St. John鈥檚 Undergraduate Program
At the heart of St. John’s is a liberal arts curriculum focused on reading and discussing many of the greatest books and most important questions in history. This is perhaps the most distinctive undergraduate curriculum of any college in America. Our students read the original writings of great thinkers across 3,000 years of history, engage in vigorous classroom discussion with fewer than 20 students around the seminar table, and study interdisciplinary ideas across the humanities and sciences without limiting students to the restrictions of siloed majors. Read about the program in the words of our faculty, and learn about the reading list, subjects, and classes below.
For a current schedule of seminar readings, see the Santa Fe Seminar Reading List Schedule or Annapolis Seminar Reading List Schedule
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St. John鈥檚 Academic Program Glossary
| Tutor | Faculty at St. John’s are called "tutors." Professors "profess," but at St. John’s the faculty facilitate conversation in the classroom. |
| Seminar | The heart of the academic program, seminar meets Mondays and Thursdays in the evenings. In seminar, Johnnies discuss interdisciplinary texts from across the curriculum with two tutors and fewer than 21 students. |
| Tutorial | Tutorials focus on three disciplines: mathematics, language, and music. There are four years of mathematics, two years of ancient Greek, two years of French, and two years of music. |
| Laboratory | For three years, students study the sciences in a hands-on laboratory. The sciences at St. John’s include biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, and genetics. The laboratory work is still rooted in original texts, reading (and recreating) the theories and experiments of people like Archimedes, Newton, and Einstein. |
| Lecture | Every Friday evening students are encouraged to attend a lecture. This is the only lecture in the St. John’s curriculum. |
| Preceptorial | For seven weeks in junior and senior years, seminar is suspended so that students may choose elective classes called preceptorials. |
| Don Rag | Instead of receiving grades, Johnnies meet with their tutors at a "Don Rag" to receive an oral report of their progress. |