In June 2022, after finishing my junior year, I dropped out of high school and flew to a ranch in California. I passed over the green cattle guard—bars laid over a trench to trip up escaping cows—and walked onto the campus of Deep Springs College. The campus comprises a dorm building, a kitchen, and a schoolhouse, all arranged around a small, grassy circle about 100 feet across. I received a handbook with a copy of the student body bylaws and instructions for treating snakebites. This was my orientation.
Deep Springs is one of the most selective colleges in the world and the smallest in the country, admitting only twelve from a pool of several hundred applicants. Students live on a ranch in the White Mountains for two years, earning credits that are accepted by almost every school in America. It has never charged tuition. This is only partly a matter of principle, since students spend around twenty hours a week working—cooking, cleaning, gardening, farming, butchering, and maintaining the college vehicles—which keeps overhead very low.
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