About three fifths of the full-time faculty at New College hold doctorates. The college has three routes for undergraduates to take to earn a bachelor of arts degree. The first option is the Humanities Program, in which students complete an interdisciplinary curriculum and participate in a three-unit practicum in a community organization. Students focus on one of 11 areas of emphasis: arts and social change, jazz studies, Latin American studies, ecological studies, integrated health studies, politics and society, queer consciousness and cultures, poetics, writing and literature, sport in society, or psychology. Select students may receive up to a year's worth of college credit for previous life or work experience. The second option is the Weekend College, which gives working adults with previous college credit the opportunity to complete their degrees. Participants attend seminars and do independent research projects. Students in the Weekend College tend to be between the ages of 30 and 50. The final option, the World College Institute, takes a global-studies approach to education. Students must study abroad for one or two semesters. Areas of emphasis include art and society, cultural meaning and change, and international service and development.

The School of Humanities also has offerings at the graduate level, such as the Arts and Social Change Master of Arts Program and the Graduate Poetics Master of Fine Arts Program. Other study opportunities are available through New College's Graduate School of Psychology and the Public Interest Law School.