Jesse Gross ’22, like many students, was excited when he opened his acceptance letter to Hamilton, but his excitement quickly turned into confusion when he realized he would not be admitted to Hamilton until January. Said Gross, “I saw the confetti and I was like oh I got in, then I was like ok I should probably read it and I was like January? What? I didn’t even know that was an option.” Gross is one of around forty students who are accepted to Hamilton each year and instructed that they will not be enrolled until January. These students are colloquially referred to as “Jans” and are united in an experience that is unique to the larger student body.
Interviews with Jans of all class years revealed some trends. Several Jans reported that there is a discrepancy between the way that Fall programs are advertised to students and the experiences that students have during the program. Second, January admits said they do not feel as welcome on campus when they arrive in the winter as admissions claims they will. And finally that the lack of need-blind status for January admits leads them being defined by harmful stereotypes.
Each year, approximately 40 to 45 students are admitted to Hamilton College through January Admission. January Admits, commonly referred to as “Jans,” are students who arrive at Hamilton during the spring semester of their first-year, after spending their fall pursuing a credit or noncredit option of their choosing. The most common choice is the Arcadia London Program, but many Jans choose programs in other countries such as the SEA Semester for Environmental Studies and the School for Field Studies.
Arrival on Campus: Expectations vs. Reality
The arrival of 45 new students on campus in January offers students admitted in the Fall a chance to make new friends. A chance that students often take according to Vice President of Enrollment Monica Inzer, who told
The Spectator,
that “Hamilton’s ‘Jans’ are an integral and vibrant part of our student body, and have historically been welcomed enthusiastically into the community each winter by their fall classmates and upper class counterparts.”
Some January admits who spoke with
The Spectator
characterized their experiences in a different light. George Diebel ’23 said, “[the admissions office] led us to believe that we would be not only welcomed to campus, but extremely welcomed to campus. We’d be the new interesting people, and that it would be easier for us to meet new people. While everyone was open, there was still some stigma against Jans that the administration didn’t prepare us for. Everyone had their friend groups already…It felt like we were kind of butting our way into campus.”
Dylan Tarzian ’24 also felt that socially, admissions’ vision was not entirely accurate for his experience. He explains, “When I came to Hamilton I felt as if I didn’t know as much about the school as I should have. I think this school is very academically challenging, but the main concerns for me were the social aspects. What I expected socially was not the same as reality.”
Tarzian, who arrived on campus in Feb. 2021 recognized that COVID regulations played a role in this lack of social interaction, but also blamed admissions for these troubles, “I would love to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I think there were some aspects not shared. Because of COVID it was hard for us to see the direction that the Jan program was going in, and I felt I was left in the dark.” Tarzian told
The Spectator
that “If I had the choice to do it again, I would’ve waited or tried to come in during the Fall, or even taken a gap year altogether.”
In contrast, Gross felt that there was nothing wrong with admissions’ advertisement of January admissions, “I would say there was nothing dishonest about what they told me. It all went exactly how I pictured it would go.”
Natalie Guterman ’25, a Jan currently in London, heard from older Jans “not to be naive and to know that it is challenging to come back to campus where the freshman class has already had the whole semester to bond. But I’m hoping that [by] joining clubs, sports and even just classes, you meet new people.”
Alexia Assimakopoulous ’22 echoed a similar sentiment, “I had a tough transition the first month, but I realized that I wasn’t the only one who was struggling. I wasn’t the only [Jan] who didn’t have everything figured out.” Assimikopoulous put a positive spin on the experience, however, saying “A lot of people probably faced a weird transition anyways [in the fall], it’s just that I went through it a semester later due to being a Jan.”
Some Jans tend to find their place on the hill eventually. Assimakopoulous said that joining the crew team provided a quick way to make friends. Assimakopoulos “went through rush and joined a sorority, and made tons of new friends that way.”
The London Program
Several Jans reported that the academic rigor of the London program ill-prepared them for classes at Hamilton. In 2018, 35 out of 45 Jans participated in the London Program, while 10 students “worked, traveled, or chose to pursue other educational opportunities,” according to a
Spectator
article written at the time. Although the courses Jans take in London are automatically denoted as pass/fail, the academic sufficiency of these programs is ensured by Inzer. “Each of these programs has been vetted by our Off-Campus Study office to ensure the academic rigor and experiential program is on par with what Hamilton would want and expect for our first-year students.”
Maya Mathews ’23 said regarding the classes at Arcadia, “It was so easy, I don’t think I studied ever and I only wrote papers at night.” Guterman, who is currently in London, echoes this sentiment, “I definitely have heard a lot of stuff from past Jans that when you come to Hamilton it’s a lot of work and sort of kicks your butt since I’ve heard Arcadia is a little bit easy.”
