Study at Elton College is more self-directed than in traditional schooling, and students have the support and freedom to study what interests them. Professors will require certain work, and work must meet objective standards. There are transparent systems of accountability, and coaches and professors have very high expectations for students' behavior and work. All students must arrive to meetings with their professors and coaches prepared and have completed their work. All students must be producing work and growing their portfolio, knowledge, and mastery in order to continue their enrollment at the school.

Elton College offers a range of different financial aid options, Merit-Based Grants, Diversity & Inclusion Grants, Income Share Agreements, Living Stipends, Personal Loans through our loan partners. You will be awarded your financial aid package with your enrollment to the program, so if you are curious what you would qualify for, just enroll and see. It takes about 30 minutes. Elton students cannot qualify for any federal subsidized student loans or grants to attend Elton College as the program is accredited through the European Union.

You don't actually have to apply — just enroll directly. It takes about 30 minutes. The first month is for you to try Elton and for Elton to assess you. You can withdraw or Elton can dismiss you in the first month for a full refund if it is not a good fit. If you would like to get started, you can enroll directly using our Enrollment Form.

Yes. Elton College is a 501(c)3 non-profit. Many colleges claim to be "non-profit" while maintaining close, working relationships with for-profit consulting and management companies or earn enromous profits by investing their endowments in the stock market. Elton does not. We have no close relationship with any for-profit entity and we do not have an endowment that operates as a hedgefund. At present we are funded entirely by donations and the tuition of our students.

Students can begin studying immediately upon finishing their enrollment. Every three months there is a Cohort Kickoff where students who began in the last quarter form into a cohort.

Yes. You can work with your coach and professors to plan a trip overseas. Students who go abroad can continue to attend Elton College and keep working with their coach and professors. They will help you find learning experiences wherever you go and integrate your travel into your education.

Yes. There are only a few required meetings every week with your professors and coaches. Workshops that happen during the day will be recorded, so students who are not able to attend are able to watch online. Full Time students at Elton College should plan on roughly 30-35 hours of Elton work per week, so we recommend not working more than part time, so there is enough time to do the in depth study and projects that the Elton College program requires. There are also opportunities for jobs working for Elton College such as tutoring and event planning.

Elton College's calendar looks more like a job's than a school's. Elton College runs year round and takes only traditional holidays off. The only large vacation where everyone is gone is two weeks over the winter holidays. Students can take vacation at their discretion by putting in notice just like a job. Students are not reimbursed tuition for time they take off. This vacation time is technically unlimited vacation, but we recommend students don't miss more than eight weeks during any full year or more than three weeks at a time. If a student plans to take off more than a month, we recommend they go on a leave of absence which suspends their tuition payments.

An Elton College student's days consist of 2-4 hour periods of deep, focused work. The rest of their day is peppered with meetings with groups, teams, professors, friends, coaches, and Icons. Depending on when they work best, a student might setup their deep work time in the evening, morning, or afternoon, then schedule their other meetings around their deep work times.

Elton College is an online community. That means that our students connect online to share what they are working on, collaborate, and make friends. We have events, online hang outs, talent shows, open mic's, show-and-tell fairs, and spontaneous collaborative conferences called "unconferences". All of these mean making friends and close connections with other Elton College students.

Why do we think college should last four years? If everyone starts at different levels of preparation, learns at different paces, and has different learning goals, how could all students take the same time to finish? Traditional schooling is very inefficient because of seat-time requirements, required courses, scheduling conflicts, and availability of courses. Traditional college takes 4-6 years to complete. Elton College students are not constrained by the same requirements. They move at their own pace so can take as long as traditional school, but often only take 2.5-3 years to complete a bachelor's degree.

Yes, Elton College accepts transfer credits from colleges from around the US and the world. Elton College currently can only accept up to 50% of the credit towards a degree or certificate.

Students from anywhere in the world can come and study at Elton College. Elton College cannot currently sponsor student F-1 visas to the United States.

Tuition can be paid monthly through a recurring invoice.

Yes. Through its association with Woolf, Elton College offers accredited certificate, diplomas, bachelor's, and MBA degrees. Elton college is a member college of Woolf which operates within the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS), the largest and most sophisticated accreditation system in the world. Elton's degrees are equivalent to earning credits or a degree at a university in Germany or France. Since Elton's accreditation is European, Elton students do not qualify for US federal financial aid or student visas.

Absolutely. If you can achieve your goals with only one of those degrees — for instance if you earn a certificate in Computer Science, so long as you have a good portfolio and interview well, that could be enough to launch your career in software engineering.

No. Since Elton College is accredited through the European Comission, Eltonians cannot access federal finanical aid (neither Pell grants nor subsidized student loans). Since Elton's tuition is already lower than most universities, and the completion time is 1.5-2x faster, students still find Elton's tuition competitve with other schools. Contact an Elton enrollment officer to discuss your financial planning if you are considering enrolling.

Elton College was built both for people who don't know what they want to do and want to explore, and for people who have a good idea of what they want to do and want the space, time, and support to get started and succeed. The only people who won't thrive at Elton College are people who don't know what they want to do and don't care to find out, or who know what they want to do but refuse to get started.

What a lovely, complex little question! At Elton College we take a very old definition of liberal arts—it was Aristotle who invented the idea and he defined them as "those skills that support a free citizen in a free society." So, what are the liberal arts of today? What skills support a free person in a free society today? We have built Elton College to be the perfect place to explore, define for one's self, and study the liberal arts in this original sense of the phrase.

Being well rounded is an excellent goal—to be a polymath, a multipotenialite, a Renaissance person. So how do we become well rounded in practice? At Elton College we believe having the freedom to study what fascinates you is the most natural and rapid way to develop a broad and rich palette of interests and knowledge.

We find that when students are free to choose, students generally take the path of most resistance — not least. That's right — the path of *most* resistance.