the goals tend to cause students to take bull-shit classes just because the goals tell them to. They often lower the student's gpa and tends not to diversify the student as they are closed minded to and generally pissed off about the class. I believe that Hobart is just the right size, but some say that it is too small as you often are forced to see people on a regular basis that you really don't want to see. Often times, when they hear that I attend HWS, people say that they have never heard of it. I spend most of my time in my room or doing things involving football, but that is not typical of a student here. When the weather is nice, students spend all day playing Frisbee or enjoying the sun on the quad. There are myriad talks to go to regarding almost anything that you could be interested in too. Geneva is definitely a college town and the economy thrives on the presence of the college students. There is not a ton to do, but most large chains are present. Geneva is close to several larger areas, including Rochester, Syracuse and Ithaca. The administration here is extremely involved with the students. As a transfer student from Clarkson University, though, I found that the financial aid department was not quite as personable as at other institutions. There is a great amount of school pride on campus. The turn out for sports is always great and school apparel is warn with extreme frequency. At HWS, there is a divide between Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Though we share the same campus, classes, dorms, etc.., we are technically two separate schools. We have deans of Hobart and deans of William Smith. Also, we have separate student governments. The men's athletic teams are the Hobart Statesmen and the women's teams are the William Smith Herons. But, this is about as far as the separation goes. The most frequent student complaint is the cost of attendance.