Warren Wilson College

A liberal arts college grounded in social responsibility, where hard work and community are more than just words.

We’re a small, tight-knit community, with a 15-1 student-faculty ratio. This is a place where friends become family. Our campus is surrounded by mountains, forests and farms, just up the road from beautiful Asheville, North Carolina.

You can mix and match to suit your interests — a practice that’s highly encouraged here. We grow a lot of our own food right here on campus. Our farm, gardens, and forests are all tilled and harvested by student hands and we manage them using sustainable agricultural practices.

We all come from different disciplines, but have something in common — an unwavering drive to make a difference in the world around us. Rejecting preconceived notions is encouraged, and asking bold questions is commonplace. Big dreams are welcome here, because we want to build the kind of community that can bring them to life.

At Warren Wilson College, curious is who we are. Our approach to education empowers students to think deeply, challenge themselves in their work, and act on a fierce commitment to their communities. With 20 majors, 24 concentrations, and 25 minors you can take your interest in any direction you want.

Serving on a student work crew and engaging with the community are integrated into our educational program, so you won’t wait for graduation to put your learning into practice. You will develop the tools and the courage to live and work with purpose.

All students work on crews earning money toward tuition — it's about learning, building confidence, and finding your calling. It's why our alumni tell us they graduate with greater integrity, communication skills, analytical thinking, and initiative. These are, of course, the very things employers look for.

We don't just talk about making a difference in the world — we make it a graduation requirement. Through the Community Engagement Commitment you will connect with the community in ways that go far beyond service hours. You'll go deeper to understand social and environmental issues and truly make an impact.

Curious what it’s like to balance a sharp academic focus with roll-up-your-sleeves experience backed by a fierce obligation to serve your community? Good. Because the world needs curiously insightful, experienced, and capable individuals, and we’re ready to help you be one. Choose an education that not only prepares you to make a living, but inspires you to lead a well-rounded life.

We search for individuals who demonstrate strong academic ability and curiosity, personal integrity, and alignment with our mission. In addition to your academic transcripts, we consider leadership, community engagement and other out-of-the-classroom experiences. We are proudly test-optional.

100% of Warren Wilson College undergraduate students receive some form of financial aid, and we’re committed to providing valuable educational services to talented students, no matter what their financial situation looks like. Every residential student receives a grant through our Work Program that goes towards their tuition. We work hard to make an outstanding education accessible to all.

The Warren Wilson education gives you breadth with a time-honored liberal arts core and depth through our varied majors and minors. But we don’t stop there. Because like you, we believe that the best learning happens when you strike out, leave the shallows, and go deep.

Our Work Program sets you apart when you’re applying for jobs — you’ll already have a resume full of accomplishments. And participation in our Community Engagement Commitment adds service experience while providing you opportunity to advocate for causes you care about.

We know that the marketplace demands the broad-based skills developed with a liberal-arts education. But we also know that’s not enough. So you’ll graduate with that plus applied experiences offered only at Warren Wilson. By the time you graduate, you will have: solved problems in a professional environment, developed your leadership on a team, calculated the impact of your decisions in a workplace, and delivered on your commitment to your supervisor and colleagues.

Our students can and do change the world. When you graduate, you won’t say you learned how to do it. You will say you’ve done it. Internships can be seen as mere rites of passage — ways to get some requisite experience to put on the resume before graduating college.

At Warren Wilson, internships provide unique opportunities for you to apply the skills you’ve developed on-campus with our off-campus community. Internships are actively integrated into your experience, many times as an extension of a service-learning course or work experience.

Pushing each other out of comfort zones, guided by experts, and without fear of failure. Seniors go beyond what seems possible, often creating work at a graduate level. Every major has a senior capstone course. If you like to dive in, climb high, play hard, and never stop searching for the best answers to hard questions, this is the place for you.

We’re all about exploring new and different things. Try out our climbing wall, schedule time in the recording studio, take classes in aerial silks at the gym. Students host dances, festivals, concerns, and lectures year-round. And if you’re into the outdoors, it’s all in our backyard — biking, climbing, caving, whitewater, snow sports, timbersports, and more.