Weirdest Colleges?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I know there's Deep Springs, where the enrollment is "about 26" and everyone's a cowboy when he's not studying.</p>

<p>And there's Bob Jones University, where interracial dating requires parental consent.</p>

<p>Any others to this list?</p>

2

<p>Goddard College.</p>

3

<p>It might be an interesting place, but the concept of a “Maharishi University of Management” in small-town Iowa strikes me as anomalous.</p>

4

<p>I’m fascinated by NYU Abu Dhabi. I wonder what it would be like to go there as an American undergraduate.</p>

5

<p>LOL @ “about 26.” Never heard that one before.</p>

6

<p>St. John’s College</p>

<p>All the classes are required (seminar, math, science, music and language) all of them are discussion based, there are no lectures. Students do not read textbooks, instead they only read “the hundred great books” throughout their four years in college. There are not written exams, only oral exams and papers. The school has only 500 students on each campus.</p>

7

<p>Paul Smith’s College is pretty different. Intramural lumberjacking, anyone?</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.paulsmiths.edu/[/url]”>http://www.paulsmiths.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>Here’s an article on Deep Springs if anyone is interested:
[Job</a> Search Guru | A Harrison Barnes, Career Advice, Job Search, Deep Springs College | Harrison Barnes | Try the Career Coaching Club!](<a href=“http://www.aharrisonbarnes.com/do-not-trust-appearances-my-visit-to-deep-springs-college/]Job”>http://www.aharrisonbarnes.com/do-not-trust-appearances-my-visit-to-deep-springs-college/)</p>

9

<p>Shimer College in Chicago. I found out about this school this year. I’m surprised it doesn’t get mentioned around with Reed and St. Johns</p>

10

<p>Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Clown College</p>

11

<p>Yes indeed, my dear alma mater [Shimer</a> College in Chicago](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimer_College]Shimer”>Shimer Great Books School - Wikipedia), where current enrollment is “about 128”, definitely belongs on any list of unusual US colleges. We’ll match St. John’s Great Books curriculum and raise them one of American higher education’s most amazing stories of communal perseverance, survival and revival. </p>

<p>(That remarkable history notwithstanding, the things that make Shimer unique have remained remarkably constant from [this 1963 article](<a href=“http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,830138,00.html”>A $100 Million Quest to Make Contact With E.T.--Maybe | Time) to [this one from 1988](<a href=“http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/big-ideas/Content?oid=872366”>Big Ideas - Chicago Reader) and [this profile of Shimer from 2007](<a href=“Small Campus, Big Books - The New York Times”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/education/edlife/shimer.html&lt;/a&gt;). Just in case anybody is curious…)</p>

12

<p>Nothing to contribute (other than a tangential reminder of Bullwinkle’s alma mater, Whatsmatta U), just enjoying this thread! Bravo!</p>

13

<p>Well I know there’s Rhode Island School of Design (RISD, pronounced Rizz-Dee) who’s mascot it a, well, certain male organ.
And there’s Ringling College of Art and Design (where I’m going) which was started by the same man who started the circus and one of the dorms is a renovated 1920s hotel where there is supposedly the ghost of a 19 year old prostitute named Mary</p>

14

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<p>And whose graduates virtually all go into the Ivies when finished with their two year program. They are also taking girls next year.</p>

15

<p>Another weird one is Webb Institute - not weird so much as different. Only one major - Maritime Engineering - and about 90 kids I think. Free.</p>

<p>Deep Springs is the top choice of a young friend of mine this year. It appears to be a truly awesome place. Also free.</p>

16

<p>We visited the Frank Lloyd Wright house Taliesin West in Arizona. Our tour guide told us that there are college students in residence, and their curriculum includes building their own huts for dorms. The only undergraduate degree offered is a BA in Architecture.</p>

17

<p>Dharma Realm University. It looks like the only major is Buddhism.</p>

<p>Not to get too far into it, but I would consider any place that gives college credit for learning the earth is 7000 years old to be “weird.”</p>

18

<p>Warren Wilson College located near Asheville, NC. I wouldn’t call it weird, I’d call it unique.</p>

<p>Every student must work an on-campus job, perform at least one hundred hours of community service over four years and complete a requisite course of academic work in order to graduate. each student works 15 hours a week with an assigned work crew. They can work in computer repair, library support, dorm maintenance, dining services or plow fields, catalog an arrowhead, etc.</p>