Hampshire College Shutting Down

Hampshire College will close after the 2026 fall semester, the school announced, citing ongoing financial challenges and enrollment pressures. The small liberal arts college located in Massachusetts had embarked on a multiyear effort to refinance debt, raise money and expand enrollment. However, the school could not find a viable path forward.

Hampshire College To Close As Higher Ed Shakeout Accelerates
Hampshire College to close after fall semester amid financial struggles | AP News

 

I think after Goddard closed, the writing was on the wall for Hampshire College. They were very much like Goddard, just without the long history and established DL programs.

My daughter graduated from UMass-Amherst, which is part of the 5 College Consortium (UMass, Amherst College, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith). She had some Hampshire College students in one of her classes, and said they were......different.

 

Don't be shy. Tell us more!

 

A couple of Hampshire students decided that a classroom was a perfectly acceptable place to have a picnic, complete with a spread-out blanket and actual picnic basket.

 

I didn't ask!

I'm actually glad there are free spirits like that in the world, there just can't be too many of them.

 

It's too bad they could not come up with an alternative to shutting down completely.

Such as becoming part of the state University system, and/or focusing on a narrow range of disciplines, or moving to a virtual degree model--all while selling off some of the now unneeded brick and mortar real estate.

 

Yeah they should have been making changes years ago. The days of people paying 84K a year for an indig/african studies degree are long gone lol. Cutting back on useless degrees, selling some prime land, moving loads of programs online, cutting sports programs, instead they choose to do nothing. Sad.