Turn intellectual curiosity into personal accomplishment

Focus on an area of study, design your own major, or complete an interdisciplinary concentration.

New College supports students with a passion for learning and a desire to take responsibility for their own education. That’s why our professors provide narrative evaluations – rather than letter grades – to assess your work each term. During your four years here, you will be expected to fulfill seven academic contracts. Each contract is a written agreement between you and your faculty advisor regarding your educational goals, academic activities, and progress toward graduation each semester. You get to choose from more than 35 areas of concentration (majors) and over 300 courses offered annually at New College.

Each January, you will work on an independent study project that can include a lab experiment, scholarly paper, study abroad, off-campus internship, art exhibit, or musical or theatrical performance. The culmination of your New College education is the senior thesis project, in which you will produce a major research paper, body of artwork, or other highly developed presentation that reflects your area of concentration.