Recently, Santa Fe tutor Krishnan Venkatesh sent out some advice to his students on writing St. John’s essays, specifically preceptorial papers, but the advice he gave was relevant to just about any essay written during the course of a St. John’s education. The text of what he sent out was as follows: Some Thoughts on…
The Art of Storytelling
Looking through the camera lens, the light kit shining on my back like a halo, I wondered how I found heaven in a senior common room. My name is Armando, and I’m currently a Graduate Institute student at St. John’s College. Last month, the winter season had me itching for a project to break up…
Our Favorite College Ghost Stories
I’m Petra Schaaf-Grisham, the newest admissions counselor at St. John’s and a member of the Class of 2021. Through extensive research, my friend Ives Williams and I created a ghost tour of the Annapolis campus of St. John’s College. For my first blog post, on Halloween itself, I want to introduce you to some of the scariest parts…
CTCL – Changing my life and yours
This summer as the pandemic promised to wane, the group of colleges know as the CTCL schools (www.ctcl.org) decided to host a series of in-person college fairs for sophomores, juniors, and rising seniors and their families. Virtual college fairs can certainly do in a pinch and provide much need access to students all over the…
An Interview with a Senior
As we all know, this past year was quite strange. Johnnies were asked to acclimate to a new virtual learning environment, process and understand a world pandemic, and much more this past year. An experience that has been particularly unique, is that of our current 2021 senior class. One student who has shown extreme resiliency,…
Great Books, Great Doctors
These days, everyone knows the Chief Medical Advisor to the President, Dr. Anthony Fauci. But how cool is this? “America’s Doctor” has a liberal arts degree in classics and philosophy. Before St. John’s, when I imagined what future doctors study in college, the first subjects that came to mind were things like biology or chemistry….
Rolling Decision
For most colleges, the deadline to apply is already gone. But St. John’s has always been contrarian, and that applies to our application process. Our faculty reads applications. We care about the book essay more than just grades or test scores. And, if you’re still looking for that perfect college fit, good news—you can apply…
A January Start
*Starting in January 2022, the January Freshmen Program is only available on the Santa Fe campus. Even among the amazing group of people that make up the polity of St. John’s College, there’s something special about January Freshmen. It’s probably not a surprise to hear that January Freshmen, often called just “JFs” (or “Febbies” in…
4+1: Adding an MA to your St. John’s education
The undergraduate Program here at St. John’s is in many ways just the beginning. It provides the forum for your first few encounters with so many texts, so many questions, and so many ways of looking at the world, and so it’s inevitable that things aren’t tied up with a neat little bow by the…
What college rankings actually matter?
This time of year I get lots of questions about how St. John’s ranks compared to other colleges. Who doesn’t want to go to the “best” college? But here’s the problem: most rankings don’t tell you which college is best for you. Problem #1: rankings often arbitrarily divide colleges onto different lists that have nothing…
The Chalkboard 