Help me with my college search: off-beat, quirky, even "hippy" colleges?

College Search & Selection
1

So, I created this thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1804173-off-beat-quirky-even-hippy-colleges-p1.html , which started by saying,

"I recently went to this summer camp that is often described as a “hippy farm camp,” and that definition is not entirely wrong. Considering I am going into 12th grade, I couldn’t help but think about it as if it was a college campus, and if there was more “serious” learning there. If that were the case, I would love to go to a college like that.

Let me describe the camp a bit more:

  1. We spent an hour talking to trees.
  2. We did some work on the camp’s farm
  3. The whole camp promotes peace and environmentalism
  4. I spent much time learning medicinal qualities of herbs such as rosemary and chamomile.
  5. A line from the mission song (a mission statement put to music) is “that environmentalism, social justice, and spirituality want to grow…”
  6. I did meditation almost every day.
  7. The food was made by a real chef, and was always organic and relatively healthy. There were always vegan options, gluten free options, vegan gluten free options, etc.
  8. Everyone was a bit “off” socially (including myself), letting everyone shine their true selves."

I just added this post to that thread:

"I think I would like to clarify two things:

  1. I think I over exaggerated the farm piece of this. I’m looking for a hippy college, not looking for a farm college.
  2. The other piece of criteria that is really important to me is that the college should have a strong Jewish community. I don’t know about any of the schools mentioned, except for Sarah Lawrence which is in Hillel’s top 60 colleges, but if anyone knows about hippy colleges that have strong Jewish communities, that would be great. Honestly, I just created a new thread for the new criteria, so post on either one; I’ll check both.

So, to review, my new criteria is:
1a) Hippy college (peace-loving, environmentalist, tree-hugging)
1b) Vegan-friendly (it fits with the hippy piece, so not too stressed about this one)
2) Strong (and open-minded) Jewish community. Doesn’t need to have a Hillel,as long as there is something active in place. I suspect this of Hampshire.
3) Near me. 275mi."

So, yeah, here is a place to put hippy Jewish colleges, if you know of any.

2

http://www.hillel.org/college-guide/search#
You can use this search tool to find out more about the Jewish communities at the schools mentioned on the other thread. It has information on the numbers and percentages of Jewish students, whether there is a Hillel, and a short description from the Hillel or other Jewish organization on campus about who they are and what they do, along with some other relevant information. Hope this helps!

3

Hampshire
College of the Atlantic
Marlboro
Bard
Bennington

Also (beyond your geo preference, but perhaps worth consideration):
Deep Springs (outstanding two-year, but very competitive)
New College of Florida

4

If you are willing to travel a bit further South, look at Sewanee.
There is definitely an interest in the environment at that school!

Not a huge Jewish population there but see post #7 here from a few yrs ago:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-south/1272806-sewanee-for-non-christians.html