by Sydney Piccoli ’26,
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER
Hamilton College prides itself on a self-proclaimed diverse student body, inviting students from around the world to its campus to learn from one another. The Hamilton College website states that “At Hamilton, we cel- ebrate diversity in all forms because our community benefits from the perspectives we share and the mutual respect we show one another.” However, on a given day, dozens of students joke that everyone on Hamilton’s campus is either a JOB — just outside Boston — or from the New York metropolitan area, warranting a deeper investigation into just how vast Hamil- ton’s geographic reach actually is.
The Class of 2026 hails from 35 states, with the top 10 states being California, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia. These 10 states are also some of the highest visited by Hamilton admissions officers according to data provided on the Ad- missions and Aid section of Hamilton’s website. When asked for state-by-state data for Hamilton students, Dean of Admissions John McLaughlin responded, “As a policy, we don’t provide such granular detail on each class because it can be easily misinterpreted with- out the broader context of the prospect pool, the applicant pool, the admitted population, and the enrolled class. We traditionally see a lot of interest from students in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic; however, we’re also seeing growth in parts of the South and West in line with population trends. The presence of Florida, California, and Texas in our top 10 states reflects some of these trends.”
Many of the College’s admissions of- ficers visit regional schools because it is con- venient. As John McLaughlin describes, “Lo- gistics plays a large role in our travel schedule and ability to reach schools and organizations. Staffing, available school visit times, and different time zones are big factors that determine where we can travel and how we build our itineraries during the limited amount of time that we have available to spend both in person and virtually in each region of the world.”
Explaining how Hamilton Admissions chooses which schools to visit, McLaughlin remarked, “We focus on schools with strong students, and we prioritize relationships with schools and programs that serve talented and historically underrepresented students in higher education. We have historical and current data that show where these students are located, and we use these data to inform our planning.” Despite the efforts McLaughlin de- scribed, the Hamilton College website states that Hamilton student body is 27 percent of U.S. students of color.
McLaughlin also described how students moving may muddy data on students’ homes. “For enrolled students, there are many different reporting conventions for the student’s non-Hamilton address. The answers may be different from one moment to the next based on these reporting conventions and student enrollment status.”
Some US high school students found out about Hamilton College through more informal modes. Ileana Anghel ’26 attend- ed a private school near Syracuse, NY with a student body of primarily White and Asian students belonging to the upper and middle-upper classes. Her school’s only college counselor, as well as a few teachers, were alums of Hamilton College, and a consistent number of students from her high school attended Hamilton College each year. Hamilton College visited her high school in person. As Anghel details, “People knew about Hamilton College because my school’s guidance counselor and teachers had attended Hamilton and spoke very highly of their experiences. It was widely known in my high school that Hamilton College was a place where students could succeed.”
Other high school students find out about Hamilton College through third parties, especially Questbridge, a scholarship program designed to make college admissions more ac- cessible for low-income students. Abby Jones ’26, who is from Idaho, remarked that, “I only heard about Hamilton through QuestBridge. I do not think I would have otherwise heard about Hamilton.”
Similarly, Aria Hackamack ’26, who is from Arizona, was recommended to apply through QuestBridge. “I think the lack of geo- graphic diversity is mostly just because of the reach of the name. A lot of people in this area have heard of Hamilton, but I had not heard of Hamilton until I was looking through Quest- Bridge, and I might have not even applied if I had not been like, ‘oh, this looks interesting’ and clicked on the name.”
Ashylia Sloane ’26, who hails from North Carolina, mentioned that “My high school Spanish teacher emailed me a link for Questbridge and told me to check it out. I ignored it for a while, then at some point, I looked back at the link and did some research to make sure it was legit. That’s how I found out about Hamilton.”
While many students from outside of Hamilton’s top reach states heard about the school through QuestBridge and other third parties, the school is making an effort to more consistently reach out to those students. “Our physical recruitment plans have been disrupt- ed by the COVID pandemic over the last three years. During this period, we’ve enhanced our virtual opportunities and connected with thousands of students through live and asynchro- nous virtual programming,” remarked Mc- Laughlin. He continued, “We find our virtual programming provides many students with the opportunity to learn more about Hamilton. We visited nearly twice as many high schools through virtual engagements than we had ever visited in person in a single year. We’ve engaged with hundreds of schools, and thou- sands of students in places and spaces we had not been able to visit before the advent of virtual opportunities.”
