# Whooooaaah... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 7, 2004, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421 "2004-09-07T00:52:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/1 "2004-09-07T00:52:15Z")
Alternate Title: Hey, I’m at college, and finally have both internet access and a few moments of free time! So: I’m now broadcasting live from sunny (VERY sunny) St. John’s College, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Got to Santa Fe on Tuesday, August 24, registration and orientation started the 25th. Classes started a week ago today; and may I reiterate: _whoa_. There are lots of things that they tell you and a lot more that they don’t. Some things they tell you but you rather stupidly need to experiment with yourself before you believe them. They’re not lying when they say that things are easier up here: things like getting drunk and getting sunburned. The people are awesome here: it’s an extremely intellectual (some say downright geeky) community, and I absolutely love it. It’s so wonderful to be with other rabid book geeks; it’s wonderful to be in a supportive academic environemtn, and one where what matters is learning the material, not getting the highest score in the class. In that aspect, St. John’s is pretty much everything my high school was not. I mostly wanted to drop by (since we’ve FINALLY got a decent connection in our dorms!) and prove I hadn’t dropped off the face of the universe. Also, I had a vaguely odd and possibly lack-of-oxygen-induced (Santa Fe’s at 7300 feet) thought of starting an “Ask the ‘Great Books College’ Student” type of thread (because those threads _haven’t_ been done to death…). Would anyone but my gratutitous interest in boosting my post count be interested? ---
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/2 "2004-09-07T01:00:43Z")
What all are you taking this semester? The most important thing you could possibly know is that the CLEP test is your friend. They are cheap, easy and can save you taking lots of boring classes. ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/3 "2004-09-07T01:01:29Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > thought of starting an “Ask the ‘Great Books College’ Student” type of thread (because those threads haven’t been done to death…). Would anyone but my gratutitous interest in boosting my post count be interested? I might be. If I knew what the hell a “Great Books College Student” thread would be about. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/4 "2004-09-07T01:41:07Z")
OK, this is going to be a very long-winded way of answering **Ilsa** ’s question. St. John’s College is not a typical college. All students take the same classes. Freshman year, it’s (ancient) Greek, Math, Lab, seminar, and chorus. Chorus and Greek are, I think, self-explanatory. In math, we don’t use a textbook per se. We use Euclid’s “Elements”, start at proposition one, and work through the entire book, one proof at a time. Eventually you get into other mathemeticians, in later years. Lab, we start with the early Greeks who looked at the world around them; our first reading was Aristotle. Again, no ‘text’, per se. Seminar is the philosophy and the core of the program. the first book is “The Iliad”, which we’re finishing discussing tonight, then, “The Odyssey,” and so on, in chronological history. By the start of sophomore year you’re on the Bible, and by the end of senior year you finally hit (I beleive) the 1800’s. Chorus is class-wide; math, lab, and Greek are capped at 15 students, seminar at 20. Everything is discussion based. There are no lectures, other than the optional Friday night, school-wide ones on various topics. Everyone in class, tutors (professors in Johnnie-Speak) and students alike are addressed as “Mr./Mrs/Ms So-and-so”. We technically get grades; we don’t have exams or report cards or anything of the like. You can see your transcript but it’s discouraged. At the end of every semester, you have a “don rag”, when you sit at a table with all your tutors (1 for math, lab, and Greek, 2 for seminar), and they discuss your progress as if you weren’t there. Any other questions? ---
**Author:** ![Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9dc877/32.png) [@Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightwatch_Trailer)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/5 "2004-09-07T03:04:30Z")
**NinjaChick** , I’m in the same Great Books program (but at a different college, obviously). It’s going to be an interesting class. Just a little more information, if anyone is wondering: the Great Books program (at least at my school) isn’t a normal class. It’s based pretty much entirely on class discussion and essays - there are no exams. The professor doesn’t lecture or even answer questions: according to the “guidelines” of the course he can only **ask** questions and attempt to get the students to answer them. As **NinjaChick** indicated, these really are classic books - this semester we study Homer’s _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_, Plato’s _Republic_, Virgil’s _Aeneid_ and a couple others. You move forward in history in later semesters…Dante’s _Divine Comedy_, Swift’s _Gulliver’s Travels_, et cetera. It’s four semesters altogether, which means a total of probably around twenty-five books. ---
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/6 "2004-09-07T04:21:43Z")
