How was Deep Springs? A friend of mine told me about it and visited the campus ("campus"?), because he considered going, but he never did. I'm interested in hearing what someone who actually lived there thinks about it.
Deep Springs is located in a naturally majestic place (the high desert valley and surrounding mountains are breathtaking), and the school was the most vibrant intellectual community I ever knew. The students were very dedicated to learning, and most of them were also dedicated to the goals of the school: labor on the ranch/farm and communal governance. Students have a lot of power at DS to make their own decisions (and mistakes): they admit each incoming class, hire and fire the faculty, and choose their own curriculum from what the faculty can offer. The student body is usually around 25 people, and the rest of the community (faculty and their families, admin and farm and ranch operations) tends to double that to about 50. Because it is a two-year school, it changes and leaks institutional memory more quickly than other places, at least among the students. There are many Deep Springs, and each DSer walks away with his own vision and experience of it. The labor, governance and academic demands, during my time at least, made it so intense as to be excessive. It was probably a bit much for a bunch of 18 year olds. A few students always leave because of that. I hear it's better now.