Our Academic Program
Hampshire’s exceptionally rich, intellectually demanding academic program allows you to develop diverse courses of study reflecting your interests.
More Than a Classroom:
Hampshire Students Known as Innovators
Hampshire students are known as innovators, and the college encourages that, helping you to build on your natural intelligence and inquisitiveness.
Colleges That Change Lives
Hampshire is one of 40 colleges profiled in
Colleges That Change Lives for "developing potential, values, initiative, and risk-taking" in students. CTCL says of Hampshire that "no college has students whose intellectual thyroids are more active or whose minds are more passionately engaged."
Real-world Experiences
When she was a third-year student, Brecklyn Walters traveled to Cuba as part of her Division II study. In Div II, you develop a personalized course of study guided by your own interests and goals.
Study abroad, internships, and field study often play a part.
Div III research
For her Division III (senior thesis) project, 2008 graduate Erin Eggleston conducted research on rugged bacteria that thrive in harsh conditions. Hampshire students complete their academic programs with a final stage of work known as Division III. Div III students undertake yearlong, self-designed projects that tie together and expand on their earlier work. Projects range from feature films to robotic designs to major research papers and scientific experiments.
See featured projects >Evolutionary Computation
A Hampshire-based team led by
Professor of Computer Science Lee Spector used evolutionary computation to solve a century-old algebra problem with startling rapidity and efficiency, winning the 2008 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference’s top prize.
ERP
Hampshire’s
Culture, Brain, and Development Program blends neurological, biological, environmental, psychological, and cultural frameworks. Have you ever wondered about the nature of consciousness? Did you know that life experiences influence the expression of genes? Are you curious about how children learn about culture and whether, in fact, children also help create culture? These are the sorts of questions that students affiliated with the Culture, Brain, and Development Program (CBD) think about every day.
Jan Term
Jan Term at Hampshire is an exciting time when you can immerse yourself in new experiences.
The Jan Term course Gene Cloning is a rite of passage for natural science concentrators: three weeks, eight hours in the lab five days a week, collaborating on research projects of their own making.
At Hampshire, you can study everything from microbiology to filmmaking, social entrepreneurship to quantum physics. See sample areas of study >>
Where Ideas Take Root
As a Hampshire student, you will have the opportunity to live and love your education, gaining a strong foundation in the liberal arts while also developing your own personalized course of study. As you shape your own education, you will:
When I was looking at colleges, I saw that Hampshire was one of the only schools with an artificial intelligence program available to undergraduates.