These Jans said, however, that the academic ease of Arcadia does not take away from its value as a program overall. In fact, what it lacks in rigor it makes up for in experientialism. Mathews said “I had a wonderful experience, I spent my weekends traveling and it was amazing.” Diebel expressed a similar sentiment when he stated, “It was awesome, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. I personally enjoyed traveling to see my family in Bristol and Rural England. This allowed me to see all of England.”
The value of being in London goes beyond the academics and extracurricular experiences for these students. Guterman said “I do feel like it’s preparing me for Hamilton. Even the responsibility for grocery shopping, the switch in balancing being an adult and living and taking care of yourself.”
Experiences with the Arcadia program are not uniform. Especially for the Class of 2024, whose Fall experiences were affected by COVID regulations. Tarzian decided not to travel to London during this time. Instead, he participated in the Arcadia London Program through Zoom. “The classes were different because I was taking them from my bedroom and they were only about two hours a day with minimal homework. I didn’t find myself doing much. Overall it was fine, I don’t know if I’d call it a good experience, but it was just a matter of playing the hand I was dealt,” he explained.
When asked if his fall experience prepared him either academically or socially for Hamilton, Tarzian claimed, “It was very hard to pay attention on Zoom. “I felt that I was understimulated academically compared to the workload I have now. I didn’t make any friends directly from the online experience, I started making friends once I actually got to campus.”
The effects of COVID-19 on Jans’s fall experiences is not limited to the Class of 2024. Although the Class of 2025’s Jans can experience London at its fullest this semester, the Jans in London are still required to wear masks while in class, and the uncertainty of travel during this time impacted how some viewed this opportunity. Guterman explained this when asked how COVID-19 affected her decision to go to London, “I would say maybe, since when I first got the decision I wasn’t sure if traveling was going to even be an option, and if I wasn’t able to be a part of a program with other Hamilton students I wasn’t sure it was something that I wanted to do.”
Need-Aware Admissions
According to the Arcadia London Center website, the Arcadia London Program costs $59,160. Students participating in this program are ineligible for financial aid from Hamilton in the Fall “because they are not yet enrolled [at Hamilton],” according to Inzer. Inzer told
The Spectator
, that “some of our partner programs offer financial assistance in varying degrees, and students seeking financial aid have been creative in assembling and creating fall experiences that not only fit with their academic and personal goals, but also with their family’s budget.”
The Admission’s office is need-aware for January Admits, meaning that their financial situations are known to admissions while they make their decisions on whether or not to defer students to January admission. Hamilton is need-blind in nearly every other context.
Inzer wrote in a 2018 Letter to the Editor published in
The Spectator,
“Our financial aid budget is extremely generous (roughly $40 million this year), but it is not limitless. Thus, Hamilton is not need-blind in admission decisions for our Jans.”
The Spectator
discussed this issue in 2018 with an article titled, “January Admits Not Granted Need Blind Admission,” which stated, “Although 36 percent of the Class of 2021 identify as students of color or international students (many of which are Canadian), only 15 percent of this year’s Jans identify similarly; 72 percent identify as white.”
As
The Spectator
mentions in the 2018 article, the need aware policy “gives administrators the power to choose students partially based upon financial situation, effectively damaging the prospects of students whose families cannot pay full tuition, room and board, and fees attendance; such fees currently total $66,170.”
This phenomenon has, according to Jans
The Spectator
spoke with, created a stereotype amongst the larger student body about Jans. As Diebel explained, “I heard that students on campus thought Jans were ‘rich white and dumb,’ like that was the stigma. I know that my fellow Jans also heard the same thing, so much so that when people were trying to make new friends they would not mention that they were Jans so people didn’t think differently of them.”
Alexia Assimakopoulous ’22 echoed this sentiment: “There’s the stereotype on campus that Jans are not as smart as other students because of their January admission students and then there is also another stereotype that Jans are partiers because the London program is notoriously light on work and heavy on freetime.”
“There’s the stereotype on campus that Jans are not as smart as other students because of their January admission students…The Jan name is often dragged through the mud… and that made me feel really shitty about identifying myself as a Jan.”
The Spectator
requested statistics from Monica Inzer on the demographic information of January admits but received no response on the matter. However, a resource called the Common Data Set (CDS) is available to the public, with statistics on many colleges in the U.S., including SAT scores, GPAs, diversity and financial aid. As Inzer mentions in a
U.S. News
article titled “How to Find Admissions Statistics for College,” “the Common Data Set offers a chance to explore college data in an unvarnished and consistent way.” However, as mentioned in the article, the CDS offers “only a fraction of the information.”
The Spectator
analyzed the CDS for the 2020–2021 academic year at Hamilton, yet there is no specific data in the document referring to January Admits. The CDS instructs that Hamilton “Provide numbers of undergraduate students for [each racial/ethnic category] as of the institution’s official fall reporting date of as of October 15, 2021.” Reports from this date do not include January Admits who are not officially enrolled at Hamilton at the time. Because of how this data is reported, the 2018
Spectator
article notes, “These statistics make the student body appear more culturally diverse than it actually is.”
