1. In examining their website, I can find no evidence that they are accredited, are they?
Yes, by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges.
2. Most schools of their size go to great lengths to brag about their grads, and actualy point out a few of the big name alumni, I can't find any indication of this on their site.
No, they don't tend to brag up their alumni. One of their most colorful, if not perhaps their most famous, is the novelist William T. Vollman.
3. They say they are putting all of these people into "big name" schools. Based on the evidence they provide, they only accept a hand full out of 200 applicants (maybe 10%?, maybe its less, this is notclear). At that rate, assuming all applicants are stellar, they have accepted the top 10% of the the 200 top students in the region? State? Nation? And, that woudl mean that these students would be candidates for Harvard, Yale, etc. w/o Deep Springs!
Deep Springs' application pool is international, and it is also self-selecting: the school is all-male, and most prospective students who are also (as you say) candidates for admission to Harvard, Yale, etc. would, in the end, rather do that than argue about Plato and Nietzche in the desert for two years. So yes, it could be argued that Deep Springs should not take credit for its students' achievements, since they were almost certainly headed for top-tier universities anyway. I think the information on placement is given prominent play to reassure interested students (and their parents) that two years at Deep Springs will not harm their chances of moving on to a top-tier university.
4. The awards they list are impressive, but there is no evidence if these were earned by separate students or by the same student! These could be from one scholar!
At this point your critique descends into paranoia.
5. They have three full-time temporary faculty and three adjuncts. This is outlined in their website. I call them temporary and adjuncts because based on the descriptions given by the school, thats what they REALLY are.!
My guess is that, adjunct or not, they know how to punctuate.
Your data is essentially correct, in that the three chaired positions are considered full-time, while the other positions (for a semester or year at most) are considered part-time. The chairs typically teach a 2-2 courseload, the others 1-1 or 2-0, depending on various factors.
Since Deep Springs does not have faculty tenure, however, the term "adjunct" is not really applicable. All faculty live on campus and participate fully (or as fully as they wish) in the life of the community; all are offered full room and board as a condition of their employment.
6. Who is doing the teaching? It sure isn't Erlich, Wilson, or and Nobel Prize winners!
No, as it also is not in most courses at most larger universities at any given time. The faculty are a mix of younger scholars still in the VAP stage, mid-career scholars on leave from their host institutions, and recent retirees.
It looks like a total scam to me. I'm not trying to be mean, I'm just pointing out that this is very hard to believe.
For it to be a "scam," someone would have to be paying for it, would they not? But as I said before, and as the website makes clear, Deep Springs is an all-scholarship school; it relies on its endowment and private donations to keep itself going. Students pay for their books and their transportation to and from Deep Springs valley, but that's it.
The idea that Deep Springs is out-performing any institutions is a pretty fantastic claim. If it is true, then this is quite remarkeable. But, Fantastic claims require fantastic evidence. I do not see any evidence, only claims on their website.
I don't see any such boasting on the Deep Springs website, Frogman: what text are you quoting? The website makes clear that Deep Springs offers a particular educational experience with particular goals in mind.
I guess I've seen enough rip-off colleges and highschools that make claims that amount to lies that I require solid proof of what your saying.
That would be "high schools" and "you're," and yes, I find your lack of attention to standard written English almost as obnoxious as your ranting.
Yes, some SLACs do a good job, and they are good for some people. I am not completely convinced that they have the long-term staying power ofthe state schools, however, people onhere have shown some evidence that at least some do have this potential.
This is the larger point from which this discussion of Deep Springs devolved. You may, of course, be right. Certainly private SLAC's, which are typically very expensive, are hustling to compete with public universities that offer superior educational opportunities. Some appear to be succeeding--Middlebury, Kenyon, and Williams all come to mind--while the future of others appears questionable.
What has changed is not the "long-term staying power" of private SLAC's (after all, most of the ones I'm familiar with were founded in the late 18th or 19th centuries), but the changing accessibility of state-sponsored higher education and the cultural cachet of a private-shool diploma.
Having taught at SLAC's in recent years, I think there will always be an educational market for schools that offer a more flexible, more intimate educational program, but they will need to package that program in such a way that it appeals to students (and parents) as useful and relevant.
There is no evidence for Deep Springs, in fact, there isn't even evidence that this is really an SLAC! It looks more like a college prep program that preps those who don't need prepping.
No evidence that it exists? Well, I suppose there is no objective evidence that Harvard exists either, if you haven't been there and distrust the accounts of those who have. Or that man ever set foot on the moon.
Deep Springs is indeed something of an anomaly, as the only highly-selective 2-year college in the country. The original ideal of the school was that even the most talented college-bound students do need some prepping, if not in academics per se. The school's program revolves around what founder L.L. Nunn referred to as the three "pillars," namely academic, labor, and self-government, in training for a life of public service (broadly defined). As I said before, the idea was that this particular combination would prepare students more creatively for the challenges of the more specialized educations they would face in a university setting and, ultimately, in the wider world.
Whether the school has succeeded in creating a program that puts this idea into effective action and how the resulting educational experience has played out in the lives of its alumni are good questions, similar to the questions one might ask of Antioch, or indeed of any school with a mission statement of any kind.
I'm certainly not trying to promote Deep Springs, but I am recommending that you have a better knowledge of the school before dismissing it.
