I’m trying to recall the name of a small liberal arts college that sent me an enrollment brochure while I was in high school. By liberal arts, I mean all the students study the same thing, mainly a focus on reading of classics, latin, and greek with maybe some history, and if I recall correctly, the grading was non-standard or non-existent. I thought it would be interesting, but opted for another college due to finances. I think this college is located in the southwest US, California or Arizona.
St. John’s College, Santa Fe, New Mexico (also has a campus in Maryland)
I’m not sure that it was St. Johns. I don’t recall it being named after a saint or offering any science classes. It could be though.
Sounds a lot like Reed College, but that’s in the Northwest (Oregon).
Other than the two St. John’s College campuses, I don’t think anyplace exactly fits your description:
Another college vaguely fitting your description, although it’s not quite the same, is Deep Springs College:
Perhaps some of the colleges listed in the following article could be it, although I’m not sure how close any of them are:
In particular, there’s my alma mater, New College, although it doesn’t really fit your description either:
I remember getting brochures from several of them including Reed College and Evergreen State College, but the one I’m thinking of is in the southwest US. It had the most offbeat curriculum of any, and the brochure’s content consisted mainly of a listing of great books.
Then you must be thinking of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, because it exactly fits your description. I suspect you’re just misremembering when you say that it wasn’t named after a saint (and, incidentally, St. John’s isn’t a religious college). Also, St. John’s doesn’t do much science in its curriculum. You read some old science books from centuries ago and do some laboratory work.
In case clarification is called for: this is not what “liberal arts” or a liberal arts college means in general.
Except for that, I was thinking Hampshire College.
Could you be thinking of New College near Tampa FL?
I don’t know a lot about the southwestern campus, but St. John’s College of Annapolis, Maryland has the “Great Books” curriculum. I got a brochure from them in the 1990’s, and one of the things that they mentioned was that although a large number of students go on to work in IT, people were not hacking away at computers all day, they were reading classics. I don’t actually know much about how they grade, but I’ve heard about some schools that use more old-fashioned “narrative” evaluation where you don’t get a letter or numerical grade per se (e.g. “90%”, “A”, or “C+”), you get a long and somewhat winding essay about what you did well, what you didn’t do so well on, and what growth areas you could have. It made for a much more complex transcript, but still left you with one that had some meaning. What was different was that the evaluation was very personalized and couldn’t easily be compared against anyone else’s. Yes, we all have growth areas. But are your growth areas more serious?
St. John’s of Annapolis was originally called “King William’s School”, and apparently changed its name 200+ years ago when the idea of having a royally-sponsored institution become quite unpopular. There was such ire that people became violent in their wishes not to have a king at all. You might have heard of that incident.
Just the one I was thinking of, since I got brochures from them, but I suspect the OP would remember Deep Springs’ connection with a cattle ranch in addition to remembering its academic priorities.
OP, roughly what year did you receive this brochure? Back in the 1960s or within the last 10 years… If it was a long time ago it might have been an educational experiment which has changed greatly.
Evergreen State College, btw, is the alma mater of Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons.
Plus that it’s free and only a two-year school. It’s often included in lists of “unusual” colleges.
Are you thinking of Prescott College in Prescott, Arizona?
I remembered the free part - but had forgotten the 2-year part (I got the brochure in 1981 or 1982 after all).
Though I could well just not remember correctly, I still don’t think it’s St. John’s. It was a tiny college, maybe 1500 students, somewhere I think in S. Cal.
[ul]
[li]Small (~350 students)[/li][li]one degree only (B.A. in liberal arts)[/li][li]“Great Books” oriented (The college replaces textbooks with original sources, the seminal works in all the major disciplines")[/li][li]in Southern California[/li][/ul]
Only misses on the grading issue (which is unusual in tone but not in practice).
Thomas Aquinas is also a saint, so if we’re going to go be whether it fits that part of GreenElf’s description, it couldn’t be that either. However, just like the two St. John’s, their curriculum is based on the Great Books. In the article is a list of colleges that in some sense use the Great Books: