Reply to “Colleges That Change Lives”

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]New College of Florida is an honors college. There are no grades; instead, students receive lengthy and detailed reports and pass/fail. “Fails” do not show up on transcripts—a wonderful thing—because it frees up students to try courses they might otherwise be afraid to try. Students are required to write a Master’s level thesis and to orally defend it. When I went, kids were a bit like The Land of Misfit Toys. An odd, intellectually curious, interesting lot. We didn’t want to be at a “normal” college because New College spoke to us. Lots of people chose to take longer than 4 years to finish because they wanted to take more classes or wished to do more research for their thesis papers. Many people, like myself, have since gotten PhDs.

How did it change my life? Their evaluation system got me out of the straight-A frenzy I’d experienced in HS. Finally i could learn for the sake of learning and not some letter someone slapped on a piece of paper. I could take any class I was interested in without fear of failure and messing up a GPA. I got out of my comfort zone. It pushed my research skills, which led me to be extremely well-prepared for grad school. I’m not smart enough to win awards, but plenty of New College students and grads have. I won’t look up the stats and include them here, but if you’re interested you can easily find them. It’s not insignificant.

I noticed that they recently received a grant from the Mellon Foundation. New College also has, I believe, a rather sizable endowment.

It FOR SURE was not (and probably still is not) for everyone. It can be intense, socially as well as academically. It’s not small; it’s a tiny student body. There is no rah-rah college spirit in the traditional sense: no sports teams to cheer for, no Greek life, etc. When people ask where I went to college, I start with: “You haven’t heard of it, it’s called...” It most certainly is NOT for people who want instant school name recognition. This didn’t and does not mean anything to me.

All of the quirks and oddities suited me just fine.

It’s far from a perfect school, but it did change my life in significant ways. Other colleges would have as well, but not in these unique ways.[/quote]

I know a young man who graduated from there maybe 5-6 years ago and he is so so smart and a rising star in my field.  He is amazing  and will go places, and a lovely human being as well.  I had never heard of the school before, but if that's the kind of alumni the New College turns out, it won't be unknown for long![/quote]

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