Hampshire's Five Interdisciplinary Schools

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Hampshire College began with a compelling belief that the most meaningful and lasting education is shaped by a student's own interests. Further, the student should play a role in directing not just the content of his or her education, but also the means. Education is not something imposed upon a student, but a process that each student initiates and actively pursues.

This idea holds profound implications for the practice of higher education. As Hampshire's founders realized, student interests can seldom be adequately explored through course work alone, the traditional mode of learning in liberal arts colleges. For this reason, students at Hampshire engage in substantial independent research and creative work in addition to taking courses, and they enhance their academic experience with internships and studies in the field. In short, they are given ample opportunity to explore those questions that most concern them, not just to answer questions posed to them by teachers. In an academic atmosphere that energizes students to work hard and grow tremendously, students leave with much greater intellectual and social maturity than when they entered

To encourage such multidisciplinary work, Hampshire has replaced single-subject departments with five interdisciplinary Schools-Cognitive Science; Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies; Interdisciplinary Arts; Natural Science; and Social Science. This flexible structure permits a great richness and variety of academic activity.