<p>My experience in Maryland:</p>
<ul>
<li>The campus was compact and worn, and yet very beautiful. It looks like a campus that has seen some use, imagine old feeling buildings, green lawn, brick paths and trees. The quad is small and yet very nice. There is a cafe for students and a bookshop on campus as well. Google St. John’s and you’ll definitely find great shots of both the Maryland and Santa Fe campuses.</li>
</ul>
<p>-Dorms seemed to be about average, small and cramped. Nothing truly spectacular, but hey, we’re there to learn right? Food was so-so, I didn’t like the eggs, but I’m rarely an egg fan as it is. There definitely was a good variety of food and the chefs seemed to know all of the students very well, if you want some variety there are a lot of great places downtown which is a 2 minute walk max.</p>
<p>-Yes, people do keep busy, I was worried about this as well initially. While in certain respects Johnnies live in a certain intellectual bubble they all get out visit town, chat and such. The general opinion of those there was that Annapolis wasn’t exactly the greatest city, but there were definitely those who volunteered and were involved in town.</p>
<p>-To be honest, the Johnnies that I met there were some of the nicest people I have ever met. I mean, they all seem to love what they are doing and intellectual conversations are definitely very present, but friendships grow very quickly among a group of 500 students. There definitely seems to be partying (if you’re into that sort of thing), and the quad comes to life at night (especially on Fridays). If you aren’t into the whole alcohol and partying thing there is a contingent of students that don’t participate and they said that they got along just fine. As to the “in your face intellectualism”, realize that these are all normal people too, I didn’t really see any really pretentious people, but there are bound to be people like that in all settings.</p>
<p>-Extracurriculars do happen, but it sounds like only one or two can be managed without things getting out of hand. After all, there is a pretty intense workload and that takes up a lot of time. I saw several groups of people going over work while I was there, and tutors were very involved.</p>
<p>-The classes were great. I was told by several people that it was good that I came later in the year because there is a learning curve to that whole style of learning. The math class was more structured then the seminar, but still very discussion based. The way that it seemed to work is that students were assigned sections of a reading to learn well and present to the class. The class would then have a discussion about the information presented and its implications etc… The science class was very similar to the math class. Students would speak up and explain sections of a reading and then there would be a discussion about the conclusion of the reading. The tutor would assist throughout the whole affair and direct the class. The class that most students generally agreed was the worst was the language class (Greek for freshmen year), this was largely due to it being the most standard of all SJC classes. After all, there is a certain amount of required rote memorization involved in learning a language. But even in that language class the spirit of SJC was evident in the philosophical discussion of whether a certain phrase should be translated this way or that way, and what exactly author X meant by this. Students in my class translated parts of a reading on the chalkboards and then the class would go over them. In terms of the classes being interesting: yes! I found them to be extremely intriguing, but I imagine that there are some cases of boredom like in all places. I have been told that it gets much better after freshmen year because then everyone is on top of their discussion game and the seminars flow much better.</p>
<p>Hope this helped, if you need any clarification just ask!</p>