Hampshire College is an experimenting private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Its alternative curriculum is very different from most traditional colleges'. It was founded in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education by four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Together, they are known as the Five Colleges.

The College is generally well-reputed for its film, writing and art programs. In some fields it is among the top undergraduate institutions in graduate-school enrollment; fifty-six percent of its alumni have at least one graduate degree. Its School of Cognitive Science was the first interdisciplinary undergraduate program in cognitive science and still has few peers.