Hampshire College

About Hampshire College

Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College,Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Together they are now known as the Five Colleges, or the Five College Area.

The College is widely known for its alternative curriculum, socially liberal politics, focus on portfolios rather than distribution requirements, and reliance on narrative evaluations instead of grades and GPAs. In some fields, it is among the top undergraduate institutions in percentage of graduates who enroll in graduate school. Fifty-six percent of its alumni have at least one graduate degree and it is ranked 30th among all US colleges in the percentage of its graduates who go on to attain a doctorate degree(notably first among history doctorates).

• School of Cognitive Science

  Cognitive Science (CS) at Hampshire focuses on the study of mind, brain, behavior, and intelligent technologies.

  CS integrates ideas and methods from psychology, neuroscience, computer science, philosophy, linguistics, evolutionary biology, animal behavior, education, anthropology, and other fields.

• School of Critical Social Inquiry

  The School of Critical Social Inquiry is united by a common commitment to understanding the processes of continually changing social and cultural formations and their implications for people's lives. We support a range of approaches, perspectives, and methods of inquiry, strongly emphasizing an understanding of race in the U.S.A. and non-Western histories, politics, social structures, and cultures.

• School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies

  The School of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies (HACU) unites both faculty and students interested in a range of liberal arts related disciplines.

  Teaching students to become fluent in multiple languages of inquiry and expression, our classes address a range of texts from sonnets to symphonies, JPEGs to riffs, Vedas to self-portraits.

• School for Interdisciplinary Arts

  As its name suggests, the School for Interdisciplinary Arts takes an integrated, multidimensional approach to the arts and art-making. Students and professors work across boundaries of art forms such as theatre, studio art, creative writing and literary arts, children's theatre, creative drama, entrepreneurship, applied design and innovation, arts education, art and technology, and all areas of arts and social action.

• School of Natural Science

  The School of Natural Science (NS) strives to provide a transformative, student-centered education based on inquiry and collaboration.

  It requires students to gain a clear sense of the scientific process and reflect on their work within the context of the issues in the world. The faculty are committed to curricular innovation by pushing traditional pedagogical boundaries in order to accomplish this goal.

History of Hampshire College

The idea for Hampshire originated in 1958 when the presidents of Amherst, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, appointed a committee to examine the assumptions and practices of liberal arts education. Their report, “The New College Plan,” advocated many of the features that have since been realized in the Hampshire curriculum: emphasis on each student’s curiosity and motivation; broad, multidisciplinary learning; and close mentoring relationships with teachers.

In 1965, Amherst College alumnus Harold F. Johnson donated $6 million toward the founding of Hampshire College. With a matching grant from the Ford Foundation, Hampshire’s first trustees purchased 800 acres (3.2 km2) of orchard and farmland in South Amherst, Massachusetts, and construction began. Hampshire admitted its first students in 1970.

For several years immediately after its founding in the early 1970s, the large number of applications for matriculation caused Hampshire College to be among the most selective undergraduate programs in the United States. Its admissions selectivity declined thereafter because of declining application popularity. The school's number of applications increased again in the late 1990s, causing increased admissions selectivity since then. The college's rate of admissions is now comparable to that of many other small liberal arts colleges.

The school has been financially challenged since its founding, in large part because the college lacked a founding endowment to rely upon for stability of income, and it relied almost entirely upon tuition income for operations. As of 2012, the endowment was a very modest $35,739,555.

In recent years, the school has been on more solid financial footing, though lacking a sizable endowment. Its financial stability relies on fundraising efforts of its most recent past presidents, Adele S. Simmons and Gregory S. Prince, Jr.. The College has issued a draft for a "sustainable campus plan" and a "cultural village" making possible the residence of non-profit organizations not affiliated with the school on its campus. The cultural village includes the National Yiddish Book Center and the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.

On April 1, 2004, president Gregory Prince announced his retirement, effective at the end of the 2004–2005 academic year. On April 5, 2005, the Board of Trustees named Ralph Hexter, formerly a dean at University of California, Berkeley's College of Letters and Science, as the college's next president, effective August 1, 2005. Hexter was inaugurated on October 15, 2005. The appointment made Hampshire one of a small number of colleges and universities in the United States with an openly gay president.

Some of the most significant founding documents of Hampshire College are collected in the book The Making of a College . The Making of a College is (as of 2003) out of print but available in electronic form from the Hampshire College Archives.

On August 23, 2012, the school announced the establishment of a scholarship fund dedicated to helping undocumented students get degrees. It would give more than $25,000 each year to help an undocumented student pay for the $43,000-plus tuition

Accreditation

Hampshire College is fully accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Membership in the association indicates that the institution has been carefully evaluated and found to meet standards agreed upon by qualified educators.

Rankings

• #110 in the category of National Liberal Arts College Rankings by U.S. News
• #116 America's Top Colleges by Forbes

Student life at Hampshire college

Hampshire students take ownership of everything that connects their lives on campus. Being part of Hampshire is a whole new way of life, centered on community.

Our students do nothing by halves, merging their social, personal, political, recreational, and intellectual lives through passionate participation in a varied array of clubs, organizations, and activities.

Getting Involved

• Centers, Services, and Offices
• Student Events
• Student Groups
• Student Government
• Work Study Employment
• Outdoor Program and Recreational Athletics (OPRA)

Residence Life and Dining

• Dining Services
• Residence Life and Housing
• Repair Requests
• Commuter Information and Resources
• Post Office
• When's It Open?
• Voter Registration and Jury Duty Information

Centers and Services

Hampshire College also offers a wide variety of centers, services, and offices dedicated to enriching each student's Hampshire experience as well as deepening connections within, and across, the entire community.

Five Colleges

Hampshire students, as part of the Five College consortium, are invited to take part in many events at the other four colleges. The Five College events calendar is a great place to keep your eye on for all kinds of events; from gallery openings to lectures, there is something for everyone.

Also, the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts each year organizes a "Center Series." These performance arts events are held at the University of Massachusetts, and tickets are available for Hampshire students at a reduced rate.

Services

Event Services and Summer Programs

The office of event services and summer programs prides itself on providing a peaceful and professional setting for conferences, camps, retreats, and social events ranging from a dozen to 600 people.

The Red Barn

With its wide-panel flooring and post-and-beam construction, the Red Barn offers a rustic feel with authentic New England charm.

• The Red Barn

Summer Academic Programming

Hampshire College offers a variety of summer academic programs, providing students with opportunities for intensive experience in fields that reflect our leadership in creativity, entrepreneurship and social change, world language learning, and food and agriculture.

• Summer Academic Programs

Hampshire College Early Learning Center

The Hampshire College Early Learning Center is a College-based early childhood center serving children eight weeks to five years of age through an infant, toddler, and preschool program.

• Early Learning Center

The Hampshire College Farm Center

The Hampshire College Farm Center is a working farm and thriving educational center, providing agricultural programs for the College, local community members, and school groups.

The Hampshire College Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA) provides a model of farming directly linking consumers to farmers. With over 210 members, the CSA provides fresh organic produce to the campus and local community.

• Farm Center
• Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
• Farm and Garden Camp

The Bay Road Tennis Club and MultiSport Center

The Bay Road Tennis Club and MultiSport Center, on the campus of Hampshire College, is open during the academic year, September through mid-May. Several membership plans are offered, from tennis court use to the use of the track only.

• Bay Road Tennis Club and MultiSport Center

The Toni and Gregory S. Prince Cultural Village

Through the Cultural Village, independent organizations not directly affiliated with the College, but which share similar educational and programmatic values, are located on or adjacent to campus.

• National Yiddish Book Center
• Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art