Books, books, and more books is what you’ll get at St. John’s-from Thucydides to Tolstoy, Euclid to Einstein. St. John’s attracts smart, intellectual, and nonconformist students who like to talk (and debate) about books and ideas. Easy to get in, not so easy to graduate. One of the few institutions with two coequal campuses. Students admitted to one can spend time at the other. St. John’s is a croquet powerhouse.

With no majors, departments, or professors (in the traditional sense), and a combined total of fewer than 900 students on its two campuses, St. John’s College is about as far from the typical postsecondary experience as you can get. Or maybe it’s much closer to what college used to be in the good old days; the Annapolis campus traces its roots to King William’s School-the Maryland colony’s “free” school-founded in 1696. More than two centuries later, in 1964, St. John’s opened a second campus in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to facilitate a doubling of enrollment and offer its superserious students a change of scenery. While the campuses may be a thousand miles apart, the Johnnies who populate them share an all-consuming quest for knowledge in the classical tradition. Their true teachers are the Great Books, about 200 of the most influential works of Western civilization. “Students at St. John’s College aspire to join the great conversations that began in the primeval forests and have expanded to what we think we know today,” says a sophomore. “We appreciate the value of tradition and its role in education.”

Physically, the two St. John’s campuses are more than just two time zones from one another. The colonial brick structures of the small urban campus in Annapolis, where the central classroom building dates from 1742, are squeezed into the city’s historic district. With the Maryland state capitol and the U.S. Naval Academy in the neighborhood, this campus exudes old-world charm, and its location at the confluence of the Severn River and the Chesapeake Bay allows students to participate in sailing, crew, and individual sculling. The Santa Fe campus sits on 250 landlocked acres in the sun-drenched capital of New Mexico, just two and a half miles from downtown. The adobe-style buildings reflect Spanish and Native American traditions, and their perch in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains offers beautiful views of the city below. Students at St. John’s in Santa Fe can get back to nature in nearby state and national forests, which offer hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, snowboarding, and skiing. Students may attend both campuses during their academic careers, and about 10 percent do so.

The St. John’s curriculum, known as “the program,” has every student read the Great Books in roughly chronological order. All students major in liberal arts, discussing the books in seminars, writing papers about them, and debating the riddles of human existence that they raise. Classes are led by tutors, who would be tenured professors anywhere else, but here are just the most advanced students. In a snub to the general trend in American academia toward more and more specialization, each tutor is required to teach any subject within the curriculum. As a group, the tutors help students divine wisdom from each other and from great philosophers, writers, scientists, and thinkers, from Thucydides and Tolstoy to Euclid and Einstein. “Because St. John’s is not a research institution, the tutor’s only job is teaching and engaging with students,” says one junior. Both campuses follow a curriculum that would have delighted poet and educator Matthew Arnold, who argued that the goal of education is “to know the best which has been thought and said in the world.”

There are no registration or scheduling hassles at St. John’s; the daily course of study is mapped out before students set foot on campus. The curriculum includes four years of mathematics, two years of ancient Greek and French, three years of laboratory science, two years of music, and, of course, four years of Great Books seminars. Freshmen study the Greeks, sophomores advance through the Romans and the Renaissance, juniors cover the 17th and 18th centuries, and seniors do the 19th and 20th centuries. Readings are from primary sources only: math from Euclid and Ptolemy, physics from Maxwell, psychology from Freud, and so on. The assumption is that the Great Books can stand on their own, representing the highest achievements of human intellect. Importantly, juniors and seniors also take seven-week electives, called preceptorials, where they study a book or topic one-on-one with a tutor. Electives include in-depth courses in computer science that may involve building a simple computer or, in typical St. John’s fashion, delving into Richard Feynman’s writings on the nature of computer language. In their final semester, seniors write a 20- to 60-page critical essay on a topic of their choice and must pass an hour-long oral examination by a committee of three tutors.

“There is a real sense of community and a collaborative feel to all of the academic work we do,” says one sophomore. “Our class conversations carry over into the dining hall, the quad, the common rooms, and coffee shop.” While there are no multiple-choice tests and no formal exams, courses are rigorous with a heavy load of reading every week and lots of writing. Since everyone’s doing the same thing, there’s a lot of pressure not to slack off. Some St. John’s students find they need a year off between the sophomore and junior years to decompress; some switch from Annapolis to Santa Fe or vice versa, and a relatively high percentage of students take more than six years to graduate. St. John’s prefers that all eight semesters be completed in residence-meaning no heading off campus for internships, study abroad programs, or the like, unless it’s during summer vacation.

