Students arriving at Hobart and William Smith Colleges for the first time this week received advice from NPR’s Laura Sydell including a charge to take advantage of the Colleges’ study abroad program.
“Expose yourself to people who are not like you and understand them.”
The 2018 edition of the Princeton Review’s “The Best 382 Colleges” is out and it ranks HWS the top study abroad program in the country. Robb Flowers is the Vice President for Campus Life at HWS.
“We believe that’s an integral part of the education that Hobart and William Smith Colleges can offer. It’s an integral part of what a liberal arts education is and ought to be. For us, this ranking, it’s important and is reflective of the hard work that our staff and our global education office have done for many years.”
The program offers more than 50 destinations on six continents. Well over half of HWS students will formally study abroad during their time at the colleges.
“We also are in a world where that capacity to be outside of Geneva, outside of New York, outside of the United States is ever more important. We recognize that that is the education we can offer that is perhaps different than some other institutions. Our students value that because they understand that that is reflective of the world into which they’ll go once they graduate from the Colleges.”
The top ranking came after the Colleges’ study abroad program was ranked 7th in last year’s edition of the Princeton Review. HWS was also ranked 18th in having the happiest students and 18th in best student-rated professors.