<p>hi,</p>
<p>i logged in to reply this and i saw that you sent me a private message! i’m going to reply in public anyway.</p>
<p>santa fe is better for biology and chemistry in freshman year, and better for lab (mainly physics) in junior year (and also probably senior year, where we do more chemistry and biology.) we don’t have lab in sophomore year. and i guess when i say that one of the campuses is “better for lab”, i mean that they have better equipment, and in freshman year, for biology, they dissect cats and rabbits. in annapolis we only do fish. but seriously - the lab equipment doesn’t change that much. it inspires slightly different discussion but we’re still using similar texts, and the texts are really the things that we use to engage in discussion. they move us from observation to thinking theoretically, and you can see why the starting point matters less, then. in fe they do more experiments, but i loved the lab program in freshman year in annapolis - discussions were so fruitful, and since we spent less time in experiments, we spent more time making what we observed richer. </p>
<p>phds are about equal from both campus, probably more from annapolis because less people want to do organic farming. but it really doesn’t matter - if you want a phd, there will be people to help you from either campus. fe has a better career services dept, but annapolis has tutors that come from more established academic backgrounds whom you can talk to. fe has those too, just as annapolis also has a good career services dept, and it really evens out eventually. it’s not a determining factor. </p>
<p>“I don’t want to be in an environment where all people are so tense about “getting good grades”, since those things are one of the things that makes those learning processes unpure. However, I would not like it either if people are too laid back or too unrealistic.”</p>
<p>these are stereotypes about annapolis and fe respectively, but they’re not true. you’ll find that as much as fe is more laid back than annapolis, and as much as annapolis cares about grades more than fe, it’s so much less than anything you’ll get elsewhere. in fe, we work all the time (junior year has a lot to do with it too, but still,) and in annapolis, people pride themselves on not looking at their grades (although they might “care” more). the real difference is that classes are more serious, and there is more formality, in annapolis. and by serious, i don’t mean that people in fe don’t take ideas as seriously - more that there is a more inclusive air in fe, and less of a desire to impress. that means that bad things can be said in class more often, but more people speak up. i don’t know. all this depends so much on the tutors and the components of the class. it’s a fact that people are more relaxed in fe though, and this translates to a different kind of intensity about school.</p>
<p>you won’t get beauty in annapolis (except in the late afternoon light. and they have a beautiful green lawn on back campus. and if you join crew, you get the sunrise everyday). in fe, it’s so beautiful all the time. you don’t even have to go hiking to be in beauty. driving/biking down and hanging out on the plaza on the weekends is the best.</p>
<p>santa fe has more older people in every class. but age doesn’t matter as much because people love st john’s and that’s a different start; they’ll already be different from most “young people” you meet. and being at st john’s changes people. my best friend when i first went (in annapolis) was 26 in our freshman year, and my other close friends ranged from 18 to 22. </p>
<p>so i guess i’ve mainly been saying that it doesn’t matter which campus you go to. it really doesn’t. it is wonderful, though, to transfer campuses if you can, because it opens you up so much more to how st john’s can be in different environments, with different people. and starting at annapolis seems better in many ways, because it’s so traditional, and because you get to meet so many wonderful tutors. they have such a great freshman chorus too - you don’t get that in santa fe. it really brings the community together. then when you reach your junior year, if you choose to transfer - santa fe is lovely to transfers. people are more solitary, or they have friends more, and cliques less. i heard that the transfers to annapolis found it harder to fit in to the social groups. in fe, it really wasn’t a problem, because the social weave isn’t as tight. </p>
<p>i hope you come. i don’t know whether you’re a good fit, but if you love what st john’s professes, and if you’re seduced by the message it sends out, then you’ll probably be in love with the school when you finally come. in my freshman year, two months in, my tutor was telling us about seniors being glad to finish the program and finally getting time, after st john’s, to focus on what they were previously interested in. that conversation made me very upset. it seemed to bring the reality of my own leaving much closer, and i vocalised my only thought, that i never wanted to leave. i’m a junior now, and i know what i want to do in the future, but i have also learnt (largely through transferring) that even though i might leave the campuses, i will never need to leave st john’s behind, and i can bring it with me through all my life.</p>