Allegheny College

Allegheny College attracts top students with unusual combinations of interests, skills and talents, including some they didn’t know they had. At Allegheny, we invite our students not to limit themselves — but instead to explore all of their interests.

Every Allegheny student takes courses in each division of knowledge — humanities, natural sciences and social sciences — declaring both a major and a minor (outside the division of their major) by the end of their sophomore year.Students combine their interests and expand their concentrations beyond one division, developing the sort of big picture thinking that is in high demand in today’s global marketplace.

Allegheny’s undergraduate residential education prepares young adults for successful, meaningful lives by promoting students’ intellectual, moral, and social development and encouraging personal and civic responsibility. Allegheny’s faculty and staff combine high academic standards and a commitment to the exchange of knowledge with a supportive approach to learning. Graduates are equipped to think critically and creatively, write clearly, speak persuasively, and meet challenges in a diverse, interconnected world.

Allegheny students and employees are committed to creating an inclusive, respectful and safe residential learning community that will actively confront and challenge racism, sexism, heterosexism, religious bigotry, and other forms of harassment and discrimination. We encourage individual growth by promoting a free exchange of ideas in a setting that values diversity, trust and equality. So that the right of all to participate in a shared learning experience is upheld, Allegheny affirms its commitment to the principles of freedom of speech and inquiry, while at the same time fostering responsibility and accountability in the exercise of these freedoms. This statement does not replace existing personnel policies and codes of conduct.

We expect our graduates to be capable and farsighted leaders and rational and responsible citizens equipped to meet the challenges confronting all society. We expect them to value diversity, individual integrity of thought and action, and the importance of personal rights and freedom in the context of society as a whole. We expect them to know that the same complexities that create the problems and challenges of living also give life its richness.

Allegheny believes that among all possible forms of education, liberal arts and science education best develops individual potential. It enables participants to experience and enjoy life to the fullest, enabling the mind to encompass all aspects of the world. Among other benefits, liberal arts education broadens the kinds of careers, interests, and activities that can be—and are likely to be—pursued. It develops and encourages the use of the imagination, in the creative sense and for solving problems of everyday life. It promotes understanding of others’ aspirations and feelings toward the foundation of constructive relationships.

At Allegheny College, when we talk about unusual combinations, we mean it as a tremendous compliment – a compliment that recognizes the unique character of each one of us.Look around and you’ll see a college president who studies decision-making by modern American presidents and then rolls up his sleeves for grassroots community service; an aspiring diplomat singing in the choir and building a bike path; a future physician who edits the college newspaper and pole vaults on an international stage. Unusual combinations, yes, but at Allegheny they are everyday examples of students exploring all of their talents, all of their passions. And it is our students who make Allegheny the vibrant, creative, and innovative place that it is.

As a liberal arts college, Allegheny has as its first concern intellectual growth. The curriculum and graduation requirements are designed to provide educational depth as well as intellectual breadth. Successful completion of Allegheny’s four-year program leads to the degree Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science.To provide such an education, Allegheny aspires to this academic goal: to develop students’ minds and teach them how to learn on their own. While factual knowledge is important, no one can master in four years all that is needed for a lifetime. Most important is engaging students in an active learning process that entails not only comprehending facts, but also taking responsibility for their proper use.

Within half a dozen years, Alden succeeded in attracting sufficient funds to begin building a campus, having traveled throughout the eastern states seeking support for a planned library and classroom building. The need of a building to house a library led to the construction, in the 1820s, of Bentley Hall, today a leading example of early American architecture. Designed by Alden, this handsome structure still crowns the hill on which the campus is located. It is named in honor of Dr. William Bentley, who donated his outstanding private library to the College.

Each year, as part of the Commencement ceremony, seniors march through the doors of historic Bentley Hall toward the adventures that await them. In 2015, Allegheny will celebrate its 200-year history and the extraordinary futures of the graduating Bicentennial Class of 2015.