Hampshire College

Hampshire College is an "experimenting" private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education by four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (together with Hampshire they are known as the Five Colleges).

Curriculum

Hampshire College describes itself as "experimenting" rather than "experimental" in order to emphasize the continually changing nature of its curriculum. However, from its inception the curriculum has generally had certain non-traditional features:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• An emphasis on project work as well as, or instead of, courses.
• Detailed written evaluations (as well as portfolio evaluations) for completed courses and projects, rather than letter or number grades.
• A curriculum centered on student interests, with students taking an active role in designing their own concentrations and projects.

The curriculum is divided into three "Divisions" rather than four years, and students complete these Divisions in varying amounts of time.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Division I, the distribution stage, requires students to complete one course in each of the five "Schools of Thought" and three other courses, either on or off campus. (Until fall 2002, Division I required student-directed independent projects; the new system, designed with the goal of quicker and smoother student progress, has caused some controversy.)
• Division II, the concentration or "major," requires students to learn about a single subject (which may or may not be a traditional academic field) in detail. Each student is responsible for designing their own Division II in cooperation with a committee of at least two faculty members. Many students choose a faculty committee whose members represent their own interdisciplinary interests. The Division II requirements also include a community service project and a multicultural perspectives requirement.
• Division III, the advanced project, requires students to complete an in-depth project in their field of choice (which is generally related to the Division II field). Division III usually lasts one year and is completed while taking few or no courses (and certainly none unrelated to the Division III topic). A Division III topic can be a long written academic paper (in which case it is best considered as something between a traditional college's "bachelor's" or "honors" thesis and a Master's or other graduate thesis), but it can also be a collection of creative work (writing, painting, photography, and film are popular choices) or a hands-on engineering, invention, or social organizing project.

The Hampshire College faculty are organized not in traditional departments but in broadly defined Schools. The Schools' names and definitions have varied over the College's history, but there have always been between three and five of them. As of 2005, the Schools are:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Cognitive Science (CS): includes linguistics, most psychology, some philosophy, neuroscience, and computer science.
• Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (HACU): includes film, some studio arts, literature, media studies, and most philosophy.
• Social Science (SS): includes most sociology and anthropology, economics, history, politics, and some psychology.
• Natural Science (NS): includes most traditional sciences, mathematics, and biological anthropology.
• Interdisciplinary Arts (IA): includes performing arts, some studio arts, and creative writing.