Welcome to ‘freakishly friendly’ Hamilton!

After new students checked in, orientation leaders and community advisors rushed to help them and their families unpack their vehicles and haul boxes, bags, refrigerators, and treasures from home into the residence halls.

The Class of ’30 enjoyed a welcome lunch in a tent on Dunham Green before gathering with their families in the Field House for the president’s and deans’ greeting. Tepper welcomed them saying, “This day is everything that encapsulates Hamilton — a beautiful joyful place. Hamilton is freakishly friendly, and this day is the embodiment of that.”

Tepper acknowledged that “Yes, it’s hard, but we have built this place to support you.” He urged members of the class to “take a picture now to remember this, because in four years you’ll have made it something different.”

Nathan Goodale, associate provost and professor of anthropology, welcomed the class on behalf of the faculty. He shared his own experience of moving across the country from Washington State 19 years earlier. “I had no idea how much this place would end up shaping me. It turned out fine. More than fine, actually. Not having it all figured out, being free to explore your interests and who you are, is sort of the point of what happens here,” Goodale said.

Goodale noted that the newest class is arriving at an interesting moment in the College’s history. Since Tepper came to Hamilton two years ago, the campus has been through a process called Aspirational Design, with community members asking together what a Hamilton education should look like in the future. “Much of what came out of that work will take shape during your four years here,” Goodale said.

“Faculty are building Co-Labs: clusters of courses designed together by professors from different disciplines and taken by the same small cohort of students around a shared theme. … We’re creating Impact Terms, intensive instructor-led experiences … that put you in conversation with partner organizations, or in the field with faculty. And through the new Hamilton Integrated Learning Lab (HILL Fellowship), developed with the Griffiss Institute, students spend 10 weeks in the summer on substantive project work inside the innovation economy of Central New York. The idea behind all of it is the same,” Goodale explained. “The world’s hardest problems don’t respect department boundaries, and what you learn here shouldn’t stop at the edge of a classroom.”

Vice President for Enrollment and Dean of Admission John McLaughlin said the Class of 2030 comes from one of the largest and most selective applicant pools in Hamilton’s history: roughly 8,000 applicants, or 17 applicants for every one seat in the class.