Sarah Lawrence College

Bronxville, NY · founded 1926 · 1,700 students · liberal arts college · Skyline Conference (NCAA Division III)

Known for: Sarah Lawrence is renowned for its distinctive, rigorous liberal arts education centered on a seminar-conference system with highly individualized, one-on-one student-faculty tutorials, fostering intense intellectual exploration and creative expression.

Rankings

U.S. News liberal arts: #66

Top programmes

Creative Writing
Literature
Psychology
Visual & Performing Arts
Social Sciences
Film History

Notable alumni

J.J. Abrams — Film and television director, producer, writer (Star Wars, Star Trek, Lost)
Yoko Ono — Avant-garde artist, musician, and peace activist
Barbara Walters — Legendary broadcast journalist and television personality
Rahm Emanuel — Former Mayor of Chicago and White House Chief of Staff
Alice Walker — Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'The Color Purple'
Cary Fukunaga — Academy Award-winning film director and writer (No Time to Die, True Detective)
Vera Wang — Fashion designer known for bridal wear
Lauren Ambrose — Actress known for 'Six Feet Under' and 'Servant'

Traditions

May Fair (spring festival)
Founder's Day
The annual Lip Sync battle
Midnight Breakfast during finals

If Sarah Lawrence College were…

As a food: Artisanal Brooklyn burrata with heirloom tomatoes and microgreens — Precious, carefully curated, expensive for what it is, and consumed by people who want you to know they have taste. It's undeniably high-quality but also performatively intellectual.
As an athlete: Megan Rapinoe — Outspoken, progressive, unapologetically individualistic, and more interested in making a statement than playing by traditional rules. Both are celebrated by their base and eye-rolled at by traditionalists.
As a person alive today: Phoebe Waller-Bridge — Whip-smart, literary, feminist, darkly funny, and successful on her own idiosyncratic terms. She embodies the Sarah Lawrence ethos of creative intellectualism without commercial pandering.
As a historical figure: Anaïs Nin — The diarist and novelist who lived for introspection, defied convention, and turned her inner life into high art. Sarah Lawrence students see themselves in her radical subjectivity and literary ambition.
As a movie or TV show: The Squid and the Whale — Set in 1980s Brooklyn intellectual circles, it's all about pretentious literary types, messy divorces, and children raised on Kafka instead of sports. The neurotic, over-educated milieu is pure Sarah Lawrence energy.
As a US president: Woodrow Wilson — Intellectual, idealistic, professorial, and convinced of his own moral superiority. Both have progressive credentials but also a complicated legacy involving elitism and insularity.
As a city: Brooklyn (specifically Park Slope) — Progressive, literary, expensive, filled with people who moved there to escape the mainstream, and home to endless coffee shops where everyone's working on a screenplay or memoir.
As an element: Silver — Reflective, precious, softer than gold, historically associated with the moon and femininity. Sarah Lawrence is all about reflection, introspection, and a gentler (if more expensive) path than the Ivy grind.
As a car: 1971 Citroën DS — Idiosyncratic liberal arts haven where students design their own curricula and don don narratives instead of grades—French avant-garde engineering meets Westchester artistry. Unconventional, elegant, intellectual, and ut

Campus life

Campus life is intensely intellectual, creative, and politically engaged, with a strong emphasis on student-led initiatives and a close-knit, progressive community. Social life revolves heavily around academic and artistic pursuits, with numerous student organizations, performances, and lectures, rather than a traditional Greek or varsity sports scene.

The film, scored

This profile answers “if Sarah Lawrence College were a movie or TV show?” with The Squid and the Whale (2005). Set in 1980s Brooklyn intellectual circles, it's all about pretentious literary types, messy divorces, and children raised on Kafka instead of sports. The neurotic, over-educated milieu is pure Sarah Lawrence energy. It sits in the 66th percentile on rankquant, which re-centres every critic score on the reviewer who gave it, so a percentile means position against peers rather than a raw star average. The full film & TV catalogue ranks the rest the same way.