ONE OF AMERICA'S MOST SELECTIVE COLLEGES REQUIRES HARD LABOR, FORBIDS DRINKING AND SITS ISOLATED IN THE CALIFORNIA DESERT

"60 MINUTES" GOES TO DEEP SPRINGS FOR A VERY DIFFERENT LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Call it remote learning. Around two dozen of the world's brightest attend Deep Springs College, miles from the nearest town in the California desert, where students shoulder the responsibilities and challenges of life on a working ranch in addition to a full roster of academic work. There is no tuition. There is no drinking, and there are no football games. And students are rarely allowed to leave the remote valley where the school is situated. The small student body also governs itself and voted to allow Jon Wertheim and 60 MINUTES cameras into their unique world. Wertheim's story will be broadcast Sunday, Oct. 10 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Deep Springs was founded in 1917 by an industrialist named L.L. Nunn, who believed that the desert held spiritual qualities and offered students a bulwark against the distractions of the modern world. Nunn put up initial money for the school, and today donations from alumni help underwrite its free two-year education, meant to produce future leaders. Most transfer to selective four-year universities after graduating Deep Springs.

Leadership begins with responsibility, and students must put in at least 20 hours of hard, sometimes dangerous labor per week on top of a rigorous academic course load. The stakes are real. "If I can't grow a field of alfalfa, then the cows will not have anything to eat," says student Alice Owen. "If you can't get dinner ready on time, you have to apologize to people, and sometimes the mistakes are really hard to fix, or they're unfixable, and then you just have to take the weight of, 'Well, I messed up really big,'" she tells Wertheim.

Deep Springs attracts a very particular type of student, explains Ziani Paiz, who gave up a scholarship to Berkeley to attend. "We're typically pretty awkward. In the real world, we're definitely not the cool kids... We're not usually some delicate people," she says.

Paiz is from East L.A. and before attending Deep Springs, says her only experience on horseback had been a pony ride. At Deep Springs, she found herself driving cattle up a remote mountaintop for the summer. "[Paiz has] a lot of try, a lot of determination. She has a lot of desire. And that's what it takes," says Deep Springs Ranch Manager Tim Gipson. Gipson says there are a unique set of qualities that unite the students who attend Deep Springs. "One thing they have in common," says Gipson, "is that they're searching for something different and unique... They're really searching for a deeper meaning of life."

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