Minerva Schools is a non-profit, non-traditional primarily undergraduate university that has a minimal physical footprint (no physical facilities beyond dormitories) and uses the world as its classroom. Minerva Schools admitted its first class of students in the fall of 2014. Promising to deliver a high-quality liberal arts and sciences education to the top students in the world, Minerva allows students to choose from 5 different majors (colleges): Arts and Humanities, Business, Computational Sciences, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences. Although Minerva does not have a graduate program, per se, Minerva undergraduates can earn a concurrent Masters degree in Applied Arts & Sciences. Minerva Quest, the student newspaper, may provide additional insight into the student experience.
Location: San Francisco, CA (first year); students live in one of several international locations after the first-year
Number of 1st years: 200
Graduate Students: 0
Total Students: <500
Faculty: 41
The following are noteworthy programs or practices that differ from MIT offerings. Unless otherwise stated, assumptions should not be made about the effectiveness of these programs and/or practices.
All classes are taught in seminar format with fewer than 20 students through Minerva’s Active Learning Forum platform. Students participate in live, video-based seminars where students and instructors can see each other on-screen allowing for active engagement with the material. The active learning platform also enables breakout group discussions, shared document collaboration, and dynamic polling through classroom response systems. The platform contains a discussion board to facilitate student exchanges outside of class.
During their first year at Minerva, students are taught “habits of mind” and “foundational concepts” (HCs) that foster critical and creative thinking, effective communication, and effective interaction. All students take four, year-long Cornerstone seminars: Formal Analyses (which focuses on thinking critically), Empirical Analyses (which focuses on thinking creatively), Multimodal Communication (which focuses on communicating effectively) and Complex Systems (which focuses on interacting effectively). This material is also used (and assessed) during the subsequent three years while students major in specific subjects.
The second year is devoted to the core courses that form the basis of a student’s major(s). Students take core courses within each college and begin to specialize by selecting a major. Students continue to personalize their program in the third year by choosing one or more concentrations within each major, taking the two Capstone courses, and beginning a Capstone project. During the final year, students complete their majors either by taking two tutorial courses for each non-business major, or a practicum for business majors, and completing any additional degree requirements. The tutorials are collaborative, student-driven explorations of specific topics within the student’s chosen field. The practicum is a paper written during the summer between the third and fourth years, ideally associated with a summer internship or job. Students also complete their Capstone project, which is presented to the Minerva community during the final term.
Minerva offers a unique opportunity for lived international experiences, including professional development and internships, during the course of their four-year program. See Housing, below.
Weekly activities that supplement coursework and leverage the location of Minerva School’s students include discussions, presentations, tours, team-based activities, and work sessions. Local individuals and organizations participate in many of these activities so that students can better understand the local context. Students also work on longer-term challenge projects that address a range of social issues. Experiential learning at Minerva Schools is designed to develop curiosity, empathy, resilience, cooperation, focus, accountability, and drive.
During the first year, Minerva students live in a residence hall in San Francisco. Each semester after that, students move to residence halls in one of six cities around the world: Seoul, Hyderabad, Berlin, Buenos Aires, London, and Taipei. Each residence hall is a leased residential building that provides shared kitchens, restroom facilities, and communal lounge spaces. There are no traditional meal plans. Students choose their meal preferences from a variety of restaurants, markets, and shops nearby in each city. Residence Halls are managed by professional student affairs staff on the premises.
Minerva does not offer its own undergraduate research programs. If a student is interested in pursuing individual research interests during the summer, they can do so under the supervision of a qualified researcher from another institution for which they can receive elective credit up to 8 units.
Students participate in one-hour discussions with industry leaders and practitioners to learn about the speaker’s career trajectory and broaden students’ understanding of possible career paths and the skillsets needed for success.
During the first year, students are assigned a member of the Minerva faculty as an academic advisor. When students choose a major (spring of second year), they choose a new faculty member, who teaches in their major(s), to advise them in subsequent years. Students will select an additional advisor in their third year when they begin their Capstone Project.
The Professional Development Agency at Minerva works with first-year students to identify summer internship opportunities throughout the world.
Students are encouraged to participate in Civic Projects, immersive experiences to build local professional relationships, and apply classroom knowledge to problems specific to the city in which they live. There are requirements each semester to complete graded assignments that translate coursework learning into problem-solving in an urban context. Students can leverage these civic projects, which involve sustained work with co-curricular partners in the community, to complete these requirements.