The Telluride House, formally the Cornell Branch of the Telluride Association (CBTA), and commonly referred to as just "Telluride", is a highly selective residential community of Cornell University students and faculty. Founded in 1910 by American industrialist L. L. Nunn, the house grants room and board scholarships to a number of undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and faculty members affiliated with the university's various colleges and programs. A fully residential intellectual society, the Telluride House takes as its pillars democratic self-governance, communal living and intellectual inquiry. Students granted the house's scholarship are known as Telluride Scholars.

Deep Springs College is a private junior college in Deep Springs, California. With the number of undergraduates restricted to 26, the college is one of the smallest institutions of higher education in the United States. In L. Jackson Newell's 1982 assessment of Deep Springs College, he states that it "ranks second among the nation's institutions of higher learning with respect to the aptitude of the students it admits". Though it offers an associate degree, most students transfer into a four-year college after completing their studies. Those enrolled pay no tuition and are given room and board.