News & Publications
St. John’s College Named one of Princeton Review’s “Best Colleges in America”
Annapolis and Santa Fe campuses noted for "best classroom experience" and "accessible faculty"
FOR RELEASE: August 22, 2012
CONTACT: Patricia Dempsey, 410-972-4511
patricia.dempsey@sjca.edu
Praised for its small classes, supportive atmosphere, and a low student-to-faculty ratio, St. John’s College is again among the colleges included in The Princeton Review’s “377 Best Colleges”. The educational services company features St. John’s Annapolis and Santa Fe campuses in its annual college guide (2013 edition), which is based on surveys of 122,000 students at 377 colleges.
St. John’s College, where students learn in small, hand-on discussion-based classes, is among those schools with “top marks” for “best classroom experience” and “class discussions encouraged” and “most accessible professors”. The guide reports the top 20 ranking colleges in 62 categories.
Tutors always “treat the students as equals,” and “outside of class they are available and friendly,” notes a student in the survey. “There is always someone to work through [difficult material] with you.” St. John’s College is known for its distinctive great books Program, in which students pursue the same curriculum in a wide range of subjects. As a student notes, “[we] study math, science, philosophy, language, history, and literature,” and are “encouraged to question everything , develop [our own] logical conclusions, and understand Western thought, starting at the basics.”
Students in Annapolis and Santa Fe engage in a host of extracurricular activities – from school-run dance parties, Ultimate Frisbee, sailing, and crew in Annapolis to skiing and Search and Rescue in Santa Fe. “Students come from across the country and around the world, from all religious, political and economic backgrounds …the diversity of personalities is astounding,” says one student. Adds another, “The one thing Johnnies have in common is their love of learning and their love of thought.”
The book's 62 lists –such as “best classroom experience” --are based on surveys of 122,000 students the schools in the book during the 2011-12 and/or previous two school years. About 84% of the schools in the book appear on one or more its ranking lists. The 80-question survey asked students about their school's academics, administration, campus life, student body, and themselves. The surveys were completed at http://survey.review.com
" St. John’s College has outstanding academics, which is the primary criteria for our selection of schools for the book,” says Robert Franek, senior vice president and author of "The Best 377 Colleges". Our choices are based on institutional data we collect about schools, our visits to schools over the years, feedback we gather from students attending the schools, and the opinions of our staff and our 30-member National College Counselor Advisory Board. We also work to keep a wide representation of colleges in the book by region, size, selectivity and character."