It's the most difficult college to get into in America. And, no, it's not in Palo Alto or anywhere in the Ivy League. In fact, it's about as far away from the Ivy League as you can get.
It's an obscure school, with a campus that doesn't even show up on a map.
News Specialist Kim Johnson visited the school and has this special report.
It's a place full of contradictions.
Tuition is about $40,000 a year, but the students don't have to pay.
There is a top notch faculty, but the students decide the curriculum.
It's an innovative modern campus, but it's also a working ranch -- we call it, the Renaissance Ranch."
Nestled next to the imposing Sierras lies Deep Springs Valley, the high-desert home to an elite enclave of some of the best minds in the world, though it appears more cattle ranch than college.
Call it a renaissance ranch, where cows are as much a part of the curriculum as the classics.
Jack Newell / President, Deep Springs College: "Deep Springs is an idea, an idea that education ought to engage the whole person. They'll be preparing for a whole life, so education ought to be a whole thing you engage in."
And a whole experience it is...one some have chosen over the chance to go to schools like Harvard, Yale and Stanford...students here not only study rigorously, they actually run the college, charting their own academic agenda.
Public speaking and composition are the only required courses--every other course is selected and designed by students -- the Deep Springers recruit and hire the faculty,
and decide who's admitted to the school next year.
They work the ranch, repairing fences & buildings, and tending to the animals.
They clean and cook many of their own meals, and they say it's a full plate.
David Hambrick / Student: "You've got college classes for the first time. You've got all of this labor. You're working on committees, hiring faculty. It's a lot to manage at once."
They live, learn, eat and work together in a tight-knit community, as Deep Springers have been doing for 85 years.
L.L. Nunn opened the college in 1917. The mining magnate dedicated his fortune to educating the best and the brightest, and believed labor, and self-governance were as much a part of education as academics.
It was a bold experiment Nunn felt could only succeed if it were isolated from the outside world.
And isolated it is. There's civilization on the other side of the Sierras, but one can't get there from here, and within 50 miles up the road are a couple of tiny towns. But the nearest city, which is Las Vegas, is that way, and it's four hours by car.
Telephones and the internet keep the college in contact with the outside world, but even those go out when the wind blows hard, and it does often. It's inconvenient, but an ideal environment, Nunn thought, for cultivating young men who will likely lead the world in some capacity someday.
Ross Peterson / Visiting Faculty: "Hopefully, and this was Nunn's idea, they'll understand where their bread comes from. They'll understand that things just don't happen, that someone is toiling out there so they can have good things."
Nunn also hoped these privileged few would understand their obligation to give back to society.
More on that Tuesday on Eyewitness News at Ten.
Oh and by the way, the average SAT score for students at Deep Springs is 1,500.