A fifth of St. John’s students are transfers from more conventional colleges-a true act of devotion, since St. John’s requires everyone to begin as freshmen. Though the reasons students choose St. John’s are never simple, the common thread is a fierce love of learning. One Santa Fe student says, “Most students on campus identify as avid readers and also take a keen interest in the arts and outdoor activities.” The vast majority of students at both campuses are out-of-staters; international students represent 20 percent of the student body in Annapolis and 21 percent in Santa Fe. In Annapolis, 6 percent are Hispanic, 4 percent are Asian American, 1 percent are African American, and 5 percent are multiracial, while in Santa Fe those groups account for 10 percent, 2 percent, less than 1 percent, and 7 percent, respectively. One student reports that students are “more interested in political philosophy and theory” than in actually engaging in political or social activism. St. John’s lowered its sticker price by about 33 percent in 2019 and has since implemented a tuition freeze in an effort to make the school more affordable for students from low- and middle-income families. Limited merit scholarships are available, but not for athletic prowess.

Eighty percent of students in Annapolis and 85 percent of those in Santa Fe live in the college’s co-ed dorms; freshmen and sophomores are required to reside on campus. In Annapolis, the six “historic” residence halls are arranged around a central quad, while the two modern halls face College Creek. (Students warn that “historic” is code for “old,” and complain about erratic heating and cooling and a lack of hot water for morning showers.) In Santa Fe, the dorms are small, modern units clustered around courtyards. Most students get singles or divided double rooms. Upperclassmen typically live off campus in apartments and group houses. Meals at both campuses get average reviews.

“With the amount of reading and thinking done here, students most definitely need to find ways to have well-rounded lives. There are pick-up sports, dance groups, musical ensembles, and many other interest-based clubs to participate in,” says one student. A senior adds, “We don’t have any Greek organizations (besides study groups for reading ancient Greek!).” Drinking is a favored release for Johnnies, who have, of course, read Plato’s Symposium and are familiar with the likes of Fran#231;ois Rabelais (“Drink constantly. You will never die.”). Still, hard liquor is not allowed on campus, and parties and kegs must be registered. And although college-sponsored events are patrolled to prevent underage drinking, youngsters tip their share of brew at smaller dorm gatherings. According to one student, only those who are extremely rowdy or disruptive are reported to the dean’s office to face penalties. Road trips to Washington, D.C., Baltimore, New York, and Assateague State Park are options for Annapolis students with cars. In Santa Fe, nearby blues and jazz clubs are popular, though one student cautions that the town shuts down around 9 p.m.

Popular annual events on both campuses include Lola’s, a casino night sponsored by the senior class; the Arc party, held to celebrate the sophomores’ completion of the Old Testament; and Reality, a three-day festival of food, games, and general debauchery thrown for the seniors the weekend before commencement. “Sometimes we wear togas,” hints a junior. Intercollegiate club teams in crew, fencing, croquet, and women’s soccer are available in Annapolis. In fact, the Johnnies hold more national croquet titles than any other college, and the match against The Naval Academy each spring is the occasion for a genteel lawn party. Annapolis students relish their intramural teams, with names like the Druids and the Spartans. Santa Fe offers one intercollegiate sport-archery-and a handful of club sports. The nearby Rio Grande and Chama rivers offer excellent white-water canoeing, kayaking, and rafting, while the Hueco Tanks area offers rock climbing and bouldering; the Taos Ski Valley and Ski Santa Fe are excellent in the winter months. The Outdoor Programs Office organizes trips and makes athletic equipment available for use.

Students at St. John’s are as passionate about learning as their peers at other schools are about basketball rivalries or blowout parties. And while those larger colleges and universities try desperately to grow and change, St. John’s cherishes its traditions-including the mandate that seniors wear formal academic dress to their oral examinations, which are open to the public. As one happy Johnnie reflects, “A heated discussion about Plato on the grassy knoll is the type of sight that reminds me why I love this place.”

-Fiske Guide