<p>Oberlin and Reed are great</p>
<p>I also suggest the Colleges that Change Lives schools. DD has a deep love of learning and thoroughly enjoyed the 5-course Great Conversations sequence at St. Olaf. It covers Western thinking and accomplishment from ancient to current time. It’s been compared to trying to drink from a fire hose. They also have Asian Conversations, American Conversations, Science Conversations and now Environmental Conversations. All are multi-disciplinary in nature, with teams of professors leading the discussions. Conversations are still on-going, 2 years later, with much to still discuss and make connections to!</p>
<p>I’d second the recommendation of Shimer College (in Chicago). Students there are incredibly genuine and the culture of learning for learning’s sake is pervasive throughout the whole student body. I think it attracts a lot of people who felt left out in their love of learning previously… at least until they came to Shimer. I’m an alum of the school, but I used to be in your shoes.</p>
<p>Want to add Whitman College to your consideration list. Not as well know as some others, but a great school with learning at the center.</p>
<p>As another Shimer alum, I just wanted to add my support to Paidaia’s recommendation above. Since Shimer is definitely not a well-known brand, I’d point anyone interested to the excerpt of a discussion of Darwin in the [current</a> Shimer viewbook](<a href=“http://shimercollege.blogspot.com/2012/05/new-shimer-viewbook.html]current”>Shimer College and the Future: New Shimer viewbook). Although brief, that sample is pretty representative of the Shimer classroom experience. Shimer students tend to be a fairly intense bunch.</p>
<p>I’ve never quite understood what some mean by “learning for learning’s sake.” If someone learns the first 10,000 digits of pi, is that learning for learning’s sake? I suspect that learning a broad variety of esoteric information could fit that description, but I doubt that is what is usually meant. I believe the meaning to be conveyed might be more accurately stated as learning for the purpose of better understanding the world, not for the purpose of a career or job or to perform a particular task. I think the idea is to learn in order for the individual student to build a more accurate and rich model of the world/universe/reality we share, rather than to help the individual perform some task or set of tasks in a limited domain.</p>
<p>Anyway, that’s my two cents.</p>
<p>I think that’s why most posters on this thread have recommended the colleges they recommended.</p>
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<p>Also to better understand oneself, a la Socrates</p>
<p>austinareadad-</p>
<p>Friendly neighborhood OP here. Yeah, you’re right… Mostly. At least in my case, I’ve always felt like “loving to learn” is distinct from “learning for learning’s sake”…To be honest, though, I’ve never turned my critical thinking goggles back around on themselves and analyzed why I like analyzing, thinking, etc. Now that I’m doing that, I see that I was mostly wrong. I just really do derive joy and pleasure and etc. from learning the way others do from shooting hoops (or whatever)… I guess what I’m saying is that I never sit down and say “Ah, I’m going to study the french revolution so I can have a broader understanding of the world in which I live”. Instead I say “I’m going to study the french recolution because it’s really interesting!”</p>
<p>I suppose those things are still very closely related. As I said, I’ve never really analyzed my wants, but I suppose that what makes the french revolution (and the like) interesting is that it provides a better context for understanding the world I live in.</p>
<p>Yeah, you’re quite right… Knowing exactly how many basketball goals are im NYC or every other prime number ending in 7 aren’t exactly super interesting facts. Your filter of “things that help me know about the world” is a pretty darn good one for separating what I (and I imagine others that ‘learn for learning’s sake’) do and don’t find interesting. </p>
<p>Sorry if that came out as incoherent mush! I’m not always the greatest articulator. (:</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions, everyone else! I appreciate it.</p>