Notable programs
BA Economics
Colgate's flagship and one of the largest departments. Curriculum tightly aligned to Wall Street recruiting — corporate finance, financial markets, econometrics, and applied economics taught with explicit pre-professional orientation. Senior project expected. The strongest single feeder into NYC investment-banking analyst programs at Goldman, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and major boutiques.
BA International Relations
Joint major across political science, economics, and history, anchored by faculty-led off-campus study programs in Geneva (international economics and policy), London, and Cape Town. Strong placement into State Department, intelligence community, foreign policy think tanks, and international consulting. Senior thesis expected.
BA Religion
Quietly excellent department carrying Colgate's Baptist heritage forward into serious academic study of religion as a discipline — comparative religion, religious thought, and ethics taught with intellectual rigor. Strong placement into divinity school, religious studies PhD programs, and law school for students interested in religious-liberty or constitutional work.
BA Molecular Biology
Lead program within Colgate's natural sciences cluster. Genuine undergraduate research opportunities through faculty labs and the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, with summer research funding (Bristol-Myers Squibb summer fellowships and other internal funding). Strong placement into medical school, biotech industry, and PhD biology programs.
BS Computer Science (with new MS Computer Science, launched 2024)
Growing department with the 2024 launch of an MS Computer Science extending Colgate modestly into graduate STEM credentialing. Undergraduate curriculum covers algorithms, systems, theory, AI, and applied CS. Tech recruiting exists (Google, Meta, Amazon recruit) but at lower density than at LACs closer to tech hubs — students who want top-tier tech jobs often need to be assertive about direct applications.
Off-Campus Study Programs (faculty-led)
Approximately 25 Colgate-run programs in Geneva, London, Beijing, Cape Town, Wollongong, Venice, Tokyo, and other locations, with two or three Colgate professors traveling with each cohort and teaching the courses on site. Approximately two-thirds of Colgate students study off campus at some point — an unusually high participation rate for a US college — typically during junior fall or spring.
Core Curriculum
Structurally heavier on required components than peer LACs. Students take Legacies of the Ancient World (Western great-books course rooted in Colgate's Baptist intellectual heritage), Challenges of Modernity, Communities and Identities, Scientific Perspectives on the Human Mind, and global engagements coursework, alongside two semesters of writing and distribution requirements. Some students value the structured shared intellectual foundation; others find the required structure constraining.
NCAA Division I Athletics (Patriot League and ECAC)
Football, men's and women's basketball, lacrosse, and other sports compete in the Patriot League against Bucknell, Lehigh, Lafayette, Holy Cross, Boston University, and American. Hockey competes in ECAC Division I against Cornell, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, and Brown. The only top-fifteen US liberal arts college fielding D-I football. Men's basketball has made multiple recent NCAA tournament appearances.