Sarah Lawrence College

Academics

“The greatest strengths” at Sarah Lawrence College “are the small class sizes, the highquality of …relationships between students and professors, and the freedom to create an academic major.” Students attribute this to SLC’s seminar-conference courses, which “allow students to endlessly customize their academic experience, as independent study is required of every student every semester.” Beloved examples include “a literature class on disability that incorporates community service at a local elder care center” or being able to write a paper “in my calculus class about connecting calculus to crochet.”

Students also take pride in the close relationships fostered by one-on-one conference courses. “Professors treat us as academic colleagues,” explains one senior. “One professor, in a class on Roman and early Medieval art history, regularly brought his own actual artifacts to class” raves another fourth-year.” While coursework at Sarah Lawrence often comes down to “research and analysis,” students value both their creative control and outside-theclassroom experiences. “I took a class called ‘Pattern’ that explored the geometry within art and patterns. It was technically a math class, but we took a trip to a gallery and I was able to assemble a portfolio for my final project.”

Student Body

Sarah Lawrence students are “intellectual, ever-curious, open-minded, and autodidactic,” says one third-year student, “My peers don’t require hand holding. They know what they want to study and how they want to study it.” The school’s independent student body reflects its self-directed academics: “Everyone cares about something: their music, their art, their friends, their academics, social and political causes and would defend it with their life.” One student brags, “A friend of mine can wax poetically on quarks and leptons as much as she can deconstruct Fellini’s oeuvre. A uniting factor of the campus is that none of us are looking for a traditional undergraduate academic experience. Above all we value choice.” As for diversity on campus, students point to THRIVE, a mentorship program for students of color, which one sophomore notes “made a huge difference in my social life on campus and I am thankful for the connections it allowed me to make.” There’s also a “historically” huge LGBTQIA+ scene—“as a queer person myself, I have never felt this comfortable anywhere else.”

Campus Life

Just a 40-minute train ride from Manhattan, Sarah Lawrence students can enjoy their intimate, liberal arts college setting as well as the thrills of the big city. It’s an “intellectual’s school,” without a huge party scene, but “there is usually plenty to do if you keep your finger on the pulse.” This seems especially true for creative students, as the “literary journals are fabulous” and events like The Poetry Festival and Free-Write Fridays offer a chance to exercise one’s creativity. On the theatrical side, groups like The Burlesque Troupe, HalfNaked Shakespeare, Melancholy Players, and the annual Rocky Horror Picture Shadow Showcase keep audiences entertained. Many work by day, converse during lunch and then go off “working on your film or choreography piece or manuscript with your friends.” Sometimes, it’s fun to just “go into New York City to have fun, see shows, and shop.”