Antioch College

A lot of people have a love/hate relationship with Antioch. I am one of these people. However, in your time at Antioch you will learn to pick and choose your battles. Some people graduate with a lot of bitterness and negativity. I'm just happy for the time I had at Antioch while it was still open.

Academically, you only get as much as you are willing to give. I was a Gender Studies and Lit major. Both of these departments were really small, but that classes that were offered surpass anything I've seen in other universities. Some of the best classes I took were Post Colonial Text, Fictions of Crime, Queer Theory, and Identity and Difference.

Campus politics tend to be really heated. Antioch's famous motto, "Be Ashamed to Die Before Winning Some Victory for Humanity" often tends to get left in the dust of the bubble of Yellow Springs. Some students get really caught up in campus politics and policies, but forget about the larger world picture. However, you have so many opportunities to study and travel and work with amazing jobs and programs that it's totally worth it.

Since there's not a ton to do in Yellow Springs, the school hosts one to two events every weekend. The student body is ridiculously small, but we still have a good time. There's lots of people to meet in town, as well as in Dayton, Columbus, and Cincinnati.

I'm not going to lie, this is a hard place to be: academically, mentally, emotionally, and physically. But people here make it work. Maybe we don't have fancy state of the art equipment or tons of students in giant academic programs, but that means that you work for your education instead of just having it handed to you. You have to be really dedicated and willing to tirelessly pursue your goals, but in the end you come out a much stronger person.

And although we get a lot of negative feedback about drugs, lots of hippies and "liberals", and the Sexual Offense Prevention Policy, the people who hate on Antioch just didn't enjoy it, you know? It's not for everyone. I personally love the S.O.P.P., and am proud to attend the first school to have their own accountability process to work against sexual abuse and promote safe, healthy, and consensual sex.I hope that someday Antioch can re-open. If this school sounds interesting to you, keep an eye out for non-stop Antioch, a non-accredited continuation of the principles and ideals of Antioch.