Hampshire College

 

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Hampshire College


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School Location

  
Hampshire College
893 West St
Amherst, MA 01002-5001		 General information
 (413) 549-4600

Type of institution: Private not-for-profit, 4-year or above
Federal Aid: Institution has a Program Participation Agreement with the US Department of Education for eligible students to receive Pell Grants and other federal aid.
Degrees offered: Bachelor degrees
Carnegie classification: Baccalaureate Colleges--Arts & Sciences
Number of students: 1,431 (2007)
2009-2008 Undergraduate application fee:$ 55

Mission
Education at Hampshire College prepares students to understand and participate responsibly in a complex world. Through its actions and policies, the college sets an example of the responsible and creative behavior it expects of its students. As a liberal arts college, Hampshire helps students develop confidence in their intellect, creativity, and values. It encourages their desire to be lifelong learners and their capacity to advance the cause of social justice and the well being of others. The college fosters these attitudes through: a multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural curriculum; self-initiated, individual programs of study negotiated with faculty mentors; students’ active participation in original research; and the diverse communities, on campus and off, in which learning takes place. Within the college’s residential community students encounter and learn to respect difference and appreciate diversity, thereby enhancing their capacity to live together well. Through commitment to testing and evaluating new ideas and new approaches to learning, national efforts to promote inquiry-based learning and teaching, and constructive civic and social engagement, Hampshire's actions serve as models for those of its students.
 
About this School
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 consortium). Five College students are allowed to attend classes at any of the colleges as they are all geographically close to one another and are linked by buses which run between the campuses. The College's alternative curriculum is very different from that of most traditional colleges. It is generally well-reputed for its film, writing, and art programs. In some fields it is among the top undergraduate institutions in graduate-school enrollment; fifty-six percent of its alumni have at least one graduate degree. Its School of Cognitive Science was the first interdisciplinary undergraduate program in cognitive science and still has few peers. In 2006, the Princeton Review named Hampshire College one of the nation’s "best value" undergraduate institutions in its book "America’s Best Value Colleges".
 
History
Though the college opened to students in 1970, its history dates to the immediate aftermath of World War II. The first "New College Plan" was drafted in 1958 by the presidents of the then-Four Colleges; it was revised several times as the serious planning for the College began in the 1960s. Many original ideas for non-traditional ways of arranging the College's curriculum, campus, and life were discarded along the way, but many new ideas generated during the planning process were not described in the original documents. For several years in the early 1970s, directly after its founding, Hampshire College was among the most selective undergraduate programs in the United States (Making of a College 307-310). Its selectivity declined thereafter, but the school's applications increased in the late 1990s, making admissions more difficult. The College's selectivity in admissions is now comparable to that of many other small liberal arts colleges. The school has struggled with financial difficulties since its founding, and ceasing operations or folding into the University of Massachusetts Amherst were seriously considered at various points. Today the school is on more solid financial footing (though still without a sizable endowment), a condition often credited to the fundraising efforts of its most recent past presidents, Adele Simmons and Gregory S. Prince, Jr.. The College has also distinguished itself recently with plans for the future including a "sustainable campus plan" and a "cultural village" through which organizations not directly affiliated with the school are located on its campus. Currently this "cultural village" includes the National Yiddish Book Center and the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. On April 1, 2004, Prince announced his retirement, effective at the end of 2004-05 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. President Hexter was officially inaugurated in a ceremony on October 15, 2005. This appointment made Hampshire one of the few colleges in the United States to have an openly gay president. Some of the most important founding documents of Hampshire College are collected in the book The Making of a College (MIT Press, 1967; ISBN 0262660059). The Making of a College is (as of 2003) out of print but available in electronic form from the Hampshire College Archives . A new edition is rumored to be in progress. Despite its small size and short history, Hampshire has made its own mark on pop culture and political activism. Its annual Halloween party, appropriately dubbed "Trip or Treat" for its ubiquitous debauchery and hallucinogenic drugs, is said to have once been profiled by Rolling Stone magazine. Roth, Melissa, "Party Mix", Rolling Stone 719 (October 19, 1995). It was the first college in the nation to decide to divest from apartheid South Africa in 1979 (with the nearby University of Massachusetts Amherst rapidly coming second). In November 2001, a controversial all-community vote at Hampshire declared the school opposed to the recently-launched War on Terrorism, another national first which drew national media attention, including scathing reports from Rupert Murdoch's FOX News Channel and the New York Post ("Kooky College Condemns War"). Saturday Night Live had a regular sketch, "Jarrett's Room", starring Jimmy Fallon which purports to take place at Hampshire College but is grossly inaccurate, referring to non-existent buildings ("McGuin Hall") and featuring yearbooks, tests, seniors, fraternities, 3-person dorm rooms, and a football team, none of which have ever existed at the school (although in the Fall 2005 semester the college experienced a higher than expected number of freshmen and temporarily had to convert some of the common spaces into 3-person dorms). The sketch further seemed to think that the college was actually in New Hampshire (a common mistake). In recent years however the school has taken several steps in an effort to expand the school and attract more academically conventional students. The most significant change was a revision of the Division 1 program for first year students. Before the fall of 2002, Division 1 traditionally consisted of five independent projects, one in each of the "Schools" or academic departments. These projects could consist of purely independent work, or one course and a smaller independent project. There also was a "two-course option", Where a student could take two related courses and not complete any independent work. In fall of 2002, the new first-year program was started in response to high numbers of second and third year students who had not completed Division 1. The new program mandates eight courses in the first year, at least one in each of the five schools. This reduces the required work for passing Division 1 significantly, as up to 10 courses could be required under the older system.
 
Academic year prices for full-time, first-time undergraduate students
Tuition and Fees2009-20082008-20072007-2006
In-State$ 38,549$ 36,545$ 34,605
Out of State$ 38,549$ 36,545$ 34,605
Books and Supplies$ 500$ 500$ 500
On-Campus
Room and board$ 10,080$ 9,545$ 9,030
Other Expenses$ 600$ 600$ 600
Off Campus
Room and board------------
Other Expenses------------
Off Campus w/ family
Other Expenses------------

Financial aid 2006-2007

Financial aid to full-time, first-time undergraduate students

Type of AidPercentage of students receiving aidAverage amount of aid they received
Federal Grants (scholarship/fellowship) 12% $ 4,005
State/Local grants (scholarship/fellowship) 5% $ 1,255
Institutional grants (scholarship/fellowship) 72% $ 18,880
Loans to students 54% $ 2,555
 
End of file for Hampshire College.