5 /5 Mark Haas: A sleeper education and experience. The people, activities and education were all good but it was the combination the created a foundation for the rest of my life. Just as alumni from 40-50 years prior to my class told us at reunion when we were finishing our freshman year (advice we didn’t appreciate at the time), Colgate lays out a way of thinking more than a particular set of disciplinary skills.
Teaching was superior (in 80-90% of courses) to my years at Harvard, something I hear from other grads. But it was the conversations, arguments and debates with classmates from diverse backgrounds that stick with you. Yes, this is a student body that is largely upper middle class and dominated from Northeast states, but what these students shared (at least during my time there, graduating in 1976) was independence, curiosity and intellectual abilities (again, not everyone and as appropriate for 18-22 year olds).
Finally, as with every experience, you get out of it what you put not it. I’ve never found a college graduate who didn’t regret not taking advantage of more opportunities. Colgate has more opportunities than anyone can capture, and way more today than when I attended.
