OFFTOPIC AS IF I KNOW WHAT THE TOPIC IS

[Will Layman]

I visited Hampshire many times in the early 80s, as I had a girlfriend there
and several other friends.

It is a very-very cool place, but as discussed below, it is
super-open-ended.  It's only the right place for very self-motivated kids
who TRULY know what they want to do and are willing to do it with very
little extrinsic motivation and adult "encouragement."

Lots of kids spend only 1-2 years there and leave.  Even more spend 5-6
years there.

You can take classes there if you go to U-Mass, which is in the same town
(as are Amherst, Mt. Holyoke and Smith).

-- Will

On 11/14/04 3:33 PM, "a l" <elviscoturbio at hotmail.com> wrote:

> 
>> Did any of you ultrahip, supersmart Pynchonoids graduate from/attend/or
>> have
>> a kid attending Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass? My daughter's first
>> choice and me without a penny in the old college fund! Would love to hear
>> any informed person's opinion of the place. Certainly seems to be filled
>> with hyperbright people doing interesting and slightly
>> off-the-usual-syllabus things, and strikes me as left of Brown, even.
>> Comment?
>> 
>> A couple of my friends went there. Emphasis on independent study, create
>> your own major etc. Very creative environment in beautiful western
>> Massachusetts.
>> 
> I've had friends and classmates who'd gone there started there ended up
> there, etc.  It's all the things you've heard, and herewritten above.
> Remember, though, that it can open floodgates of anti-efficiency with
> regards to time spent on study, inertia or intelligence or ambition or red
> herrings amounting to seven eight years of ringing year-completion bells
> (that's a ritual of the place for each year completed), often with people
> leaving off and returning if returning at all, or spinning out to other
> programs.
> 
> Let's say it's not necessarily conducive to neat and tidy programming of
> one's post secundary school years.
> 
> But some of most cherished almost mythically bright friends have gone there
> or on from there, mind you. Moreso than the more and more
> railroaded-to-perform-like-any-ol'IV brown.
> 
> But there are other places, too, that give this kind of self-secure
> searching environment.
> 
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