Starting in Fall 2022, these are the requirements to complete Division I:
Satisfactory completion of seven academic courses, including:
Your Division I seminar in your first semester; and
Six elective courses. These may be a combination of Hampshire courses and Five College courses. 5C courses must carry 3 or more credits and be graded C or better. One elective may be a Special Project (see details below).
No more than three Five-College courses may be used toward Division I course requirements.
Two dance or music technique courses, designated as half courses, may fulfill one of the six electives.
OPRA courses and other courses labeled “co-curricular” on TheHub may not be used to fulfill Division I course requirements.
40 hours of Campus-Engaged Learning activities (CEL-1), including:
At least 10 hours with a focus on Race and Power
Division I Portfolio that contains:
Retrospective essay that responds to prompts related to CEL-1, Race & Power, and transdisciplinary learning.
Representative selection of work
(see Division I Portfolio and Pass Meeting page for details)
Your Division I Seminar
Students entering in the Fall are required to enroll in a Division I seminar. Each of these seminars is linked with one of our Learning Collaboratives and is a Race & Power course. These seminars also include content on How to Hamp—in other words, how to navigate the college experience, and Hampshire in particular. There are no additional course requirements in the first year other than completing at least six additional elective courses based on student interests.
Spring entrants: if you start in the spring, you will not take a Division I seminar, so we should work together closely to make sure your first year courses cover the How to Hamp activities included in the seminars.
Link to Division I requirements in the Student Handbook: https://handbook.hampshire.edu/node/285
An important note on Special Projects:
At Hampshire, "Special Projects" are robust supervised or mentored learning experiences that students can pursue at or away from Hampshire with organizations (such as schools, labs, companies, or nonprofit organizations) or with community groups. Special Projects can be essential to a student’s education and should result in substantial learning. Special Projects may be paid or unpaid. They can be internships, practicums, or other independent projects approved by the student’s advisor that are evaluated by a site supervisor at the organization or community group hosting the activity. Special Projects can take place at any time of the calendar year and can be initiated at any time after a student enrolls at Hampshire up until the add/drop deadline in the final semester of Division III. They must engage a student in learning for 180 hours or more.
In order to use a Special Project for one of the six required electives for Division I, it must be completed and evaluated by the Division I passing deadline.
The use of a Special Project for Division I must be approved in advance by your advisor.
Additionally, Students must be enrolled in a full course load (three regular Hampshire courses) in addition to a special project during the semester.
A note on Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate credits:
Up to 8 Advanced Placement (AP) exams with scores of 4 or 5 and International Baccalaureate (IB) Higher-Level exams with scores of 5 or higher can be used towards your Hampshire degree. To use them in Division I, first complete all the requirements listed above. Once all evaluations and grades have been recorded, and with my approval as your advisor and the approval of the Division I Dean, you may use AP/IB credits for up to 6 of your Division I electives; your completed elective coursework in Division I, then, can be counted towards Division II.
If you have a high number of AP/IB credits, talk with me about how you might choose courses in your first year that will be a good bridge to Division II.
The full policy is here: https://handbook.hampshire.edu/node/122