Paul Smith's College
Paul Smith’s College is a private college in Paul Smiths, New York, in the Adirondack Mountains. It opened in 1946 after a bequest from Phelps Smith, founder of Paul Smith’s Hotel. The school started with forestry and resort management programs and now offers associate degrees, bachelor’s degrees, and a master’s degree.
The campus is very large, covering about 14,000 to 14,200 acres around Lower St. Regis Lake, making it one of the biggest college campuses in the world. About 600 students attend each year (roughly 582 undergraduates and 15 graduates).
Housing is on campus. Freshmen live in Lydia Martin Smith Hall, Currier Hall, and Lakeside Hall; transfers stay in Franklin Hall; upperclassmen live in several other halls, including Overlook Hall, which opened in 2011 as a green, LEED-certified dorm.
Key buildings include Pickett Hall, Cantwell Hall, Freer Science Hall, The Joan Weill Adirondack Library, a campus sawmill, the Saunders Sports Complex, The Joan Weill Student Center, and the Paul Smith’s College VIC. The campus has two student-run restaurants, the Ganzi: Palm Training Restaurant and A.P. Smith’s Bakery, which are open to the public, plus the Lakeside Dining Hall run by Sodexo.
Students can join many clubs focused on outdoor life, forestry, ecology, and community service, such as fishing and hunting, Adventure Sports, Society for Ecological Restoration, wildlife groups, and Esports.
Athletics are called the Bobcats. The college competes in 14 sports in the Yankee Small College Conference (regional) and the USCAA (national). Sports include basketball, cross country, ice hockey, rugby, soccer, volleyball, alpine skiing, biathlon, bass fishing, golf, Nordic skiing, snowshoeing, trap shooting, and woodsmen. The Saunders Sports Complex houses a gym and dance studio; a 32-foot climbing wall opened in 2010. The school has notable achievements, including winning the 2024 US Biathlon National Championships and the 2022 Nordic Ski National Championship. In 2024, both the men’s and women’s soccer teams reached the USCAA National Tournament, and the women’s hockey team won the inaugural AAU College Hockey Women’s National Championship.
History and changes include a 2015 proposal to rename the college after Joan Weill that would have violated the founding bequest, so the name remained Paul Smith’s College. In 2023, the college explored a merger with FedCap Rehabilitation Services, but the plan was not pursued. In 2024, the dining hall was renamed Morehouse Hall to honor Stephen Morehouse, an early Paul Smith’s Hotel employee and Civil War veteran.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 18:20 (CET).