New College of Florida is a public liberal arts college in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 1960. It serves as the designated honors college of the State University System of Florida, offering a distinctive academic model that uses narrative evaluations in place of letter grades and requires a senior thesis. Its roughly 110-acre bayfront campus sits along Sarasota Bay on the former estate of circus magnate Charles Ringling, and new students are required to live on campus.