Top Ranked Programs
Hamilton College's program mix is anchored in Social Sciences, with Social Sciences accounting for 30% of graduates, followed by Arts at 9% and other STEM fields at 7%. This distribution reflects the college's liberal-arts identity — a portfolio oriented toward analytical, humanistic, and policy-adjacent fields rather than the applied-professional concentrations typical of larger research universities. Across 32 programs, 5 meet Azimuth's ranking threshold, serving roughly 614 students annually. The strongest financial outcomes cluster in economics and quantitative social-science fields. Economics, with a cohort of 88 graduates, leads the institution for early-career pay, with median earnings of $130,633 four years after enrollment; Azimuth ranks the program #11 for median earnings four years after enrollment among nonprofit four-year institutions, per [how Azimuth evaluates programs](/analysis/college-program-rankings-how-to-actually-evaluate-programs/). Political Science follows with median earnings of $88,019 and a cohort of 40 graduates — Azimuth ranks it #23 for median earnings four years after enrollment among nonprofit four-year institutions. Mathematics and International Relations and National Security Studies, with median earnings of $83,211 and $64,585 respectively, round out the top-earning tier; Azimuth ranks Mathematics #45 and International Relations and National Security Studies #45 for median earnings four years after enrollment among nonprofit four-year institutions. The most-enrolled programs — Economics (88 graduates), Biology, General (41 graduates), and Political Science (40 graduates) — reflect the breadth of a liberal-arts curriculum, with Research Psychology (36 graduates) and Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services (34 graduates) rounding out the five largest fields. Several of these are grad-school-dependent pathways — particularly the natural and social sciences — where four-year earnings undercount the longer-term trajectory of graduates who continue to law, medical, or doctoral programs. The [supply and demand for college graduates](/analysis/supply-demand-map-college-degrees/) provides context for how these program families align with national labor-market trends.