Founded in 1946, it remained intentionally small, operating as a self-governing community with students following self-designed degree plans culminating in a thesis.

Marlboro College was founded in 1946 by Walter F. Hendricks, who had been inspired by his time as director of English at Biarritz American University.

[2] The first students were primarily freshmen but included some sophomores and juniors and one senior, Hugh Mulligan, who in 1948 became the first Marlboro graduate.

[4] In 2012, Marlboro instituted the Beautiful Minds Challenge, an essay contest for high school students with full or partial scholarships and other awards as prizes.

The Renaissance Scholars program, instituted in 2015 with the objective of attracting new students from every state and increasing diversity, caused a rise in enrollment to approximately 200 in fall 2016.

[8] In 2018, Marlboro's small size and dwindling enrollment led the Board of Trustees to begin exploring merging with another college or university.

It moved to the main college campus in Marlboro in April 2017,[22] and after that offered courses increasingly online[23] and instituted a teach-out.

Students, faculty, and staff made decisions together in weekly "Town Meetings",[5] and there was an elected community court.

Students, faculty, and staff served on elected committees that played a role in hiring decisions and steering the curriculum.

[citation needed] The Serkin Performing Arts Center has a 125-seat auditorium, an electronic music lab, practice rooms with baby grand pianos and a 5,000-square foot dance studio.

The Snyder Center for the Visual Arts, housing studios, classrooms, and gallery spaces in 14,000 square feet, opened in May 2016.

[33] The former Marlboro campus was sold in May 2020 to Democracy Builders, founded by Seth Andrew, which intended to use it for a low-residency, low-cost college program for low-income students.

[39] In February 2021, Andrew announced that Democracy Builders had sold the campus to "Type 1 Civilization Academy" via a quitclaim deed.

[44] The Marlboro Music Festival formed the subsidiary nonprofit organization, Potash Hill, Inc. to manage the property.