Schools like Deep Springs College?

juillet
Sun, 15 Jan 2017 19:10:56 +0000

College of the Atlantic is kind of similar but not really. It’s an experimental college in a small, close-knit community - still bigger than Deep Springs by an order of magnitude (350 students and 70 faculty members as opposed to 26 students and about 25 other faculty and staff members).

College of the Atlantic is also not nearly as isolated as DSC. It is pretty rural - it’s on the coast of Maine in a small town, but it’s an hour from a small city (Bangor). Deep Springs, however, is essentially alone in Deep Springs Valley; the nearest town of any size is Bishop, CA, which is less than 4,000 people - and that’s an hour away. They’re so isolated that they support themselves in food and energy, for example. It’s a totally different kind of isolated.

So if you want a rural experience at an experimental college in a pretty small setting, College of the Atlantic is a great alternative to Deep Springs. But if it’s the very isolated, very tiny nature of DSC that appeals to you there’s really no other place like it. (The other thing is that while they are currently fighting a legal battle, they are not yet co-educational. CotA obviously is.)

You may also want to consider if you want to take a gap year and apply to other types of programs in the meantime for more of the non traditional, community experiences which of there are many

Yep, good suggestion. City Year and other Americorps programs are examples of what you could do for 1-2 years before attending a traditional college (although of course City Year is not isolated, but maybe Americorps has similar programs in rural communities).

Otherwise, Warren Wilson and Berea are probably your best two options, followed by College of the Ozarks and Alice Lloyd (but both are religious).