What kind of degree do you get? ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/7 "2004-09-07T04:52:31Z")
How do you like Santa Fe? I was there earlier in August, having never been there before, and loved it. Such a gorgeous area of the country. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/8 "2004-09-07T05:05:38Z")
> [@Ilsa\_Lund](#): > > What kind of degree do you get? That was the first question that popped into my mind, too. Sounds like your basic Liberal Arts and Science degree. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/9 "2004-09-07T05:28:28Z")
> [@Ilsa\_Lund](#): > > What kind of degree do you get? Liberal Arts. Whatever that means. > [@Eonwe](#): > > How do you like Santa Fe? Love it. Gorgeous scenery, the most amazing sunsets EVER, nice people, cute little lizards skittering through the dust, mountains literally in my backyard (well, if dorms had…yards…), incredibly nice people, great weather. Did I mention the pretty-ness? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/10 "2004-09-07T05:33:54Z")
Do you have any idea what you want to do when you graduate? The curriculum at St. John’s seems pretty broad. Is there any way to focus your education towards your own interests or career aspirations? ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/11 "2004-09-07T06:48:02Z")
Interesting, thanks, appreciate the reply. And sure, I’ll probably have a folow up or two if you get around to opening said thread. Enjoy your college years! And take lots of pictures, that way, it won’t all seem like a (scattered) dream a few decades down the road. Of course, having majored in Bong R&D might have had something to do with that 😉 ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/12 "2004-09-07T18:45:46Z")
> [@Johnny Bravo](#): > > Do you have any idea what you want to do when you graduate? The curriculum at St. John’s seems pretty broad. Is there any way to focus your education towards your own interests or career aspirations? St. John’s doesn’t have a great retention/graduation rate, at all. Generally, if someone finds somethign that just totally speaks to them, they transfer to another school to specialize. I personally would like to eventually do law school and end up in poltics or journalism - I don’t want to be a politician, but I’d like to, say, be a speechwriter for one. There’s a really long list of “Things I’d like to someday do,” few of which are career-oriented, so I’m just waiting to see if anything grabs me and is like, “Hey! Me! Rest of your life! True love!” Perhaps I will start an “ask the…” thread, just for the hell of it. That’ll probably be this evening sometime, though, as I now need to run (literally) to class. Field trip to look at pinecones! ---
**Author:** ![Basandre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@Basandre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Basandre)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/13 "2004-09-07T19:06:23Z")
Welcome to New Mexico! ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2004, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/14 "2004-09-13T08:18:07Z")
Do they still have waltz parties? ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2004, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/15 "2004-09-13T08:29:54Z")
Oh, and what dorm are you in? I was in Meem my freshman year (“For whom?” “For Meem!”) and Polyhymnia my sophomore year. (Then I was disenabled. But it was kind of mutual; I really didn’t fit the Program.) And is the Ptolemy stone still there? And who are your tutors? And I should have said this in your other thread, but pleeeeeeeeeease don’t drink like that again. When I was a sophomore, my roomate, a JF, did the exact same thing her first week: leglessly drunk and someone brought her home. Then, the last week of the semester, she got loaded again, only that time, she also got raped. No joke. Not all the guys were honorable when I was there. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2004, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/16 "2004-09-13T14:30:48Z")
