Upstate Visits - Day 2

The View from the Admissions Office, HWS.

The middle day brought us to Hobart and William Smith Colleges and SUNY Oswego.

Hobart and William Smith are actually two colleges (one for men and one for women) that operate on the coordinate system - meaning they have one campus and one office of admission but issue separate diplomas and have different mascots and school colors. For them, they see it as an advantage of being able to keep traditions from both schools and allow for double the number of leadership positions for students (each has their own student government, etc).

Hobart and William Smith Colleges are located at the edge of Lake Seneca, one of the Finger Lakes, and let me start by saying the view of the lake from their Admissions Office is absolutely stunning. The Wegman's chocolate chip cookies they give away there aren't too shabby either. An HWS education is rooted in the liberal arts. Instead of a core curriculum or firm distribution requirements, students are asked to complete 8 goals by the time they graduate. These goals can be reached by way of classes but they can also be reached through experiences and extracurriculars. This allows for students to shape their education with the freedom to take classes they want, but without going 100% to an open curriculum. Approximately 60% of students study abroad, just one of the ways they prepare students to lead lives of consequence (that's their tagline).

On our HWS tour we passed by a bulletin board with little tabs on a map for every place students had internships right now. This is a close up of the Northeast. They seem to have it covered :)

That afternoon, we headed farther north to visit SUNY Oswego.

Oswego

Another lakeside campus, this time along Lake Ontario, was our next stop: SUNY Oswego. Something felt different about this SUNY campus. A large part of this 'feel' is the facilities. Almost all of the campus has been renovated or rebuilt in recent years. That means you are walking through many crisp hallways, creative architecture, and technologically up to date spaces.

Is this what you pictured when you think of SUNY?

Well, that's Oswego.

Hockey is a big focal point here (no surprise there) and yes, you need to be ready for cold winters if you enroll. But, they also make a concerted effort to connect buildings and allow for travel between spaces without going outdoors for too long (same strategy as University of Rochester, though not via underground tunnels). I'm so glad I had the chance to see this campus. I was really impressed and thing it just goes to show the diversity that New York State has to offer.

PS - Our namesake also had the chance to visit this place