Hampshire and a few dozen other schools founded on similar principles were once the cutting edge of academia. But now, families facing sky-high tuitions are looking for a more direct link between college and career, college officials say. As a result, many of these small, experimental schools are being forced to re-examine their missions, merge with more traditional institutions or, in some cases, shut down.

“What I see happening under the aegis of ‘financial responsibility’ is a purging of colleges that serve unconventional students,” said Eva-Maria Swidler, a faculty member at Goddard College, an alternative college in Plainfield, Vt. “What this purge leaves behind is a system of higher education even more focused on either training only the elites in the liberal arts or training everyone else as obedient workers for a corporate work force.”

The problems alternative colleges face point to a larger crisis in higher education: a shrinking college-age population, especially in the Northeast and Upper Midwest, where many of these institutions are clustered. But they are also confronting a growing skepticism of the liberal arts, often a focus of nontraditional programs, and a desire for a higher return on investment.

[Rural colleges across the country are facing similar challenges.]

Tuition, room and board at Hampshire College is more than $63,000 a year, which is typical for elite private colleges. (Many of the 1,100 or so Hampshire students, down from 1,400 five years ago, receive significant financial aid.) In 1970, tuition, room and board at private four-year colleges and universities was about $3,000 a year — about $20,000, adjusted for inflation — according to federal statistics.

Dr. Nelson, who has been threatened with a vote of no-confidence from the faculty, said Hampshire was negotiating with potential partners, but declined to reveal details. Goddard is struggling to raise $1.4 million to keep going. Green Mountain College, an environmentally focused college in Poultney, Vt., has announced that it will close at the end of the spring semester, after failing to attract enough students to keep going.