Profile

A private liberal arts school in Bar Harbor, ME, the College of the Atlantic takes a unique and liberating approach to higher education. Every student receives the same major – human ecology, which studies the relationships between humans and their natural, cultural and constructed environments – but is free to craft their own unique path of courses to get there. No two students have ever taken the same path to the interdisciplinary major, and students have the opportunity to study at the school’s two offshore island research stations and at its two organic farms, only a short distance from the Acadia National Park. COA has a weekly All College Meeting where students, faculty and staff discuss the matters of the school. The school year begins with a Bar Island swim and winter-time Fridays come with fireside cookies in the Common. Social life is mostly an off-campus affair, with options ranging from Bar Harbor town to Acadia National Park and more.