Students who are not from the North- east must consider travel logistics and expenses more seriously, negatively impacting their mental health. As Analisa Lona ’26, from Missouri, details, “If I were to just live in New York, packing my stuff up for the summer would not be that hard. My family would just drive down, get all my stuff and take it back, and then we’ll do the same thing coming back. But with being out of state or being so far away in Kansas City, my mom has to fly up here ahead of time to then rent a car to then help me pack up all my stuff and take it to a storage unit.” Lona also described transportation difficulties, “I have to try to coordinate my flight with the time that Hamilton’s transportation can take me there. I had to take the 1:00 a.m. transportation from Syracuse back here when I could have gotten an earlier flight and be back here like immediately. Sometimes when I cannot align the flight with the shuttle or with their transportation I have to get an Uber to the train station.”
Arshdeep Kaur ’26, from Indiana, added that “Going home for breaks, buying a storage unit, it’s a lot harder being further away…My other friends that live in the Northeast can just go back home all the time. I’m not able to afford the frequent trips back home as much as my other friends are because their houses are a lot closer.” There are also special events and hol- idays that students living in the non-tri-state area cannot go home and celebrate, leading to feelings of personal isolation. Kaur expressed “I’m a Punjabi. There were a lot of holidays that happened that I wish I could go home and celebrate, but there’s no one here to celebrate with. So that made me feel a little sad.”
In cases of emergencies, living far away proves difficult for other students to return home or even access home virtually. Eva Jo Mcilraith ’26, from Oregon, describes that “My first semester, I had a lot of family problems that were happening at home with health. It was really hard for that to happen while I was here. I feel like I could not be there to support my family.”
Jones mentioned that “I never get to go home, ever. I was here for spring break because it’s a thousand dollars to fly back and forth between Boise and here. I wish it was a drive away, it’s like a seven-hour flight, not adding in layovers, but it’s just not affordable. It can feel really isolating.” Hackamack mentioned that the time difference also poses difficulties, “It’s hard to make sure everything lines up when you want to talk to home be- cause of the time difference. They might be sleeping or I might be sleeping. It’s especially hard when I have something pressing to talk about or I need advice.”
Although it only happens rarely for some students, knowing people from the same state can alleviate feelings of isolation and stress. Lona has only encountered two people from Missouri, one of whom is also Questbridge. She described an instance where she recognized that a Hamilton student had a sticker on her laptop referring to a museum in Kansas City where there’s a giant birdie on the front lawn. “I saw that on her laptop and some other references for the city. And I’m like, ‘Oh my God, are you from Kansas City?’ She says yeah, and that she’s only met one other person on this campus that’s from Kansas City. It’s a nice experience when you find someone who relates to where you’re from.” She continued, “We have just a nice, ‘hey, we’re from the same state,’ so we kind of get where different challenges arise when it comes to traveling. It’s like when you meet someone who has similar interests to you — you feel recognized and that you have a shared experience.”
Jones describes Hamilton’s demographics as “definitely majority tri-state area. I have only encountered people from my state once, and that was during orientation when they did the map game where people from specific states all got together, and one of the people from my state was an orientation leader.” Hackamack added, “I never see people from my state. It kind of sucks because I don’t really have anyone to talk to about when I am missing home. I don’t miss feeling like my hair was on fire or like I was going sweat to death. But I miss the street tacos and being able to go to Mexico whenever I wanted to.” Hackamack continues, saying that “It’s sad because I do not really get to talk with people about that experience because everyone from New York has always been closer to Canada than they will ever will be to Mexico. And even when people are like, ‘oh yeah, I’ve been to Mexico,’ they’ve been to Cancún.”
Mcilraith mentioned that, “I have encountered people from my state, but they are all from the same really rich neighborhood in Oregon. If you talk to anyone from Oregon, there’s at least a 50% chance that they’re from Lake Oswego here. A lot of them come from the same high school, so I’m assuming that there’s probably a counselor there that has a connection with Hamilton.” However, they expressed feeling a connection to out-of-state students. “I feel like we share a lot of experiences, like where are you going to put your stuff in storage when you leave? How’s that gonna work? Complaining about airports and how to get through Syracuse and how to get to Albany, and all the shuttles.”
Hamilton still can prove to be a campus where people from different states can come together. Lona concludes that “To peo- ple who are from the tri-state area, I still think it’s pretty cool to meet them here. It’s not the same shared experience or the same relation as with people from Missouri, but that’s the reason why I came to Hamilton to begin with, to meet new people.”
