Hampshire College: tough sell, but worth it.

When I asked a faculty member at one of America’s most elite colleges what he thought of the students who ended up in his classes he said the were really smart and hard working and always produced excellent work. “Professor Doe” also added that they never pushed back at him in class and revolted when he asked them to spend two hours under a tree coming up with an idea they wanted to write about. “We don’t have time for that”, they’d say. “Tell us what you want us to do”. In that two hours #HampshireCollege students would have designed a fully sustainable and handicapped accessible tree fort regardless of whether the teacher asked them to. Students make learning happen here.

That’s not just a bromide. The entire structure of Hampshire College is built around the reality that a certain subset of students (not the ones at Professor Doe’s college) will not wait to be taught. Hampshire’s Three Division calendar (one year completing loosely defined distribution requirements, two years building an original academic concentration, and the final year completing a thesis or final project) is about students and teachers coming together to build unique Bachelors degree programs for every student, an enterprise led by the student. It’s not an equal power relationship: the student drives the process here. Concentrations are wildly interdisciplinary, often politically topical, occasionally inviting mockery, and vulnerable to raised eyebrows from relatives who say “You’re majoring in what??” But theres no arguing the result. Hampshire, the most feral of liberal arts colleges, is a prolific generator of entrepreneurs. Thats right, business creators. And non-profit creators. And actors, doctors, filmmakers, engineers, researchers etc etc. Hampshire alumni are leaders and creators in every field and if you’re skeptical about whether this wacky experimental college with its composting toilets and hidden yurts (the radio station is in a yurt in the woods), is in fact legit, well, check out the “famous alumni” section on Hampshire’s Wikipedia page. That’s where Hampshire-skepticism goes to die.

So much for the good news. Hampshire’s finances are a mess. The former administration was an epic disaster. This year’s entering class was 17. At normal institutions, that’s the point where trustees sell the assets to a Bible college in the Ozarks for twenty cents on the dollar. But sometimes its a benefit not to be normal. Hampshire alumni have come to the rescue–for the moment–and have raised tons of money. The trustees stole an administrative superstar from Ripon College to be its next president and he is quickly moving the college from panic mode to “hey, we can do this” mode.

So is it worth the gamble to go to Hampshire? If you’re a play-it-safe person, probably not. After all, there’s always “Professor Doe’s” no-risk college. But entrepreneurial types, whether they want to start an organic yogurt company or start a refugee resettlement organization or make documentaries, don’t do safe. Our tour guide told is that Hampshire is what people say college is supposed to be. I think she’s right. People are here to make something magical happen with their minds and hands and in the way they build relationships with teachers and each other. It’s ironically old-fashioned, harkening back to the era before elite liberal are colleges filled their classes with recruited athletes.

At a conference a number of years ago I was at a presentation where a college advisor from an elite midwestern prep school told of attending a counselor tour of the 5-College Consortium. At Amherst College, during a faculty panel, the advisor asked the Amherst professors to describe their favorite type of student. The panelists looked at each other, grinned, then one of them said “Hampshire students”.

This is an easy place to recommend, financial woes and all. There’s just no other place like it.