Conflicting Feelings Upon Acceptance
Jans, like any other student, are excited to be admitted. This initial excitement leads to hesitation for many Jans when they first receive the news that they will join the rest of their classmates in January. “I actually applied to not be a Jan. I’m pretty sure I clicked the no to January button. When I got the news it definitely complicated my decision,” explained Guterman.
Despite this confusion, January admission is not an accidental or arbitrary phenomenon. Colleges commonly deploy this option to fill empty slots in the Spring, a time when students often study abroad. In a 2013
New York Times
piece on January admission, Scott G. Chrysler Jr, a college counselor in Louisiana, puts the logic of January admission in simple terms “An empty seat is not generating any income.”
Inzer explained Hamilton’s process for choosing Jans by saying, “Hamilton’s January admits are students for whom we run out of fall spots but would love to see in our community. They are admitted because of their tremendous academic potential and compelling personal qualities, but also because of their strong interest in Hamilton, demonstrated independence and intellectual curiosity that lead us to believe they might embrace this opportunity and make good use of their fall semester.”
Many Jans desired a common introduction to college, did not understand what set them apart from other admitted students and initially felt dejected by the news that they were January admits. “I was a bit turned away from Hamilton and the Jan program because it wasn’t traditional,” Mathews explained.
“I didn’t ask to be a Jan, I was very surprised when I opened my acceptance letter and saw that I was accepted for January. At first I was upset. I was blindsided and didn’t know what to think. It was different and took me about two weeks or so to accept it and start looking into what Hamilton had to offer for Jans,” said Diebel.
Initial reactions vary when faced with this opportunity. Gross expressed excitement after learning of this decision, “Pretty quickly I was pretty psyched [for it to be] January because I realized I could get credit for doing something [else] and seven semesters on campus is plenty of time.”
Inzer acknowledged the discrepancy between the admissions office’s vision for Jans and their personal worries, “January admission may not be ideal for all who are offered this option, but it is a full offer of admission (unlike a spot on Hamilton’s wait list, by contrast) and, therefore, we do not encourage Jans to appeal the decision.” For those who bind themselves to Hamilton by applying Early Decision, some leeway exists. As Inzer explains, “Early Decision candidates who are offered January admission are released from the binding ED agreement and have until May 1 to make their decision so that they have time to compare our offer to more traditional acceptances they might receive.”
Alternative Fall Experiences: From Ecuador to Cambodia
Hamilton College’s January Admissions Explained page claims, “Hamilton ‘Jans’ have done virtually anything and everything in the fall, from community service and travel to outdoor adventures and full-time work.”
Faced with the uncertainty of COVID regulations, Brogan Deem-Ranzetta ’24 exemplified the diversity of Jan adventures during the fall. When asked what he did during the fall of his first-year, Brogan stated, “I did a bunch of different things; first I did an online internship which lasted a couple weeks. I looked at different marine environments based in Greece, and made reports on the information. I also traveled to the Galapagos Islands and Puerto Rico with two different programs called Projects Abroad and Global Works. There I did some community service work such as working at a turtle sanctuary, cleaning beaches and rebuilding a house for a family who lost theirs in a hurricane. I also got to explore the islands with the people in my group.”
Although he did not receive college credit, Deem-Ranzetta still felt that his experiences with these programs were valuable. When asked whether he felt his fall experiences prepared him for coming to Hamilton, Deem-Ranzetta responded, “Definitely. It was my first time traveling abroad alone and I gained a lot of independence. I felt a lot more confident as a result, [as] having to improvise in different situations and meet new people made me feel a lot better about myself. I definitely think I changed as a person in a really positive way.”
Gross had a similarly positive experience with his program. As he explained, “I participated in the School for Field Studies in Cambodia; I had a great experience, it was a college program for environmental studies and biology majors, and so the main focus was field work. We looked at insect taxonomy in the northern region, my focus was weevils and I ended up catching two specimens of this insect that hadn’t been caught since 1909.”
Despite having a positive experience with his program, Gross felt that he was somewhat excluded by the rest of the Jans once he came to Hamilton since he did not go to London. Regarding this he stated, “I would say I was not really a part of the Jan group, because the Jans sort of form their own identity as a London group…I wasn’t really prepared for what college social life is.” Gross also responded positively when asked if his fall experience prepared him to come to Hamilton,“I felt prepared for Hamilton, I felt the program was rigorous and I actually felt that when I took my first bio class here that it was below a lot of what I had to do there.”
While Jans seem to enjoy their fall experiences whether in London or another program, there is certainly a struggle that comes with arriving at Hamilton in January that is ill-mentioned by admissions. As Diebel explains, “While everyone was open, there was still some stigma against Jans that the administration didn’t prepare us for. Everyone had their friend groups already, but admissions said that things would be different. It felt like we were kind of butting our way into campus, and admissions made it seem like things would be easier.”
