Colleges Sarah Lawrence College

Sarah Lawrence College www.sarahlawrence.edu

Sarah Lawrence College is a private institution that was founded in 1926. It offers the best of campus environments: a beautiful 44-acre residential, suburban setting with immediate access to the full-range of artistic, creative, and internship resources of New York City, which is 30 minutes away. The college’s terrain is characterized by dramatic outcroppings of exposed bedrock shaded by large oak and elm trees. The campus is divided into two distinctive sections, the “Old Campus” and the “New Campus”: the first is roughly contained within the boundaries of the former Lawrence estate, and the second, outside the estate, holds the college’s newer facilities. Students can choose from among 50+ academic disciplines and programs of study, and more than 80 clubs and organizations. The college operates study-abroad sites in Havana, Paris, London, and Oxford, and offers exchange programs with CalArts, Eugene Lang School, Falmouth University, Pitzer College, Spelman College, and universities in Japan and India.

Academics

Sarah Lawrence’s academic model allows students to guide their own education. They may focus in any of 50 disciplines and programs of study—and choose more than one. Students will explore multiple areas of specialization and gain the breadth that only a traditional liberal arts education affords by taking courses in three of our four areas of study: Creative and Performing Arts, History and the Social Sciences, Humanities, and Natural Sciences and Mathematics. The academic structure combines small seminar classes with individual, biweekly student-faculty conferences. Sarah Lawrence College also offers nine distinctive master’s degree programs in the arts, humanities, and sciences, and three unique dual degrees. The student-faculty ratio at Sarah Lawrence is 10:1, and the school has 87% of its classes with fewer than 20 students. Popular majors include Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies, and Humanities.

Special Highlights

Bates Center for Student Life. Bates is one of the original campus buildings. A huge facility designed in the English Tudor style that is common in the area, it has housed not just offices and classrooms, but everything from maids’ quarters to dining halls to laboratories and arts facilities. At one time, it was home to a miniature basketball court that is now a faculty dining room, though the lines of the court can still be seen on the floors. Over the years, programs in science, visual arts, and physical education have grown to the point that they have spilled over elsewhere on the campus, requiring three buildings of their own. Bates has always been home to the college’s main dining facility and also houses the popular Health Food Bar.

Westlands. Completed in 1917, Westlands is the oldest building on campus. Dynamically situated at the highest point of elevation, it is another example of English Tudor architecture by Bates & How. When completed, the building was pictured on the front page of the New York Times. It has been the heart of campus throughout the history of the college and, owing to its massive size, it now houses the president’s offices, the Office of Admission, Financial Aid, the Registrar, International Programs, Career Counseling, and a number of meeting spaces. Student dormitories are located on the top floor.

School Mission & Unique Qualities

At Sarah Lawrence, we uncover the courage to think independently, collaborate thoughtfully, and explore fresh solutions to complex problems. By crossing and combining disciplines, we discover the boldness to examine critically, to embrace complexity, and to think and act beyond convention, setting us on a path for lifelong exploration and discovery. Sarah Lawrence was the first liberal arts college in the United States to incorporate a rigorous approach to the arts with the principles of progressive education, focusing on the primacy of teaching and the concentration of curricular efforts on individual needs. Sarah Lawrence was originally intended to provide instruction in the arts and humanities for women. The college became a coeducational institution in 1968. Prior to this, there were discussions about relocating and merging it with Princeton University, but the administration opted to remain independent.

Student Reviews…

“You really can’t find the quality of professors or freedom to design your course load anywhere else, but socially it can be quite isolating and the services for transportation are poor. It is very small and by the end of the four years, you’ll probably know almost everyone in your grade.”