Marlboro's mission "to teach students to think clearly and to learn independently" is best served when students experience a wide variety of ideas, opinions and cultural backgrounds. Students are thereby better prepared to recognize and then to acquire the skills and understanding they may need to succeed as citizens in the wider world. Marlboro seeks, then, to sustain a community diverse in the background experience, interests, ideas and cultural practice of its members and to engage one another constructively toward that end.

In 1997, Marlboro College created the Graduate Center in nearby Brattleboro. The Graduate Center offers a wide variety of education and training programs, including graduate and distance education, corporate training and joint offerings with other organizations.