Sattler College is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

college in Boston, Massachusetts, that associates itself with "the historic Christian faith." The college aims to "equip Jesus' peaceful revolution" through relational discipleship and academic excellence. The school was founded (and funded) by Dr. Finny Kuruvilla (former research fellow at the

Broad Institute The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (IPA: , pronunciation respelling: ), often referred to as the Broad Institute, is a biomedical and genomic research center located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The institu ...

of Harvard and MIT). It welcomed its first class in the fall of 2018, received national accreditation in 2021, and graduated its first class in May 2022. Projected external funding for the school is $30 million over the course of 25 years. Its campus is in a high-rise office building in downtown

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, overlooking the

Charles River The Charles River (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ), sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles, is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Hopkinton to Boston along a highly me ...

and

Massachusetts State House The Massachusetts State House, also known as the Massachusetts Statehouse or the New State House, is the List of state capitols in the United States, state capitol and seat of government for the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, lo ...

History

In 2015, Dr. Finny Kuruvilla presented his idea of a college with "a comprehensive curriculum and beautiful campus overlooking the Boston Harbor... no traditional campus would offer a first-class education for only $9,000 each year." He brought together a board of 6 people including 2 with PhDs from Ivy League schools and 2 with law degrees. In December 2016, the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education allowed the college to begin granting undergraduate degrees and exist as an autonomous institution. Sattler College's first application opened in October 2017 and it began its first semester with students in the fall of 2018.

Campus

On October 26, 2017, the college announced that it had secured the 17th floor of the Leverett Saltonstall Building for its first campus. It is located in downtown Boston in Beacon Hill. The college says that it had no plans for building science labs. Instead, they plan "to have students take laboratory courses through the

Harvard University Extension School Harvard Extension School (HES) is the continuing education School of Harvard University, a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1910, it is one of the oldest liberal arts and continu ...

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...

’s College of Professional Studies, or elsewhere and transfer credits back to Sattler." The college does plan to lease out apartment space to its students to provide housing options.

Academics

Academic model

Classes are mostly discussion-based, with briefer lectures and greater student involvement. Instead of having a library of their own, Sattler utilizes the

Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also Massachusetts' Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse''), meaning all adult re ...

for its students. Sattler also provides electronic library resources by subscribing to the eBook services provided by two leading digital library service providers: Proquest (ebrary) and EBSCO." As of 2025, Sattler College has a small physical library located on the campus.

Degree programs

In its December 2016 decision, the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education granted Sattler College the ability to grant the following degrees: * Bachelor of Science in Business * Bachelor of Science in Computer Science * Bachelor of Science in Human Biology * Bachelor of Arts in Biblical and Religious Studies * Bachelor of Arts in History The college has announced that, "within ten years y 2028 we plan to seek authorization to also offer programs in Civil Engineering, English, Education, Journalism, Mathematics, Physics, and Social Sciences."

Religious affiliation

The college is named after

Michael Sattler Michael Sattler (1490 – 20 May 1527) was a monk who left the Roman Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation to become one of the early leaders of the Anabaptist movement. He was particularly influential for his role in developing t ...

, a sixteenth-century

Anabaptist Anabaptism (from Neo-Latin , from the Greek language, Greek : 're-' and 'baptism'; , earlier also )Since the middle of the 20th century, the German-speaking world no longer uses the term (translation: "Re-baptizers"), considering it biased. ...

Christian martyr In Christianity, a martyr is a person who was killed for their testimony for Jesus or faith in Jesus. In the years of the early church, stories depict this often occurring through death by sawing, stoning, crucifixion, burning at the stake, or ...

. Though the school is aligned with the

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

Conservative Anabaptism Conservative Anabaptism includes theologically conservative Anabaptist denominations, both in doctrine and practice. Conservative Anabaptists, along with Old Order Anabaptists and assimilated mainline Anabaptists, are a subset of the Anabaptist b ...

and is very closely connected to and associated with the local Followers of The Way (FOTW) church body, it is not affiliated with a particular denomination. Sattler College espouses principles from the early church and looks to the example of persecuted Christians. Michael Sattler believed in the power of redemptive love and emulated the early church and Anabaptist groups by following Jesus's instruction to love one's enemies.

Core values

One of Sattler College's self-proclaimed distinctives is its focus on "The Three C's": Core, Christian Character, and Cost. In setting the curriculum, Kuruvilla looked to the first US colleges such as Harvard and Yale, where the first students there had to show proficiency in Bible literature and languages.Christian Post website
/ref> In this spirit, students are required to take religion courses on Christianity. These courses include learning Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek, church history, and studying the basics of Christianity. Sattler also requires students to complete an extensive core curriculum based on the liberal arts, including writing, history, biology, and math, as well as their major subjects. The college also focuses on students' Christian development through "wise study, mentoring, and discipleship."

References

External links

* {{authority control Universities and colleges in Boston Private universities and colleges in Massachusetts Anabaptist universities and colleges Nondenominational Christian universities and colleges in the United States Nondenominational Christian universities and colleges 2018 establishments in Massachusetts Universities and colleges established in 2018