You will find the Marlboro adventure far more intense and intellectually demanding than Harvard, any other Ivy or Ivy clone. There is simply no comparison.
--Loren Pope in Colleges that Change Lives
Date established: 1947
The Princeton Review 2007 edition of The Best Northeastern Colleges gives Marlboro its highest Academic rating, along with Swarthmore, Williams, Middlebury, Haverford, Wellesley and the Olin School of Engineering.
Campus: 360 acres of wooded and open hillside
We may not have a varsity team, but we play the local colleges, and sometimes win.
The faculty and students become colleagues and peers during the process, with rapport similar to the best graduate programs [...] Marlboro tends to appeal to more mature students, who know what they want.
--Donald Asher
Community governance: Town Meeting, where everyone - whether they be a student, faculty or staff member - all get one vote
Interdisciplinary work is ... central to Marlboro College, where most classes are small seminars, seniors take individual tutorials rather than classes, and college policies are decided in New England-style town meetings that include students as well as faculty and administrators [....] In a society that increasingly questions the value of a liberal arts education (Marlboro has) hewed to the liberal arts model, but in highly original ways.
--The New York Times
Students receiving financial aid: 85%
Our climbing wall is one of the longest in the North East.
Educators who wish to return to the essence of a liberal arts educational institution, focused on the development of the whole individual and stripped of non-essentials, should visit Marlboro College. They will be returning to the center -- to the soul -- of what liberal arts education should be [....] The visit will reaffirm just how powerful and effective liberal arts education can be for any individual.
--The New England Association of Schools and Colleges
Number of degree fields: 34
That tiny school of 324 students can still make the list in major college guides is a testament itself to Marlboro's uniqueness [....] Since its founding, the college has grown significantly in prestige, but little in size, and its size is really what makes Marlboro unique, allowing students plenty of attention in academics and social life.
--Choosing the Right College 2006: The Whole Truth about America's Top Schools
Type of degrees offered: Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Sciences, BA and BS in International Studies
We're not so large you can't pick yourself out of an all school photo.
With its 330 students and 42 faculty members, Marlboro is its own little world, where students enter as novices and leave as pros [....] While some schools see growth as a sign of their success, Marlboro intends to remain one of the nation's smallest liberal arts institutions.
--Fiske Guide to Colleges 2006
Number of fulltime faculty: 41
Student directed performances draw large crowds.
Marlboro College is only a half-century old, but it is known far and wide as an innovator in liberal arts education [....] Marlboro's flexibility should not be confused with academic flabbiness, though. Grades are an integral part of the evaluation process, professors are stingy with A's, and most students work hard.
--Fiske Guide to Colleges 2006
Student/Faculty Ratio: 8 to 1
Participatory Democracy: every month at Town Meeting.
The basic tenet is that academic learning is inseparable from the community in which it occurs.
--Loren Pope in Colleges that Change Lives
Average class size: 10 students
Work Day happens once a semester, students, faculty, and staff all pitch in to keep the place running.
The academics here are pretty intense, but there are resources to help everyone do what they want to do.
--Brittany Martel, student
Classes with fewer than 20 students: 94%
I wanted to go somewhere where I would be challenged, where I would have more control over my education and where there would be more discussion and writing.
--Gabriel Sanchez, student
Alumni who go on to graduate school: 68%
I was looking for a place where it would be harder to fall through the cracks, a place where everybody was really into learning for the sake of learning.
--Mike Harrist, student
Alumni who contribute to the school: 49%
I just liked the size of the community and the fact that there was an emphasis on community. I also love the land around here, the woods, the trails. There's this down-home quality to it."
--Molly MacLeod, student
Most frequently attended graduate schools: Antioch New England, Harvard, Columbia, University of Vermont, Yale, Boston University, Lesley College, University of New Hampshire, University of Washington and Middlebury College
There's really no end to the amount of impact you can have on the school if you're willing to put the effort and energy into it.
--Channing Bickford, student
Most common career field choices: education, business management, visual and performing arts, social services and medicine