User:ZoeMcDonald/New College of Florida

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View of Sarasota Bay from New College of Florida waterfront.

Academics[edit]

Undergraduate Program Features[edit]

Four core principles form the base of New College's academic philosophy: (1) each student is responsible in the last analysis for his or her own education, (2) the best education demands a joint search for learning by exciting teachers and able students, (3) students' progress should be based on demonstrated competence and real mastery rather than on the accumulation of credits and grades, (4) students should have, from the outset, opportunities to explore in-depth, areas of interest to them. To the end of putting this philosophy into practice, New College uses a unique academic program that differs substantially from those of most other educational institutions in four key ways:

• Narrative evaluations: at the completion of each course, students receive an evaluation written by the instructor critiquing their performance and course work, along with a satisfactory, unsatisfactory, or incomplete designation. Letter grades and grade-point-averages are not used at New College.
• Contract System: at the start of each semester, students negotiate a contract with their faculty adviser, specifying their courses of study and expectations for the semester. At the completion of the term, the academic adviser compares the student's performance with the requirements defined in the contract, and determines whether the student has "passed" the contract, or not. Among other requirements, completing seven contracts is a prerequisite to graduation by the college.
• Independent Study Projects: the month of January is reserved for independent projects at New College, a period when no traditional courses are held. Independent Study Projects run the gamut from short, in-depth, academic research projects to internships, lab work, and international exchanges. Students are required to complete three independent study projects prior to being graduated.
• Senior Thesis: each student is required to write an original and lengthy thesis in their discipline, and to defend it before a committee of at least three faculty members. Depending on the area of concentration of each student, a senior thesis may take the form of an original research paper, performing and documenting a scientific or social-scientific experiment or research study, or an original composition. This requirement usually is completed during the final two semesters of a student's fourth year.

The academic structure described above is implemented through classes and research projects in a diverse array of subjects in the humanities, social sciences, and the natural sciences. With a little over 800 students, an average class size of eighteen and a student to faculty ratio of 10 to 1, the academic environment is small and intimate and known for its intellectual intensity.

Graduate Program Features

New College offers a graduate program in Applied Data Science, which is divided into five degree tracks: four graduate level certification tracks and one Master of Science track. The MS in Applied Data Science is an adaptation of the original MS in Data Science, featuring a greater focus of application to industry. The MS in Data Science was created in 2015, and began with a founding cohort of seven students. As of 2022, there are 27 students enrolled in the Applied Data Science graduate program. The MS in Applied Data Science is a 2-year program, featuring a 100% employment rate upon graduation. Students of the MS in Applied Data Science program are required to complete a paid practicum during the final semester of their degree. New College undergraduates pursuing any major can apply for the 3+2 path, putting them on track to graduate with a bachelor's degree and an MS in Applied Data Science in five years. New College's MS in Applied Data Science was ranked #25 on Fortune's "Best Master’s in Data Science Programs in 2022."

Cost of Attendance

For the 2021-2022 school year, tuition and fees for in-state residents came to $6,916, or $192 per credit hour. Tuition and fees for both out-of-state residents and international students totaled $29,944, or $832 per credit hour. New College charges both in-state and out-of-state residents $10,892 for room and board each academic year. For international students, the cost of room and board at New College is $12,992. These costs have been stable for the past few years. For Master's students, the cost of first-year tuition and fees is $11,383.92 for in-state residents, and $28,067.28 for out-of-state and international students. On average, New College students take on the least debt compared to undergraduates from any other school in the State University System. Only 33% of New College students took on any loans with an average loan of about $5500 - at comparable institutions, 53% of students took on loans with an average loan around $6300. New College recognizes Bright Futures scholarships and offers additional scholarships to the vast majority of admitted students.

Cross College Alliance

The Cross College Alliance is composed of five institutions: New College of Florida, Ringling College of Art + Design, The Ringling/FSU, State College of Florida Sarasota-Manatee, and University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. The Alliance aims to foster community between these local organizations through shared resources. Students at New College of Florida may cross-register at any of the three other colleges in the Alliance.

Recognition

As of 2022, New College of Florida is ranked #5 in Top Public Schools - National Liberal Arts College, as well as #76 in National Liberal Arts Colleges, by U.S. News and World Report. Eighty-six New College students have been awarded Fulbright scholarships since the college's founding. New College is a profiled college by the non-profit organization, Colleges That Change Lives. The organization recommends New College for its flexible academic path as well as its consistency in producing successful graduates.

Recent Funding History[edit]

In 2015 New College of Florida failed to qualify for a share of a $100M pool of state educational funds after scoring third lowest statewide among Florida colleges and junior colleges on a career issue-focused rating metric. One year post-graduation, only 44% of New College graduates were working or pursuing their education full-time, the lowest in the Florida college system. Median wages for New College graduates employed full-time in Florida one year post-graduation was $21,200, as compared to an average of over $30,000 for the state university system. One critic of the statewide metric noted that New College was disadvantaged by Florida's rating metric due to the high number of graduates that leave Florida for work, or to study abroad, all of which were positive outcomes not counted in the model.

In November 2016, the Board of Governors of the State University System unanimously approved New College's growth plan, which called for expanding enrollment, hiring new faculty and building new facilities to accommodate that growth. The board and legislature also approved $5.4 million in funding for the plan's first phase.

In 2017, after adopting an improvement plan, New College received its first share of the state's performance-based funding ($2.5 million), after exceeding state standards in student retention, wages after graduation, the number of students graduating in areas of strategic emphasis, and cost to students.