Sarah Lawrence College
- Academics

Everything you could ever want to learn, taught beautifully.

If there is one thing that Sarah Lawrence has over any other college is that our professors care, personally, about every student. They challenge you, they want to know your passions, interests, failures, and successes- they will remember them and work hard to help you become a better person and student. Whether you want to focus on law- in which we have prestigious pre-law, pre-med, e.t.c programs- or to focus in music, you have have a conservatory-level musical education and still enjoy the full catalogue of liberal arts. I play Cello, Violin, Piano, I sing, I do electronic music programming (which we have an amazing studio for, one of the best in the country apparently), but I still get to pursue classes in Psychology, Literature, History, with just as much ferver. We also don't have "____ 101" classes, so there are no boring textbook-bland lessons taught by the book more than the professor. We don't have TA's who teach, you are ALWAYS taught by a professor, in a seminar class no larger than 14 or so. You do conference work, basically a side project/essay/painting/dance/play/movie/concept album/whatever that you work with your professor 1-on-1 every other week to research, polish, and perfect it. This makes our standard 3 classes feel like 6, and allows you to go deep into your passions within the larger context of each class. I love the academics here, any other school wouldn't work for me.

Conference System

The way SLC conference system makes you feel is like that of giving birth. You dread it, but in the end you cannot be more proud of yourself when you've produced a good conference paper. Professors are smart, wonderful, and give you full attention. It's hard to get this kind of elitist education elsewhere. This has been the best academic experience for me so far!

Powerful but isolated.

Sarah Lawrence is not for everyone. I spent a year there as a visiting student and fell in love with parts, and could not stand other parts.

In general, what makes SLC so special is also what makes it difficult for the average student. SLC is a place of directed learning, where you as a student must challenge yourself. Much as with Hampshire, you get out what you put in. In my visiting sophomore year was expected to do graduate level work because I presented myself to the professor in a way that allowed him to push me that far. Other students did not engage with their class materials, and received fine marks, but that doens't really matter at SLC.

In effect, when you graduate, you will have a letter of recommendation from every class you took. If you do well, that means you will have as many as 24 personal reviews and assessments of your ability as a student. This is invaluable when applying to graduate school, but can also shoot you in the foot. At a state school, if you slack off and get a B, no one knows. At SLC if you slack off it will be on your permanent record in the review. Alternatively, if you struggle and push and get a C-, the professor will probably write a glowing review of how you tried your best.

Without any majors, SLC can be very socially isolating. The conference system means as much as 50% of the work you do for a class must be individual, no study groups, no homework sessions.

I loved my time there. But it is not for everyone.