New College

New College is a wonderful small school located here in Sarasota, Florida. I came here Fall of 1999 and graduated Spring of 2003. The student body is all of 600 students! I've been in classes as small as three. An even bigger advantage that the school provides is its unique contract system. A students' academic work for the term is decided between the student and the students' academic advisor, and written up in a contract that includes both the students' plans, and the minimum requirements for satisfying the contract. Academic work can include not only courses, but things like independent reading projects, student taught tutorials, and classes in the outside community. There are no across-the-board course requirements, so we don't have to suffer through 'english 101' or the like. Because of the contract system, students can take courses that they might not pass at 'no risk,' as long as they aren't made to be contract requirements. If the student does well, the course will appear on his or her transcript, and if s/he fails it, it won't. There's no GPA to worry about, either! Both contracts and courses are given usually detailed written evaluations instead of grades (as well as pass/fail). The system affords an unusual degree of flexibility, and I'm convinced that it's a well-kept secret from the homeschooling community. As a state school, it's fairly inexpensive, too--especially if you live in Florida!

Campus is beautiful. It's located right on the bay, and includes parts of the old Ringling estate (it's so pretty that we're going to hold our wedding there). The school library is pretty small, but it's part of the University of South Florida library system. The Sarasota County library is great.

The psychology department here is fantastic. I'm majoring in biopsychology.