Why St. John’s

St. John’s has one academic program: reading and discussing the great books of Western civilization. Alongside names such as Plato, Shakespeare, Euclid, Nietzsche, Einstein, and Austen, Johnnies wrestle with ideas in interdisciplinary classes with fewer than 20 students. The shared academic experience includes no required lectures, majors, or back rows—and is part of the reason St. John’s was named one of the 44 “Colleges That Change Lives”. Johnnies are original and unconventional, love big questions and discussion, and engage in dialogue with the thinkers, authors, scientists, philosophers, musicians, mathematicians, politicians, and more who changed our world.