At St. John's, all students pursue a rigorous four-year liberal arts curriculum through which they read and engage directly with foundational works of Western philosophy, literature, history, theology, economics, music, mathematics, and laboratory science. We have a second campus in Santa Fe, NM.
St. Johns distinctive curriculum and educational practices have long given it a highly respected place among American colleges and universities. Its strong commitment to collaborative inquiry and to the study of original texts makes St. Johns a particularly vibrant community of learning. Through close engagement with the works of some of the worlds greatest writers and thinkers—from Homer, Plato, and Euclid to Nietzsche, Einstein, and Woolf—students at St. Johns grapple with fundamental questions that confront us as human beings. As they participate in lively discussions and throw themselves into the activity of translating, writing, demonstrating, conducting experiments, and analyzing musical compositions, St. Johns students learn to speak articulately, read attentively, reason effectively, and think creatively.
All classes at St. Johns are small and students take active responsibility for their education, formulating questions and developing their thoughts in dialogue with one another. Faculty at St. Johns share the colleges dedication to an education that privileges intellectual engagement over rigid expertise; they regard themselves as guides and mentors whose task is not to transmit information, but to pose questions that further students ability to develop as thinkers in their own right. Every students contribution receives serious consideration as classes delve into discussions of foundational works of philosophy, literature, history, theology, politics, economics, psychology, music, mathematics, and the laboratory sciences. By immersing themselves in these investigations, by examining their own ideas in conversation with faculty and fellow students, and by exploring their insights in their own written work, students acquire formidable skills and cultivate enduring habits of critical analysis and thinking. They learn to take themselves and others seriously as reasoning and feeling beings, to work together as collaborators and colleagues, and to lead fruitful lives of independent reflection and shared activity. In addition to the undergraduate program, St. John's students may earn master of arts degrees through the Graduate Institute.
