Division III
In their final year, each Hampshire student designs and completes an advanced independent study project dealing with a sophisticated and complex set of questions, concepts, and skills — all advised and assessed by a faculty committee recruited by the student.
The fourth year is your chance to push your learning further, take risks, and tackle the meaningful challenge you’ve envisioned. Do the research no one’s ever done. Build a robot that teaches itself to climb. Write a textbook that revolutionizes how middle-school science or history is taught. Write a collection of poems or stories. Interview clinicians about how to improve mental health treatment. Produce a feature documentary, or your own choreographed dance performance. Design and distribute new software or apps. Design and curate an interactive art exhibit.
While Division III students devote the major part of their year to the independent study project, students must also undertake two Advanced Educational Activities (AEAs) while engaged in Div III. Just as we expect scholars and artists to move beyond their fields of expertise and participate in collective activities that help to invigorate intellectual life, students are expected to engage in activities concurrent with their Div III that broaden the scope of their intellectual endeavor and make their skills and viewpoints available to the College and community at large. Advanced Educational Activities can be upper-level courses, teaching assistantships, or approved internships. Div III seminars are special AEA courses designed to support students’ Div III work in a cohort-based setting.
