An alternative university (or alternative college) is one that offers an education, and in some cases a lifestyle, that is intentionally not mainstream compared to other institutions. Through the use of experimental and unconventional
curricula
In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...
and offering choice to students as to what and how they will study, such institutions distinguish themselves from traditional faculties. They often attract faculty and students who are interested in such values and are often politically liberal. Additionally, some of them expand on the concept of
democratic education to integrate students in various facets of school administration. Methods of evaluation frequently favor detailed written evaluations instead of grades. Some institutions do not require an SAT/ACT, but rather ask for a series of essays. Many of these institutions are private, though most offer scholarships, grants, and other aid.
Alternative universities, colleges and institutions in the United States
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Antioch College
Antioch College is a private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1852 as a non-sectarian institution; politician and education reformer Horace Mann was its f ...
, located in
Yellow Springs, Ohio.
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Bard College
Bard College is a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic District—a National Historic Landmark.
Founded in 1860, ...
, located in
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
Annandale-on-Hudson is a hamlet in Dutchess County, New York, United States, located in the Hudson Valley town of Red Hook, across the Hudson River from Kingston. The hamlet consists mainly of the Bard College campus.
Municipal services
Emerge ...
.
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Berea College
Berea College is a private liberal arts work college in Berea, Kentucky. Founded in 1855, Berea College was the first college in the Southern United States to be coeducational and racially integrated. Berea College charges no tuition; every a ...
, located in
Berea, Kentucky
Berea is a home rule-class city in Madison County, Kentucky, in the United States. The town is best known for its art festivals, historic restaurants and buildings, and as the home to Berea College, a private liberal arts college. The population ...
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Bennington College
Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont. Founded in 1932 as a women's college, it became co-educational in 1969. It claims to be the first college to include visual and performing arts as an equal partner in t ...
, located in
Bennington, Vermont
Bennington is a town in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. It is one of two shire towns ( county seats) of the county, the other being Manchester. As of the 2020 US Census, the population was 15,333. Bennington is the most populous t ...
.
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California Institute of Integral Studies
California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) is a private university in San Francisco, California.Otterman, Sharon. "Merging Spirituality and Clinical Psychology at Columbia". ''New York Times'', Aug. 9, 2012Aanstoos, C. Serlin, I., & Greenin ...
, located in
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
.
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College of the Atlantic
College of the Atlantic (COA) is a private liberal arts college in Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island, Maine, United States. Founded in 1969, it awards bachelors and masters ( M.Phil.) degrees solely in the field of human ecology, an interdiscipli ...
, located on
Mount Desert Island in
Bar Harbor, Maine
Bar Harbor is a resort town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population is 5,089. During the summer and fall seasons, it is a popular tourist destination and, until a catastrophic fire i ...
.
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Deep Springs College
Deep Springs College (known simply as Deep Springs or DS) is a private, selective two-year college in Deep Springs, California. With the number of undergraduates restricted to 26, the college is one of the smallest institutions of higher educa ...
, located in
California's
Deep Springs Valley
Deep Springs Valley is a high desert valley in the Inyo-White Mountains of Inyo County, California. It is east of the Owens Valley and the Sierra Nevada mountain range, and south of Fish Lake Valley, Nevada, near the California-Nevada state bord ...
.
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Dharma Realm Buddhist University
Dharma Realm Buddhist University (DRBU) is an American private nonprofit university located in Ukiah, California, just over 100 miles north of San Francisco, in Mendocino County. It was established in 1976 by Venerable Master Hsuan Hua. It is sit ...
, located in
Ukiah, California.
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Evergreen State College, located in
Olympia, Washington.
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Eugene Lang College
Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, commonly referred to as Lang, is the seminar-style, undergraduate, liberal arts college of The New School. It is located on-campus in Greenwich Village in New York City on West 11th Street off 6th Avenue.
H ...
, which is part of
The New School system and is located in
New York City, New York.
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Hampshire College, located in
Amherst, Massachusetts
Amherst () is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,263, making it the highest populated municipality in Hampshire County (although the county seat ...
.
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Johnston Center for Integrative Studies
The Johnston Center for Integrative Studies is an alternative education program offered by the University of Redlands in Redlands, California. The Johnston Center focuses on interdisciplinary education, in which students design the curriculum for ...
(formerly Johnston College), at
University of Redlands in
Redlands, California.
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Goddard College, located in
Plainfield, Vermont
Plainfield, a town in Washington County, Vermont, United States was incorporated in 1867. The population was 1,236 at the 2020 census. Plainfield is the location of Goddard College.
Geography
Plainfield is located at .
