St. John's College

Private · Moderately Selective · NM

Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel (CC BY 4.0)

School data & stats

TypePrivate

LocationNM · West

SettingRural

Undergrads368

Student:faculty8:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate39.4%

6-yr grad rate54.9%

Drop-out rate17.6%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$41k

Out-of-state tuition$41k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity35.6%

Gender diversity50%

International12.2%

Identity—

Overview

St. John's College's Santa Fe campus is one of two locations, with Annapolis, Maryland, of the "Great Books" college: there are no majors, no textbooks, and no lectures in the conventional sense. Every student follows the same four-year sequence, reading foundational works of the Western tradition chronologically, from Homer and Euclid through Einstein, and discussing them in small, tutor-led seminars rather than being taught in a professor-lecture format.

Academics

The entire curriculum is the program; there are no electives or majors to choose, and the same required sequence of primary texts in literature, philosophy, mathematics, science, music, and language runs through all four years. Instruction happens through seminar discussion, tutorials, and laboratory sessions, with faculty called tutors rather than professors, expected to teach across the full range of the curriculum rather than a single specialty. Students may spend a semester or year at the sister campus in Annapolis.

Campus & student life

The high-desert Santa Fe campus is small and intensely academic, with a culture built around discussion and ideas rather than conventional college social life or big-time athletics. Traditions include a croquet match against the Naval Academy tied to the Annapolis campus, and an unusually close, intellectual community shaped by every student working through the same shared curriculum at once.

Getting in

St. John's admissions process is genuinely different from most colleges: it does not weight standardized test scores heavily, and instead emphasizes a required essay on the applicant's intellectual habits and often a graded high school paper, looking for curiosity and comfort with rigorous discussion over conventional credentials.

After graduation

Graduates go on disproportionately to graduate school, particularly in law, philosophy, and other humanities and social science fields, and the shared-curriculum alumni network is known for staying closely connected around the college's distinctive intellectual identity.

Worth knowing

This program is not for students who want to choose a major or specialize early; the entire value proposition is the fixed Great Books sequence and seminar method, and prospective students should try to sit in on a seminar before applying, since the format itself is the primary reason to attend or not attend.

sjc.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate53.1%

Enrolled mid-50%SAT 1290–1460 · ACT 28–34

Test policyoptional

Rec letters2

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

AdmissionRolling

Applying