Not everyone needs or wants to attend college in a major city. These remote colleges offer scenic landscapes, fresh air, and a secluded environment.

1. Western Montana University - Dillon, Montana

!enter image description

# # ##Image of Dillon, Montana by JMM Photoblog

To get an idea of just how remote Dillon, Montana is, just Google Maps search the city, and ever so slowly start to zoom out. You'll see huge parks, mountains, and reservoirs until you finally hit some small towns, the closest being Butte, Montana, which is over 60 miles away. Nearest distance to a "big" city? Try Boise, Idaho, which is 207 miles away.

The school makes up for it’s distance from towns with it’s surroundings. Montana is absolutely stunning.

2. College of the Ozarks - Point Lookout, Missouri

!enter image description

# # ##Image from Chris and Ed Travel

This school is located in the unincorporated community of Point Lookout, Missouri, and the closest city, Springfield, is about an hour drive away. Although who has time for a big city when you're simultaneously going to school and working to pay it off? Ozarks is tuition free, with students working on campus to pay for their education — frequently in a neato-looking log cabin.

3. Deep Springs College - Deep Springs, California

!enter image description

# # ##Image from Brain L Frank Photo

It's hard to get more remote than Deep Springs College, a self-sustaining, two-year all-male institution located an hour from the nearest town. Deep Springs is unconventional in many ways. While not recognized by the federal government, it’s an extremely selective and academically-challenging program, where students are involved in running the school by taking charge of admissions and hiring and firing faculty.

Being isolated is pretty much Deep Springs' modus operandi, with only around 25-30 students attending the school annually. The school focuses on: "academics, labor, and self-governance." The great efforts necessary just to get to the school is put best in a 2000 Harvard Crimson article:

“You ride for hours through the barren Nevada desert. When the Deep Springs van picks you up in Lida Junction, it climbs over the easternmost peaks of the Sierra Nevada, into California, and descends into the Deep Springs Valley, population 42 — the students and faculty of the college, plus a few hundred head of cattle."

So, pretty remote.

4. Great Basin College - Elko, Nevada

!enter image description

# # ##Image from WikiMedia Commons

Want to get from Great Basin College in Elko, Nevada, to a major population center? Try driving 230 miles east to Salt Lake City. Your next best bets are Boise and Reno, both nearly 300 miles away.

The historic mining-town college, which offers two and four year degrees, does offer views of the Ruby Mountain and camping, hiking, and fishing in the Jarbidge wilderness. According to Great Basin's website, the school also hosts an annual "Cowboy Poetry Gathering."

Sources:

Sofen, A. (0200, March 17). Transfers From Deep Springs College Face Unique Transition.Transfers From Deep Springs College Face Unique Transition. Retrieved April 30, 2014, from The Crimson

Elko Campus. (n.d.). Retrieved April 30, 2014, from Great Basin College

About C of O. (n.d.). College of the Ozarks. Retrieved April 30, 2014, from College of the Ozarks

The Keeter Center at College of the Ozarks. (n.d.). The Keeter Center at College of the Ozarks. Retrieved April 30, 2014, from The Keeter Center at College of the Ozarks