Academic Opportunities

We believe college should help students find direction. Compass is our unique approach to hands-on learning and preparing men to compete for top jobs and graduate programs. How? By helping every student navigate his future through guided access to internships, study abroad, research, service learning, and active classroom experiences.

Men benefit from learning by doing, and Compass requires every student to take three experiential learning courses from a broad menu of options. 

The political economy program encourages students to investigate the relationship between political structures and social outcomes. Our goal is to provide opportunities for students who have an interest in the rationale and effects of public policy to develop the research, reasoning and communication skills necessary to prepare them for graduate programs and "idea" careers. By sponsoring a progressive series of programs from public lectures and reading groups to writing workshops and student research grants we create a community where students can explore and develop their passion for ideas.

Hampden-Sydney College has cooperative relationships with renowned institutions so we can offer you additional curricular opportunities, including visiting student programs, education consortiums, and exchanges.

The Flemming Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation encourages student and faculty creativity and equips students with the skills and knowledge necessary to pursue entrepreneurial ideas. It promotes entrepreneurial innovation in our students and provides them the experience, skills and connections necessary to go from ideation to implementation. The program brings successful entrepreneurs to campus, sponsors workshops in the practical aspects of running a business and connects students with entrepreneurial mentors.

Hampden-Sydney College provides superb undergraduate preparation grounded in the breadth and depth of a liberal arts education. It goes a step further by allowing you to leverage the College's connections - formal and informal - with renowned graduate programs in economics and business, engineering, and medicine.

The Honors Program is designed for the student who has given evidence of a high degree of intellectual curiosity, independence of thought, excitement about learning, and appreciation of knowledge - for the student who brings out the best in his fellow students and his teachers alike. Participation in Honors work is limited to recipients of honors scholarships and to students who apply for membership in the program.

Hampden-Sydney College values the study abroad experience and endorses a wide array of programs in over 30 countries. In addition to the College's own academic study-abroad programs, Hampden-Sydney students are eligible to participate and earn academic credits in approved foreign-study programs sponsored by other colleges or educational organizations.

Students may receive academic credit for internship-related work produced in their academic fields of study. Such internships combine work done normally in the summer with on-going course work and the production of a substantial research paper on a related issue.

Experience summertime at Hampden-Sydney while studying outside of the traditional academic year. May Term offers a variety of courses on- and off-campus as well as online. You may also choose to study abroad or away during May Term. For more information about that program, visit the Office of Global Education's H-SC Programs Abroad.

Students may have the opportunity to work side by side with professors on research projects that are inaccessible to students at larger universities. Hands-on research allows Hampden-Sydney men to spend a significant part of their education outside the classroom working on real problems and gaining invaluable experience.

Hampden-Sydney prepares men to be leaders. Our students are given opportunities to explore, practice, and hone their leadership skills so they can go on to become tomorrow's CEOs, business founders, military officers, college presidents, and civic and political leaders. The Wilson Center for Leadership in the Public Interest hosts lectures, forums, symposia, and excursions that help develop effective and ethical leaders. With direction from current and former leaders, students gain an understanding of the challenges confronting the United States and the world.