This Week’s College: Deep Springs College Deep Springs, California
NB: As of this year, Deep Springs will be going coed! Starting with the Class of 2022, Deep Springs will be admitting women!
Deep Springs is less a college than an experience. Nestled in the California high desert between Death Valley and Yosemite, the college is purposely isolated. You’ll learn there. You’ll learn more than you ever thought you would. And if you go to Deep Springs, plan to be able to get into any school in the country after you finish your two years there. Because Deep Springs is only a two year school. And there are only 26 students. And it’s also a working ranch. And it’s free.
The three pillars Deep Springs is built upon are scholarship, student governance, and labor. To the latter, the college is a working alfalfa farm and cattle ranch and the students who attend are the ones who work it. They do all the chores: all the sowing, reaping, tending, animal husbandry and more. In addition to the backbreaking work, students are also full time scholars, studying everything from Proust to Ancient Greek, Sustainable Agriculture to Nationalism in the 20th Century, Natural Moral Philosophy to Patristic Theology. Courses there are designed by the students, based on student interest, and desire. Finally, the admissions committee consists largely of current students. And let’s face it, when you work a ranch and your life could be on the line, you’d better be sure the people you’re working with are people you’ve picked out.
At Deep Springs self-governance isn’t something that’s just lip service. You all have grown up in the shadow of UVA where self-governance is a thing but it’s a lot more serious at Deep Springs. Students are on the board of trustees, the selection committees who choose faculty (there are no tenured faculty at Deep Springs, faculty from places like Stanford and Oxford rotate in an out for 2-5 years at a time). Students set the calendar, design the curriculum, choose the students who will be admitted, and run a working farm. The Gray Book, written by founder LL Nunn, contains the ultimate guide to the principles and laws set down for Deep Springs, and students return to it when there is a dispute to be settled.
Daily life at Deep Springs is nothing like a traditional college. Plan to be up at 6:00 (or earlier to get your chores started (they started baling hay at 4:30 am and the cows have been milked already). Some men have been up all night (someone has to birth that calf) and they may still be sleeping while you’re off to a class, just you and the professor. Average class size is 8 but the maximum is 26 since that’s all there are at Deep Springs. There are chores to do in the afternoon, food to cook for dinner, crops to collect, bulls to neuter, and studying to be done. There aren’t any teams or sports, but there’s some time for video games, some football tossing or some guitar playing.
The only required classes at Deep Springs are Composition and Public Speaking. It’s believed that these classes help people to learn the best way to address their peers and lead others. The men here have only two years to become responsible leaders, but it only takes those two years if you do it the Deep Springs way.
So what happens to you at the end of two years? Where do you go? The answer is anywhere you like. Once you’ve been to Deep Springs elite schools know what they will be getting and they will get in line to get it. What goes into Deep Springs is usually pretty non traditional and what comes out is the same thing: young men who can think, criticize, write, speak, lead, understand, defend their ideas, and who know an amazing amount including Ancient Greek and how to birth a foal.
Pros:
NB: As of this year, Deep Springs will be going coed! Starting with the Class of 2022, Deep Springs will be admitting women!
Deep Springs is less a college than an experience. Nestled in the California high desert between Death Valley and Yosemite, the college is purposely isolated. You’ll learn there. You’ll learn more than you ever thought you would. And if you go to Deep Springs, plan to be able to get into any school in the country after you finish your two years there. Because Deep Springs is only a two year school. And there are only 26 students. And it’s also a working ranch. And it’s free.
The three pillars Deep Springs is built upon are scholarship, student governance, and labor. To the latter, the college is a working alfalfa farm and cattle ranch and the students who attend are the ones who work it. They do all the chores: all the sowing, reaping, tending, animal husbandry and more. In addition to the backbreaking work, students are also full time scholars, studying everything from Proust to Ancient Greek, Sustainable Agriculture to Nationalism in the 20th Century, Natural Moral Philosophy to Patristic Theology. Courses there are designed by the students, based on student interest, and desire. Finally, the admissions committee consists largely of current students. And let’s face it, when you work a ranch and your life could be on the line, you’d better be sure the people you’re working with are people you’ve picked out.
At Deep Springs self-governance isn’t something that’s just lip service. You all have grown up in the shadow of UVA where self-governance is a thing but it’s a lot more serious at Deep Springs. Students are on the board of trustees, the selection committees who choose faculty (there are no tenured faculty at Deep Springs, faculty from places like Stanford and Oxford rotate in an out for 2-5 years at a time). Students set the calendar, design the curriculum, choose the students who will be admitted, and run a working farm. The Gray Book, written by founder LL Nunn, contains the ultimate guide to the principles and laws set down for Deep Springs, and students return to it when there is a dispute to be settled.
Daily life at Deep Springs is nothing like a traditional college. Plan to be up at 6:00 (or earlier to get your chores started (they started baling hay at 4:30 am and the cows have been milked already). Some men have been up all night (someone has to birth that calf) and they may still be sleeping while you’re off to a class, just you and the professor. Average class size is 8 but the maximum is 26 since that’s all there are at Deep Springs. There are chores to do in the afternoon, food to cook for dinner, crops to collect, bulls to neuter, and studying to be done. There aren’t any teams or sports, but there’s some time for video games, some football tossing or some guitar playing.
The only required classes at Deep Springs are Composition and Public Speaking. It’s believed that these classes help people to learn the best way to address their peers and lead others. The men here have only two years to become responsible leaders, but it only takes those two years if you do it the Deep Springs way.
So what happens to you at the end of two years? Where do you go? The answer is anywhere you like. Once you’ve been to Deep Springs elite schools know what they will be getting and they will get in line to get it. What goes into Deep Springs is usually pretty non traditional and what comes out is the same thing: young men who can think, criticize, write, speak, lead, understand, defend their ideas, and who know an amazing amount including Ancient Greek and how to birth a foal.
Pros:
- It’s free – There is no tuition, room or board fees, you just pay for books and computer
- It’s an incomparable experience
- It’s an unbelievably good education
- You can go anywhere you want afterwards
- It’s incredibly hard work
- It’s not an environment that suits everyone
- It’s only 26 (so freshman class of 13)
- It’s very, very isolated