College of the Atlantic
Work 105 Eden Street
Bar Harbor, ME 04609
Work(800) 528-0025
Admissions E-mail: inquiry@coa.edu
Web site: http://www.coa.edu/
Tier 3
College Category:
Liberal Arts Colleges
Liberal Arts Colleges
Overview : College of the Atlantic
| General Information | |
|---|---|
| Institutional Control: | Private |
| Year founded: | 1969 |
| Religious affiliation: | N/A |
| Academic calendar: | trimester |
| Total number of undergraduates: | 324 |
| Setting: | rural |
| Endowment: | $19,480,000 |
| Fall Admissions | |
| Application deadline: | 2/15 |
| Application fee: | $45 |
| Fall 2008 Acceptance rate: | 69.1% |
| Selectivity: | more selective |
| Expenses | |
| Costs: | 2009-2010 Tuition and Fees: $33,060 |
| Mission | |
| School mission: | Located between the Atlantic Ocean and Acadia National Park, College of the Atlantic offers two degrees: a B.A. and M.Phil., both in Human Ecology. In pursuit of this degree, students consider their individual passions to create their own academic trajectories, integrating knowledge from all academic disciplines and personal experience to fulfill the mission of Human Ecology: investigating and improving relationships between humans and our social, natural, built and virtual communities. COA's small size and individualized curriculum encourages tutorials, intensive seminar-style classes and frequent faculty-student interchanges, which are as common in the college's one dining room as during faculty office hours. Having one major means that COA has no departments and no departmental requirements; classes are interdisciplinary. Coursework consists of readings, usually from primary sources, as well as active investigation. These efforts culminate in a term-long senior project. As part of coursework and/or senior projects, recent students have participated in international meetings on climate change, investigated the impact of big box stores (resulting in first-in-the-nation legislation for Maine), used GIS maps to educate local towns on impending planning decisions - and prepared an emergency system for a California town, written novels, conducted surveys of amphibians in the Maine north woods and of plant species in Acadia National Park, conducted independent research on bird habitat on an offshore island, written autobiographies and new curricula, created CDs, restored a major on-campus garden, built a pollinator-friendly meadow, designed homes, constructed windmills, created photography and ethnography books and exhibitions - and more. Beyond this, COA is a democratic institution, with students involved on all levels of governance and a weekly campus meeting to discuss current campus issues and decisions. Major decisions must be brought to this All-College Meeting; committees that filter into the governance structure include participation by students. Opportunities for travel abound; students must complete a one-term internship, which usually takes them off-campus and often abroad. The college offers a residency term in Mexico and another in Quebec. International connections on campus are extensive, as COA has one of the highest percentages of international students of any college. Many students come to COA with a desire to change the world - and leave with the tools to do so. COA practices what it teaches - and teaches what it practices; it is the first college to become carbon neutral; new student residences are outfitted with composting toilets; the kitchen serves food from the college's organic farm. Now, COA offers one of the very few undergraduate green and socially responsible business programs and a Food Systems Program that connects COA's organic farm to an organic research center in the United Kingdom and a graduate school in Germany. A degree in human ecology means that knowledge from the arts, sciences and humanities are valued and applied by faculty and students helping to shape a more sustainable, just and balanced world. |
advertisement
