An improvised college in NYC
FractalU offers in-person classes at low cost, to anyone in New York City. We’re a community aspiring to learn, conduct research, and do great work together.
We want to democratize enjoyable lifelong education and public research culture by creating an easily replicable model for a community-driven university — and the economic, social, and creative opportunities that universities create. But really we are just in it for the love of learning and doing hard work alongside friends. We think good theory exists to serve good practice, so our programs prioritize practical skills first, with supplementary theory coming later.
The intellectual + cultural commons is something we create together, whether it’s on twitter or over the dinner table. We want to help students become public writers, researchers, scientists, artists, and engineers, all collaborating together in public.
We look forward to collaborating with and learning from you.
Want to teach a class or otherwise get involved? Reach out to fractalu@fractalnyc.com
How It Works
In-person Learning: Students attend class at one of our locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan. We meet each week (sometimes more than once!) and share our work together. Class sizes are small.
A Written Culture: To create a public culture of learning and practice, students and faculty publish their work often — an abundance of essays, projects, research, events, or just blog posts.
Community: FractalU is part of the Fractal community, which hosts dozens of events per month.
Fee Structure:
Courses have accessible, sliding-scale fees (often $30-300), though fees vary.
The Team
Andrew Rose, Founder Founder: Fractal, Fractal Tech. Prev: first engineer at Culdesac, and Interim Head of School at Guidepost Montessori at Museum Mile
Priya Rose, Founder Founder, Fractal. Prev: first engineer at AirGarage
Tyler Alterman, Founder Prev: coalition builder of Effective Altruism, Reducetarianism, and XRisk, startup person at Reserve and The Think Tank
Fractal Collective, Volunteer Team Fractal is an assortment of writers, designers, musicians, entrepreneurs, artists, coders, and scientists. We launch pro-social projects in NYC and have fun doing it.
Subscription Preferences
If you just want to be emailed when we launch new semesters and programs, you can adjust your subscription preferences here. Otherwise we’ll sometimes send you interviews with our teachers, and more!
