Hamilton College
- Transportation

No Complaints

The Jitney is the backbone of transportation on campus. It's a 12 or 14 person van, but 20 drunk people usually just pile in anyway, and it's a remarkably cordial process to find a seat. It will take you everywhere you need to go: the bars, the grocery store, and the liquor store.

90% of your friends will have cars however, so you only need to take the Jitney late night when everyone is drunk. Yes, it can get a little annoying sometimes waiting a few minutes for the Jitney, but no one's complaining.

For big off-campus parties, the fraternities and sororities sponsor large buses for these events. The school also provides great transportation for ski trips every wednesday, etc.

Jitney and...Jitney.

Hamilton has a Jitney service that a decent amount of students take advantage of, especially freshman because they aren't allowed to have cars on campus. The jitney randomly cancels, and I don't have much experience with it, but it's there. A lot of people have cars after the first year, and that's the main form of transportation. Remember: you're in central New York. There aren't many places to go that you'd need transportation.

Isolated on Top of a Hill

Hamilton is located on top of a fairly significant hill. It isn't fun to walk down into town, although people do. It is much nicer to have a car on campus, which you are allowed to do starting sophomore year. Bikes, again because of the hill, are useful on campus, but impractical for getting into town. There is a van service called the Jitney that takes students to the grocery store, the mall, the movie theater, etc, so not having a car is certainly doable.

The Utica train station is about 20 minutes away. The Syracuse airport is about an hour. It's not convenient, but it's certainly doable.

If you are here for the summer, you NEED to have a car, or know someone who does. Otherwise you cannot get to the grocery store, and there is no meal plan over the summer.

The campus itself is very small, and you can walk anywhere within fifteen minutes, so again, a bike can be nice but isn't necessary.

There is a travel scholarship for students who come from far away to offset some of the cost of traveling to and from school.