Hobart and William Smith Colleges

How Happy Are HWS Grads with Their Education?

A new report by Professor Emeritus of Sociology Wes Perkins and Jesse Whelan-Small ’24 details how satisfied HWS alumni are with their education and their lives after graduation.

by Pete Croatto

Since 1987, Professor Emeritus of Sociology Wes Perkins’ Post-Collegiate Life surveys have told the story of the social and work lives of HWS alumni.

Although there is still much ongoing research about HWS graduates’ lives, a new report written by Perkins and his former student, Jesse Whelan-Small ’24, suggests that when it comes to how most graduates feel about the value of their academic experience at HWS, they are very satisfied.

Published in 2024, “The Post-Collegiate Life Survey of Graduates of Hobart and William Smith Colleges” reports on the four surveys since 2003, which asked graduates across several generations how well HWS has prepared them for their lives and careers. The responses suggest that folks aren’t just “overwhelmingly happy” with their education, says Whelan-Small, they “are increasingly happy with it.”

Since the research began, Perkins has surveyed alumni two or three times each decade, adding one or two more graduating classes each time. “At each of the four survey time points in the past two decades, we were able to select the respondents graduating within the most recent 15-year timespan,” he explains. “This allowed us to compare over time periods what graduates of the same post-collegiate life span range retrospectively were saying about their HWS experience.”

Respondents were asked if their education at HWS gave them important skills to live in a diverse world. In the 2019-21 survey, 87 percent of alumni “strongly” or “mostly” agreed. But what’s notable, as Perkins observes and the report details, is the percentage of graduates who “strongly agreed” jumped almost eight percent between the 2003-04 and 2019-21 surveys.

Similarly, the report notes that agreement rose over time among these same comparative age cohorts that their HWS education cultivated in them an understanding of public good and public needs (from 63 percent to 83 percent).

Whelan-Small says he was very pleased by the nature of the responses “in categories across the importance of ethical judgment, the commitment to public service, the willingness and the ability to understand differences in the world. I think the fact that all those are consistently going up is a real testament that what HWS is providing is valuable, and it continues to be valuable at a time when that value might be questioned.”

Perkins, a leading expert in social norms research, never thought the project would reach its current scope. In fact, he says, “every time I did the survey, I said, ‘This is going to be the last one.’” But people kept responding. Times changed; so did the questions and the answers. The survey became a way to engage in a relationship with the respondents.

The story continues for the report’s authors. Though he retired from HWS last spring, Perkins is using the decades of research to write a book about what leads to happiness and well-being. Plenty of these “life lessons,” he says, came from his students.

Whelan-Small, who now works for the Washington, D.C. consulting firm Guidehouse, picked up an important lesson from Perkins in the course of their work together. Through the project, he realized “that it’s really not so much what you do, it’s how you do it and, I think, who you surround yourself with.”

“I don’t want to chase a paycheck; I want to be happy,” he says. “And I was lucky enough to be around someone who has literally kind of been the authoritative voice on what it takes to be happy. I think that was just really reassuring for me — and being in a community where that sort of mindset was accepted.”