According to the United ...
.
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LIU Global
LIU Global (formerly: Friends World College, Friends World Institute, Friends World Program, and Global College of Long Island University) is one of Long Island University's schools that offers a four-year Global Studies degree program that sends ...
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Maharishi University of Management, located in
Fairfield, Iowa
Fairfield is a city in, and the county seat of, Jefferson County, Iowa. It has a population of 9,416 people, according to the 2020 census. The median family income is $46,138, with 10% of families below the poverty line.
The city is typical ...
.
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Minerva Schools at KGI
Minerva University (formerly Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute) is a private university headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was established in 2012 using $25million in venture funding from Benchmark Capital.
The university ...
, located in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
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New College of Florida, located in
Sarasota, Florida.
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Naropa University
Naropa University is a private university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa, it is named for the 11th-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda. The university describes itself as ...
, located in
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...
.
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Pitzer College, located in
Claremont, California
Claremont () is a suburban city on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of downtown Los Angeles. It is in the Pomona Valley, at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. As of the 2010 census it had a popul ...
, a member of the
Claremont Colleges
The Claremont Colleges (known colloquially as the 7Cs) are a consortium of seven private institutions of higher education located in Claremont, California, United States. They comprise five undergraduate colleges (the 5Cs)—Pomona College, Sc ...
.
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Prescott College
Prescott College is a private college in Prescott, Arizona.
History
In 1965, the Ford Foundation brought together a group of educators from around the United States. Prescott College was the result of this gathering.
The college was originall ...
, located in
Prescott, Arizona
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Reed College, located in
Portland, Oregon.
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Sarah Lawrence College, located in
Yonkers, New York.
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Shimer College, located in
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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.
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Union Institute & University
Union Institute & University (UI&U) is a private university in Cincinnati, Ohio. It specializes in limited residence and distance learning programs. The university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and operates satellite campuse ...
BA Program, located in
Montpelier and
Brattleboro, Vermont
Brattleboro (), originally Brattleborough, is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The most populous municipality abutting Vermont's eastern border with New Hampshire, which is the Connecticut River, Brattleboro is located about no ...
.
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Warren Wilson College
Warren Wilson College (WWC) is a private liberal arts college in Swannanoa, North Carolina. It is known for its curriculum that combines academics, work, and service as every student must complete a requisite course of study, work an on-campus ...
, located in
Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous ci ...
.
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Wayfinding College, located in
Portland, Oregon
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Oaksterdam University
Oaksterdam University is self-recognized as the world's first cannabis college. Located in Oakland, CA, the educational facility was founded in November 2007 by Medical cannabis, medical marijuana activist Richard Lee (activist), Richard Lee to ...
, located in
Oakland, California.
Outside the United States
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London Interdisciplinary School
The London Interdisciplinary School (LIS) is a university in Whitechapel, London. LIS was founded in 2017 and is the first new institution since the 1960s to hold full degree-awarding powers in the United Kingdom from inception. The School off ...
in
London, England
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Det Nødvendige Seminarium
''Det Nødvendige Seminarium'' (DNS) ( en, The Necessary Teacher Training College) is a private international college located in Denmark. DNS offers a four-year programme in alternative pedagogy, combining theoretical studies and practical expe ...
, located in
Ulfborg Ulfborg-Vemb was a municipality (Danish, '' kommune'') in the former Ringkjøbing County on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in west Denmark.
By January 1, 2007, Ulfborg-Vemb municipality ceased to exist due to ''Kommunalreformen'' ("The Mu ...
,
Denmark
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Quest University
Quest University (officially Quest University Canada) is a private, not-for-profit, secular liberal arts and sciences university. The university opened in September 2007 with an inaugural class of 73. The university has an enrolment of around ...
, located in
Squamish, British Columbia,
Canada
See also
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Alternative education
Alternative education encompasses many pedagogical approaches differing from mainstream pedagogy. Such alternative learning environments may be found within state, charter, and independent schools as well as home-based learning environments. ...
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Alternative school
An alternative school is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional. Such schools offer a wide range of philosophies and teaching methods; some have strong political, scholarly, or philosophical orientati ...
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Education
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Special education
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The Sphere College Project
The Sphere College Project is a project to create a high-quality, financially accessible educational institution for adults. It was founded in April 2009 in Phoenixville
Phoenixville is a borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United State ...
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Unschooling
Unschooling is an informal learning that advocates learner-chosen activities as a primary means for learning. Unschoolers learn through their natural life experiences including play, household responsibilities, personal interests and curiosity, ...
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UnCollege
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alternative University
Alternative education