Happy (belated) 4th of July! As we celebrated our country’s independence last week, we thought it would be fun to honor “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”-- college-style, of course! So today we’re sharing some unique freedoms on college campuses, from self-scheduled final exams to make-your-own-majors to tuition-free schools. 

HONOR CODES

An honor code is a set of standards and values that a school outlines for its students regarding academic integrity, ethical conduct, and behavior. Although it might just sound like a fancy label for another set of rules and restrictions, honor codes can actually offer students a surprising number of freedoms. 

At Davidson College, for example, students have the flexibility to self-schedule their final exams–and no, the professors don’t watch them take the test. Randolph-Macon College takes a similar approach to final exams, allowing undergrads to choose the time, day, and even room to complete their tests. And as part of their honor code, students have another unique liberty: freedom from “telling on” someone else. Instead of reporting an honor code violation, students are encouraged to ask the person to report themselves. 

But with great honor code freedom comes great responsibility. Haverford College has one of the few student-run honor codes, which is overseen by its Honor Council. This group of 16 students works to resolve honor code violations and maintains the spirit and integrity of the code. It’s a big job, but the Honor Council gives students the freedom to shape the campus culture and address problems fairly.

Design your own major 

Forget having to pick from a list of approved majors! Some schools give students the freedom to design their own course of study. In Indiana University’s Individualized Major Program (IMP), undergraduates work with a faculty sponsor to design a multidisciplinary major and a personalized curriculum. IMP students can’t escape the university’s general education requirements, though!  

Similarly, James Madison University’s Independent Scholars Program seeks students whose interests break the typical curricular boundaries. Participants develop an area of inquiry and plan a course of study which is grounded in experiential learning. Independent research or a creative project is a must! 

New York University is so committed to freedom of study that it dedicated an entire school to personalized majors. Gallatin School of Individualized Study emphasizes self-direction for mature students who want to build their own majors. The school also takes into account that designing a unique course of study can be challenging–and sometimes lonely. Therefore, Gallatin students are assigned two advisors. One acts as an “intellectual mentor” while the other oversees a small cohort of students and takes charge of community-building.

Grades

It’s not an urban myth! There actually are colleges and universities that don’t assign grades–well, at least not in the traditional way. Rather than relying on simple letters to measure student performance, professors at Sarah Lawrence College take a three-step approach to assessing undergrads. Critical ability assessments and narrative evaluations give faculty more freedom and flexibility to explain a student’s overall progress and performance. Plus, students are free from having to guess why they got that B+ instead of an A-. The thorough assessments and evaluations explain everything that the letter grade can’t.

While Sarah Lawrence students still see letter grades on their transcripts, that’s not the case at Brown University. Students here can choose to earn a letter grade for a particular class or a satisfactory/no credit designation. It’s up to the individual at the time of course registration, and if they change their minds later, they have the first month of the semester to switch their grading option. So with the freedom to choose letter grades or not, how does Brown calculate GPAs? Simple, they don’t! 

Students at Bennington College can also opt for letter grades, BUT only if they specifically request them during the semester. Otherwise, transcripts are composed solely of narrative evaluations, which are meant to foster a culture of conversation between students and faculty. 

Tuition

Let’s face it. High tuition costs and decades of loan repayments can be a huge burden for students. However, there are some colleges that have managed to free students of any financial worry. They have found creative ways for students to exchange tuition payments for good old-fashioned hard work. 

College of the Ozarks covers tuition costs, provided that students demonstrate need and agree to work on campus. Students at Warren Wilson College also work in exchange for tuition, with emphasis on learning a craft and gaining valuable skill sets for the professional world.

At Deep Springs College, located on a cattle ranch in California, all accepted students receive a full scholarship, including room and board. In return, undergrads are expected to work on the cattle ranch and contribute to the life of the school. The student body even helps make important decisions about admissions and faculty hires. 

scheduling

Thanks to a reimagining of the traditional semester calendar, some schools are able to offer undergraduates more freedom and flexibility in their schedules.

At Bates College, undergraduates spend the month of May taking a short course. These are immersive classes that take students off campus and into the field. Last spring, undergrads were analyzing earthquakes in California, studying theater in central Europe, and researching healthcare systems in South America. 

Undergrads at Colby College have the freedom to make dreary January much more exciting thanks to Jan Plan. This month-long block allows students to choose from an array of internships, research opportunities, and unconventional classes. For example, this past January, students had the option to earn their EMT licenses, learn the art of blacksmithing, study tropical plants in Costa Rica, and more! 

And finally, one of the most famous schools for scheduling freedom is Dartmouth College. Their D-Plan allows students to design their very own academic calendars. How exactly does that work? Well, the college distinguishes between residency terms, those where students study on campus, and leave terms, in which students intern or undertake research projects. Of course there are some guidelines to help students organize their calendars, but the D-Plan ultimately opens up a lot of possibilities that wouldn’t be available within a traditional semester schedule.

Did any of these special freedoms pique your interest? If you’d like to do some more research on any of the schools mentioned, here are some our favorite online resources:

• You can find virtual tours on the school's websites or at youvisit.com. The virtual information sessions will almost always be on the individual school websites. 

• Create a free account on the Princeton Review website at review.com and read their write-ups on various colleges. I particularly like the "See what students say" perspectives and the “Rankings & Lists” sections.

• More great resources for college profiles are the reviews at unigo.com (I like the "Most-Answered Questions" part), and the "report cards" at niche.com.