Sarah Lawrence College

Mission Statement

Sarah Lawrence College was founded on the belief that even the best of traditional colleges define education too narrowly. Our history has been consistent with that vision. And so we have sought to integrate elements in education that are elsewhere conceived of as mutually exclusive: reason and imagination, subject matter and personal experience, intellectual play and the disciplined pursuit of ideas, an established curriculum and the individual's need to shape his or her own education. In so doing, we offer an opportunity for genuine learning that begins with the experience of each student, with people who come to college with a series of urgent questions that come out of their backgrounds, needs, values and goals. We make it possible for students to link their personal concerns to the great traditions of knowledge and we regard that link as the element that brings life and vitality to the process of education.