What do you remember/have you taken from your time at DS?
Swimming naked under pure-blue skies
Discussing the intersection of community and rules/law until three in the morning
Managing a small bookstore single-handedly
Walking 100 meters across a lawn at 9pm to discuss comments on a paper with the professor
A graduation ceremony that involved a noisy back-hoe, burning of papers, and other pyrotechnics
Running or having a hand in _everything_ that affected my life immediately
Riding horses
Self-reliance

What's your connection to DS? How'd you end up at Swat?
I did attend DS from 93 to 95, the two-year stay being typical (see my web page). Both DS and Swat offer intimate academic community, accessible professors, and intense committment to intellectual endeavors. I transferred fairly seamlessly from DS to Swat with the help of highly coordinated recommendations from an academic, peer, and working community that knew me as well my own family.

How does DS compare to Swat?
DS professors are far more accessible than Swat ones (even though Swat profs are more accessible than at many other small liberal arts schools). The sense of community approaches totality, which can be rewarding or limiting depending on one's mood or political perspective. At times, life in isolated DS Valley seemed like the only life that existed. The immediate politics of student government, and the practical problems of feeding cows and watering alfalfa were often all that mattered.

Swat profs are generally slightly better qualified, but deal with two or three times as many students. Academic standards and curriculum seem to be roughly equal. Swat's advantages are a large library (research beyond basic texts was not possible in the DS library), wider selection of courses, opportunities for community service and political activity in 'the real world', a sports program. As far as curriculum, DS' limitations should be worth living with so long as the student has not set his mind on a particular science other than biology, which is DS' only strength in the sciences.

My sense is that Haverford is a smaller, slightly less rigorous Swarthmore. Also probably a more conservative campus politically.

How would you rate the professors at Deep Springs compared to others?

I think the glut of humanities professors has had its effect: between Deep Springs, Swarthmore, and Sonoma State University, I've seen little variance in the quality of professors. With too many applicants to these positions, academic search committees can get whoever they want for wherever they want, more or less. We happened to have good science faculty also, though I had less opportunity to evaluate them.
Accessibility and smallness go a long way toward allowing professors to teach better. From the crafting of courses specifically tailored to individuals' interests to academic and community relationships that span all aspects of life and many classes over the two year stay, professors have a lot of material to work with.

What About Athletics at DS?
Athletics at DS consists of pick-up basketball on a sandy, pot-holed half a basketball court, or soccer on a 3/4 soccer field, or a vernacular rendition of ultimate frisbee. If you HAD to rationalize attending DS as a competitive athlete, you could resolve to take labor positions that are physically strenuous, hoping to keep in good shape in anticipation of a career during the final two years of a 4-year run.

What about Applying as a Foreign Student?
> I am from Lima, Peru. Last day, I read >your Web Page in the Internet about Deep Springs College. I think it >was very interesting, a different type of college. You know, I am >looking forward to pursue higher learning in the U.S. and the idea >of Deep Springs College sounds wonderful. However, I think there are >some problems. First I think it is a College destined for Americans >only. Second, I feel it is going to be almost impossible to enter ( I >really don't know what are the admission officers looking for). Maybe >you could help me solving these problems. Jorge,

You will be a very welcome applicant at Deep Springs. While an unfortunate cycle of tradition seems to keep the students mostly American (and mostly white), the Applications Committee is constantly looking for more diverse applicants, including foreign students. They're looking for you.
Deep Springs is a difficult place to get into. You will have to write about 6 or 7 essays before the process is over. Normally, there would be an interview on campus, but I'm sure the committee would work something out if getting there proved to expensive/time-consuming for you. The essays are the most important part of the application, followed by the interview. If you can write interestingly, you have a good chance to get in. You can email the Applications Committee to have them send you an application, or you should be able to print one from the new official Deep Springs web page (there's a link to it on my web page).
I enjoyed/benefitted about equally from my time at Swarthmore and at Deep Springs. I paid about US$300 per year at Deep Springs for books and another $200 for incidentals. At Swarthmore, after financial aid in the form of grants, I paid about US$15,000 per year in loans and cash. The fact that Deep Springs is free makes it very much the better deal (for the first two years).

A Day in the Life ?

7 am: Wake; dress; eat breakfast in boarding house (AKA 'BH') with about a third of the community (students, faculty, staff).

8 'til 12pm: attend up to three classes; study in free time; maybe go for a walk if no classes.

12pm: eat lunch with most of the community at the boarding house

1 'til 5 pm: Labor. File books in the library or set traps for gophers or move irrigation lines on the fields or weed and water the garden, etc.

5-6: chat with others, or read a magazine, or finish up some labor assignment that went long, or prepare paperwork or a presentation for Student Body meeting or committe meeting later in the evening, or sleep.

6: dinner with all but a few of the community

7: rush off to get something done, or linger to chat or to argue with students/faculty/staff

7 or so 'til 12 or so (depending on if you're a nigh-owl): 'home'-work (distinguishing home from school and 'work' is nearly impossible. That's a curse and a blessing), or committee-meeting, or Student Body meeting, or class. (one of the ways DS mitigates the smallness of the academic program is to create a class schedule around the schedules of EVERY PERSON INVOLVED. Except in rare cases, if you want to take a class, the Bookstore Man (a labor position) ensures that the class schedule doesn't conflict with your labor, other classes, or committe meetings. This is sometimes taken too far, with some people winding up taking classes 7 days a week.)

Breaks, Weekends, Free-time, FUN ?

Which gets to your question about weekends: in some terms, they didn't exist. Even when the schedule did accomodate the tradition of weekends, one had too work very consciously in order to preserve some free time on the weekend.
The schedule is somewhat changed now. When I was there, there were 7 7-week terms in the year, divided by one or two (sometimes three-week) breaks. No students were allowed to leave the COMPLETELY ISOLATED valley during the 7-week term. Somethimes we had dances, and there were community gatherings about once per week. Dances were interesting without women, but enjoyable.

Year-round Schedule?

I arrived at DS June 17, 93 and stayed there until late July '94, at which point I had 8 weeks off to relax or look at colleges to transfer to before my second year. I don't know what they do now, but I'm fairly sure they work in a similar vacation at some point.

Internet/Information Access

There is now internet access. There was not when I was there.
The library is about 20,000 volumes. New books are ordered for each course as they are required, and students are in charge of and encouraged to become involved in the Library's acquisitions. They guy down the dorm hall makes special orders through the bookstore, and students frequently conspire to order books in quantity in order to take advantage of 10 to 40 % discounts.

Ego/Elitism?

Ego tripping: even the most egotistic were humorously aware of their own pride. I would characterize it as one element of the experience that, in retrospect, acted as a constant influence on the style of discourse and conversation. This influence was itself one of the hottest topics within the community while I was there. Sometimes we got beyond it.

Smoking allowed?

Actually, I believe it was chiefly Mr. Drum, not Joe Camel, who made his way into some lungs. No smoking in any of the buildings or near hay-bales and other combustibles -- and serious fire-consciousness in all places -- were the only restrictions on smoking (being 45 minutes from the nearest emergency services, a fire would be a disaster).