Paul Smith’s College – With a gorgeous campus of over 14,000 acres, Paul Smith’s College is the only college in the Adirondack Park and is often called the College of the Adirondacks. It is located within easy distance of Lake Placid and Saranac Lake and not far from Montreal. With under 800 students, there is plenty of room for everyone to explore. Here are some of the highlights:
- Learning by doing – Paul Smith’s offers many of the traditional majors at both the associates and bachelors level but is particularly well known for its forestry and natural sciences, recreation programs, culinary arts and its business and hospitality programs. Teaching is very hands on, combining practical skills with real world application. The college utilizes its campus as its lab for many of its classes. Students also get hands on experience at the student run bakery and two on-campus training restaurants. Forestry students have the benefit of the college’s own sawmill. The professors have expertise ranging from research in Antarctica to running restaurants in high end resorts.
- Minors – There are several unusual minors which complement the majors such as craft brewing, maple production, geographic information systems and wildland firefighting.
- Green College – The Center for Sustainability makes sure that the campus is green through campus partnerships and experiential learning. Look for the solar panels throughout campus. Students and the community teamed up to make new bus shelters with “living roofs.” Students worked on stopping the aquatic invasive species spread.
- Social Life – Paul Smith’s has a tight knit community. Students take advantage of their location and many participate in or cheer on the championship snowshoeing team or the co-ed Woodsmen Team. In February, students join other Adirondackers at the East Coast’s longest running Winter carnival. The college has many of the sports that you would expect and other more unusual ones such as bass fishing, trap shooting and marathon canoeing. In the warmer months, students canoe on the lake on campus.