Division III Advising
Div III
The final stage of a Hampshire education is a two-semester project or paper done during the fourth year. In addition to finishing this major project/paper, Div III students must also complete two "advanced educational activities," one each semester. These can be upper-level courses or relevant internships, teaching assistantships, etc.
Students begin to formulate their plans for Div III during the spring of their third year, or sixth semester, in a manner similar to how they formulated Div II two years earlier. They talk with faculty 1) to find a two-person committee, one chair and one member, to oversee their Div IIIs and 2) to draw up, in collaboration with their committees, a Div III contract that describes their Div III plan. These are finalized early in the fall, or seventh, semester.
The Div III committee usually interacts with the student considerably more often than the typical Div II committee does. It might meet with the student once every other week or even, particularly in the final semester, once a week, to supervise progress on the Div III project. When the project or paper is finished, the Div III committee has a final meeting with the student, and the chair, with input from the member, writes an evaluation of the student's Div III work.