About the Center for Continuing Education

If you have decided to pursue the challenge and fulfillment of earning your bachelor’s degree, the Center for Continuing Education at Sarah Lawrence College is your entry into one of the most complete and prestigious liberal arts programs in the country.

For more than 40 years, the Center has been preparing adults to begin, or resume, their college careers. Designed specifically to help adults make the transition to academic life, the Center allows them to begin their studies in small classes taught by accessible and supportive faculty. In recognition of the value of professional and other life experiences returning students might have had, SAT scores are not required for admission.

After one to four courses at the Center, adult students join the regular student body at Sarah Lawrence, with access to the entire undergraduate curriculum and the many unique features of a Sarah Lawrence education:

• Small classes
• Individual conferences
• Close and continuous work with dons (faculty advisors)
• Intimate and relaxed campus surroundings
• Access to a wide variety of cultural and academic events
• Close proximity to New York City
• A bright and committed student body with diverse creative and intellectual interests

The founder of the center, Esther Raushenbush—distinguished Sarah Lawrence teacher, dean and, later, president—said, “There is no magic in ages 18 to 22 for students in higher education.”

She believed that the College’s educational philosophy—small classes held around a table to encourage participation and intellectual exchange, and regular one-to-one conferences between students and committed, supportive faculty—was ideally suited to returning adult students. She predicted that adult students would thrive in, and enrich, the already vibrant intellectual and artistic atmosphere at Sarah Lawrence. As more than four decades have shown, she was right.