Academics
THE DESTINATION IS CLEAR;
THE JOURNEY IS ANYTHING BUT.
Whether you know exactly where you’re headed or arrive here undecided, your future will unfold through an exciting string of explorations.
As you sample a wide range of topics, you’ll join forces with inspiring minds, build powerful skills and amass a collection of meaningful experiences — all while chasing your interests, honing your talents and discovering your untapped superpowers.
Academic Programs
Every major is a different lens. They’re all focused on the same world.
You’ll explore and grapple with the world’s most pressing challenges — previewing emerging issues, technologies and ways of thinking. These are the spaces in which the better world will be discovered.
Your professors and guides will help you solve problems, find opportunities and make connections as you combine experiences and insights to discover your true interests and build a life that connects to your highest potential.
They’ll be there with you at every step — but the path you carve will be your own.
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Faculty
Respected scholars and scientists, HWS professors are also devoted educators whose ability to teach, guide and collaborate with students is enhanced by knowing them so well as individuals.
Meet Your Guides -
The Curriculum
One required course, eight educational goals and a capstone experience set you up for success by developing the skills you’ll need to build your brightest future.
Plan Your Path -
Advising and Mentorship
From your first-year adviser to the professor guiding your research, your writing center fellows to the alums who reach back to guide your best path forward, mentorship is a proud HWS tradition and community-wide commitment.
Learn the Ropes -
Research and Honors
Join a professor’s lab as a paid assistant, collect water samples on an HWS-owned research vessel or launch an independent Honors thesis project — or try all of these.
Dive Deep -
Experiential Education
The HWS centers for research, action and thought create constant opportunities to explore your interests, expand your sense of the world and prepare for your future. You’ll gain meaningful, hands-on experiences that will distinguish your résumé and prepare you for impact and flexibility as you begin your life after college.
Jump In -
Office of the Deans
Sometimes, the very best way to think about your future is to be fully immersed in your present. The Office of the Deans is here to help you make the most of your HWS education, facilitating connections among the academic, residential and co-curricular worlds, and helping you navigate challenges and opportunities.
Chart Your Course -
The Library
At the heart of campus is the Warren Hunting Smith Library, where students gather to study, perform research and get assistance from trained librarians. Also here are the Information Technology Help Desk, the Digital Learning Team and the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Study Smart -
Center for Teaching and Learning
Enhance your writing, improve your study habits, prep for class presentations, showcase your academic research, access disability resources, and along the way become the best version of yourself as a student and scholar.
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Intersession Programs
Get ahead of your academic goals by taking a course during J-term, Maymester or Summer Session. Through a condensed schedule, you'll study alongside a small cohort of peers with a dedicated faculty mentor.
Here, the classroom is just the first step in a chain reaction that leads to a better future. You’ll complement broad, interdisciplinary study with hands-on learning experiences.
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Become a global citizen by joining the 60% of HWS students who choose to study abroad. Participate in more than 50 programs across six continents.
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Deepen your learning and make a difference in the lives of others at the local, regional and global level.
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The Finger Lakes Institute promotes environmental research and shares information about the Finger Lakes Region while fostering environmental stewardship and sustainable development.
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Join fellow students, faculty and visiting scholars for dialogue, research and collaborations that foster equity and mutual respect across all gender identities.
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Published twice yearly and distributed internationally, the Seneca Review was co-founded and continues to be edited by HWS faculty.
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Work closely with established writers-in-residence in a workshop or tutorial setting.
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The Stern Family Forum supports public discussions with notable guests who bring nuance to difficult, sometimes controversial subjects.