College of the Atlantic

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Welcome to College of the Atlantic. We’re unlike any college you’ve ever known.
At COA you hold in your own hands the freedom, and responsibility, of building your educational path. Each student designs his or her own course of study in human ecology—an exploration of the relationships between humans and their natural, cultural, and built environments. Even though we all have the sa...me major, no two students have ever taken the same set of classes. And you don’t have to choose just one area of study; in fact, we hope you’ll pull together different disciplines and get excited about the surprising connections between them.
A COA education isn’t just about learning—it’s also about transforming thought into action to make a difference in the world, starting now. We believe that tomorrow’s problem-solvers will need to work across multiple disciplines, collaborate, innovate, and think far outside the box.
With just 350 students, 35 faculty, and 70 staff members, you’ll soon recognize all of the faces on campus. We believe this kind of close-knit, supportive community is an ideal environment for fostering creative collaboration and intellectual risk-taking.
Every Wednesday at the student-moderated All College Meeting (ACM), COA students, staff, and faculty come together to shape the policies and practices that guide the college’s operations. We learn engaged citizenship by putting it into practice—in all its inspiring, frustrating, empowering, mundane, and messy glory.
Pink granite mountains, spruce forests, island-studded bays, and miles of rugged coastline: the landscape of Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island has inspired awe in artists, vacationers, and local residents for centuries. But COA’s location surrounded by Acadia National Park and the Atlantic Ocean isn’t just a spectacular place to live and visit; it’s a rich and multi-faceted laboratory for learning in the field.
College of the Atlantic enriches the liberal arts tradition through a distinctive educational philosophy—human ecology. A human ecological perspective integrates knowledge from all academic disciplines and from personal experience to investigate—and ultimately improve—the relationships between human beings and our social and natural communities. The human ecological perspective guides all aspects of education, research, activism, and interactions among the college’s students, faculty, staff, and trustees.
The College of the Atlantic community encourages, prepares, and expects students to gain expertise, breadth, values, and practical experience necessary to achieve individual fulfillment and to help solve problems that challenge communities everywhere.
The faculty, students, trustees, staff, and alumni of College of the Atlantic envision a world where people value creativity, intellectual achievement, and the diversity of nature and human cultures. With respect and compassion, individuals will construct meaningful lives for themselves, gain appreciation for the relationships among all forms of life, and safeguard the heritage of future generations.
Every COA student designs his or her own course of study in human ecology. Beyond a small core of degree requirements, there’s no set path. You give shape to your curriculum based on your interests and goals, exploring across multiple areas of study or digging deeper into a chosen focus.
Making change is a central part of COA’s mission. We put it into practice by involving students, faculty, and staff in governing the college. It’s not necessarily the easiest way to get things done, but there’s no question we all learn a lot in the process.
Knitting, soccer, poetry, foreign affairs, rock-climbing, circus arts, activism, foraging for wild edibles. COA students tend to be really into whatever they’re into. Student activities here are a mix of organized clubs, getting outdoors in Acadia National Park, regular events like concerts, lectures, films, and open mics, and a healthy dose of creative spontaneity.
COA is a great place for self-directed people: you’ll chart your own course, both in class and out. But it’s impossible to be anonymous in such a small community, and you’ll find plenty of fellow travelers with whom to share the journey.
No matter where you are on campus, the ocean is always a few steps away. You’ll smell the salt air when you wake up in the morning, learn the cycles of the tides, and watch the color of the water and the patterns of the waves change with the seasons and the weather. Sometimes all it takes is one deep breath to let all that water remind you of the vastness of the world.
We’re intentionally small and community-focused, and you can feel that on campus. Meals in the dining hall (TAB) are welcoming and lively, with faculty, staff, and students eating and conversing together. Our classrooms are set up for discussion and engagement among small groups of 10–20.
Maybe it has to do with natural materials, and human-scale structures, and a little bit of wildness in the midst of the everyday.Our buildings are a combination of rustic former cottages and newer green construction—you’ll see plenty of weathered wood shingles, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find any institutional-feeling bricks or cinder blocks. The main campus landmark is a giant finback whale skull. There are tucked-away gardens, old stone walls, canoes and kayak racks, and people smiling and saying hello to each other.