“They know enoughwho know how to learn.”-Henry Brook Adams

Norton Plaza Students choose to come to BSC for a lot of reasons, but one stands out: our challenging academics. Graduating is not easy, and you’ll work hard here. And because you work hard, you’ll be better prepared for whatever challenges you take on after graduation. And your accomplishments will mean more because you’ve earned them.

The degree you earn at BSC will provide you with the resources that potential employers and graduate and professional schools will expect you to have. Here you’ll learn to think critically and to solve problems using a variety of methods. You’ll learn to communicate your ideas clearly in writing and in public presentations. You’ll learn to conduct research individually and within a group. And you’ll sharpen your awareness of issues facing your local community and the world at large.

Explorations Curriculum

At BSC, we have taken the traditional undergraduate curriculum and re-focused it to address the needs of the increasingly complex and inter-connected world of the 21st Century. Our Explorations program will provide you with the skills and perspectives that professional schools, graduate schools, and employers want you to have--to communicate effectively, to solve problems with competence and creativity, to understand local and global competing interests, to make connections among a perplexing array of fields of information--and to be agile and adept in doing so. As you explore your interests and your own potential through engaging and challenging study, you will prepare yourself to be an engaged member—quite possibly a leader—of your community.

Courses of Study

To complete your degree requirements, you will typically enroll in four classes in the fall term, one during the January Exploration Term, and four in the spring. The college currently offers five bachelor's degrees in more than 50 programs of study, as well as interdisciplinary and specially individualized majors and dual degree programs.

Faculty

It’s a cliché to say that our faculty is the core strength to the college, but like all clichés, it's built on the truth. More than 96 percent of our faculty members hold either a doctorate or the highest degree in their field. The 13:1 student-to-faculty ratio here allows your professors to know and understand your strengths and your weaknesses; they’ll pull out the very best you have to give. And when you graduate, you’ll be amazed how many of your professors have become your friends.

Donald C. Harrison Scholars Program

With its small classes, interdisciplinary courses, innovative curriculum, and more, BSC is indeed an "honors college." But within this honors college is the Harrison Scholars Program that extends the boundaries of learning even further with opportunities such as specially-designed courses just for Harrison Scholars, preferred registration, special lectures, travel/research stipends, access to Honors advisors, Honors housing, and many other benefits.

Other Special Programs

Your education at BSC won’t be confined to the classroom. Our academic program is complemented by opportunities that give you a wealth of hands-on, practical experiences in a group or on your own. Such experiences deepen your engagement with your community and the wider world, and they oblige you to wrestle with complex problems first-hand.

The Contract Learning Center enables you to expand your classroom experiences through local internships, mentorships, and research opportunities.
The Bunting Center for Engaged Study and Community Action organizes service-learning projects locally, nationally, and overseas, as well as providing service opportunities during Fall Outreach Day and Alternative Spring Break.
The Hess Center for Leadership and Service coordinates a series of academic courses, research opportunities, advocacy internships designed to deepen your understanding of the complex phenomenon of leadership.
The Sklenar Center for International Programs provides logistical support if you plan to study or pursue internships or volunteer opportunities abroad, and it serves as a source of information on international post-graduate studies, fellowships, and teaching opportunities.
The Stump Entrepreneurial Programs provide scholarships to entering students who have demonstrated an entrepreneurial spirit through their work inside and outside the classroom, subsidize cross-cultural Exploration Term projects for students to study entrepreneurship in other countries, and hold an annual competition that allows students to submit plans to that propose the creative formation of a new entity in any field, commercial or non-profit.
The Vail College Fellows Program provides support for joint faculty/student collaborative research projects for which students receive either a unit of academic credit or a tuition stipend. Vail Fellowships often result in scholarly presentations or joint publications by the professor and the student.

Academic Resource Center

While our academic program is rigorous, we provide a number of tools to help you succeed. The Academic Resource Center provides speech and writing centers and foreign language and math labs, among other resources. Most importantly, you’ll find people ready to help you do more than get by—they’ll be there to help you thrive.