The College Year in Athens experience is designed to guide students to a greater understanding and appreciation of Greece—ancient, medieval and modern—and the surrounding region. The program of studies juxtaposes the history and contributions of ancient Greece with the Greece of today: a country situated at the confluence of Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, partaking of the culture of her neighbors to the north, east and south, and bound to them by history and geography.

From the start, the academic aim of College Year in Athens has been to enable students to come to grips with their subject matter in ways that are unavailable in other locations and contexts. Guided by the philosophy that the engagement of the senses is essential to learning, the program of studies emphasizes in-the-field instruction and direct contact, wherever possible, with the sites, monuments, landscape and works of art hitherto relegated to the lecture hall or library. This special type of on-site teaching has exposed thousands of students to the marvels of ancient Greek art, history and architecture, bringing them into the Minoan palaces, the citadels of the Mycenaean world, the temples and stadia of the Greek sanctuaries, the tombs of Ancient Macedonia, as well as museums all over Greece. The city of Athens, with its libraries, museums, and monuments, is a living laboratory for research.