Yes, we do still have waltz parties, though apparently not as frequent (I hear) as they used to nor as at Annapolis. I’m in Wagner, which I’m moderately happy with. There are only a handful of froshies in Lowers, including a girl from my core group, and she says it sucks. Ptolomy stone, I assume, is the funny-looking thing that looks sort of like the X-men symbol on the placita in front of Peterson? Yep. Tutors: Cassel (Language), Sterling (math), McCombs (lab), Rehmeyer and Steadman for seminar. Just out of curiousity, when were you at St. John’s? Also, do you know anything about the prolific rumour that Mr. Steadman once tried to disenable an entire class? ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2004, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/17 "2004-09-13T18:35:59Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > Yes, we do still have waltz parties, though apparently not as frequent (I hear) as they used to nor as at Annapolis. How often, then? They seemed like a nice idea to me, but in practice, they could be an ordeal. IME, if you’re going to go to one of those things, you should dance when you’re asked. :mad: Do they still have speakeasies? What about NABLA? > [@](#): > > I’m in Wagner, which I’m moderately happy with. There are only a handful of froshies in Lowers, including a girl from my core group, and she says it sucks. Okay; how does it suck? If you want to talk about suckage, I was there when they were building the library. Mud all over the place, and getting from Peterson to Lowers was like trying to get to Mount Doom. > [@](#): > > Ptolomy stone, I assume, is the funny-looking thing that looks sort of like the X-men symbol on the placita in front of Peterson? Yep. Cool! That will be incorporated into your math class eventually, IIRC and if they haven’t discontinued the practice. > [@](#): > > Tutors: Cassel (Language), Sterling (math), McCombs (lab), Rehmeyer and Steadman for seminar. D’oh! I don’t think I had any of those. I had Van Luchene, Aigla, Franks, Darkey (probably dead by now ☹ ) King, and Perrazzini. There were others, of course, but those are the names I remember. > [@](#): > > Just out of curiousity, when were you at St. John’s? '88-'90. > [@](#): > > Also, do you know anything about the prolific rumour that Mr. Steadman once tried to disenable an entire class? I heard the rumor, all right! Can’t verify it, though. Incidentally, the whole clan was there when I was. Clyde was my lab assistant when I was a freshman, and Peter was my classmate. He was a cutie, but I was below his radar. ☹ Are people still talking about Maxx Cassidy’s acid trip? Supposedly, it ended with him sitting in the fish pond, grinning like a jack o’lantern. Do they still have the Film Society? That was my one activity. Is the swing still there? (Hill above Uppers.) ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2004, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/18 "2004-09-13T20:04:08Z")
Waltz parties…I think that there are just maybe 2-3 a year, now. Have not heard of speakeasies or NABLA. Lowers sucks for my friend, because she’s one of about ten freshman housed there. That’s it, really. I know Mr. Aigla - he’s the head of the karate club. Seems like a very nice guy, but I think I’m glad he’s not one of my tutors. The swing is indeed still here: I haven’t been there yet, but know people who have. Film society is alive and well, too - 2 free flicks ever saturday night. Have not heard about this acid trip, but I will certainly be asking. Out of curiousity, when you were here did they have the water-tower parties during Reality? My RA was telling me that security is finally cracking down on that (the big old yellow water tower, not the newer green one - again, behind Uppers) ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2004, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/19 "2004-09-14T07:02:26Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > Waltz parties…I think that there are just maybe 2-3 a year, now. Have not heard of speakeasies or NABLA. They must both be history, or you’d know about them. Speakeasies took place after seminar. Selling beer out of a dorm room. Different room in a different dorm every time. Administration knew but turned a blind eye. NABLA (don’t remember, if I ever knew, whether it was a word or an acronym, nor what it meant) was a Friday-afternoon cocktail party upstairs in Peterson. Alcohol couldn’t be sold directly, so you bought a cookie and exchanged it for a drink. > [@](#): > > Lowers sucks for my friend, because she’s one of about ten freshman housed there. That’s it, really. And the non-freshmen won’t associate with her? If so, that **does** suck. Wasn’t like that when I was there. > [@](#): > > I know Mr. Aigla - he’s the head of the karate club. Seems like a very nice guy, but I think I’m glad he’s not one of my tutors. Oh, he was awesome to have as a tutor! I and my classmates thought so, anyway. > [@](#): > > The swing is indeed still here: I haven’t been there yet, but know people who have. Film society is alive and well, too - 2 free flicks ever saturday night. Glad to hear that. > [@](#): > > Have not heard about this acid trip, but I will certainly be asking. Do. And if it’s been supplanted by another “legend”, let me know about that one! > [@](#): > > Out of curiousity, when you were here did they have the water-tower parties during Reality? My RA was telling me that security is finally cracking down on that (the big old yellow water tower, not the newer green one - again, behind Uppers) 😕 I don’t even remember a water tower, of any color, much less water tower parties. Glad to hear Reality hasn’t been phased out, though? ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2004, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whooooaaah/263421/20 "2004-09-14T07:04:04Z")
…ignore that last question mark…