<p>I'm sort of having conflicting interests on my college search. Well I'm from California and I'm trying to choose from University of Arizona and st. Johns college(not st. Johns university) which is not really known. I absolutely fell in love with st johns one of a kind curriculum which the whole college takes. This is a very small college(about 450 people) but it is a very unique liberal arts school in which the whole school takes one major which us like a renaissance education. You base it around reading every important work of literature, philosophy, and scientific theories of the western world dating back to ancient Greeks. Although I know I would learn more than any where else I would go I don't know if i would like the people and its not like its big enough to have variety. The other cons are that its very expensive(42,000) plus room and board and it is not very high ranked at all on the liberal art school rankings(do they matter). Also, my parents don't really want me to go there. With Arizona, I think it would be cool to get the big college atmosphere and meet many new people, but I don't think I would learn as much or meet all the teachers like st johns. It would help if someone here has gone to either or know any good/bad things about them.
Thank you </p>
<p>Note that there are a few other “Great Books” curriculum schools that you may want to check cost and financial aid for to compare with St. John’s College:
[Great</a> Books - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books]Great”>Classic book - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>But if you are considering UA, what about also UCs and CSUs since you will get in-state fees if you are a California resident?</p>
<p>Which St. John’s campus are you looking into? The Annapolis campus is right across the street from the Naval Academy - no shortage of young people - and you can also take classes at the Academy and the cadets take classes at St. John’s. The Annapolis campus does a lot of joint activities with the Academy so you are likely to meet a lot of different students. We visited the Sante Fe campus and it was beautiful but the out of the way location seemed like a negative. You can transfer back and forth between the two campuses.</p>
<p>* The other cons are that its very expensive(42,000) plus room and board and it is not very high ranked at all on the liberal art school rankings(do they matter).</p>
<p>Also, my parents don’t really want me to go there.*</p>
<p>If your parents won’t pay for St. Johns than the conversation may be moot. What are they saying about paying?</p>
<p>Well I’m applying to Sdsu (hometown) and was considering ucsd but it was just a bit of a reach. In terms of uc schools riverside and Santa Cruz are more possible for me but I don’t feel like applying just because its uc I really have no other reason. But yeah sounds rude but Sdsu is my last option even though it is supposedly the best csu. Thanks for replying!</p>
<p>Oh and to mom(sorry I forgot your username), my parents never went to college but they support me by “being proud of me” since I do everything on my own. But they want to help me but I tell them no. I meant they don’t want me to go period because they’re sort of clingy. Their not paying and I’m not asking but since I won’t be 17 when I graduate, they’re gonna be the ones signing the papers so I need they’re permission.</p>
<p>Don’t assume that the sticker price at St. John’s will be the price you actually pay to attend. You’ll likely get a substantial discount in the form of a combination of merit and need-based aid. That’s true of virtually every private college/university. </p>
<p>St. John’s (either campus) doesn’t rank high because it does things differently than other schools and doesn’t fit a pre-defined mold. It doesn’t mean it is not a good school.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>St. John’s doesn’t offer any merit aid, and neither do a myriad of other private schools.</p></li>
<li><p>St. John’s endowment is very small, so even if you qualify for need-based aid, you may not get it.</p></li>
<li><p>Your prospective employers are very likely to be completely unaware of St. John’s. A degree from there may serve you very well in grad school admissions, but if you intend to join the workforce immediately after college, think twice.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>If your parents aren’t paying for college, who is?</p>
<p>You need to do a bit more research about the financial aspect of your education before you finalize your list. One place to start is [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org)</p>
<p>Sounds like you’d be paying with all loans. That is too much debt for a young person. And, it would be crazy for your parents to co-sign for that much debt each year. </p>
<p>Being under 18 is irrelevant. Even if you were 20 or 21, you still couldn’t sign for that much debt without a good income/assets.</p>
<p>The cost is over $55k per year. </p>
<p>How much do you think you’ll be earning once you graduate?</p>
<p>(You may think that you can do this “on your own” but you can’t.)</p>
<p>First, $70 million dollars for 900 students is not a small endowment. That’s close to $80k per student. There’s a lot of schools that are not in that kind of shape.</p>
<p>Second, my point about aid was not that every school offers merit based aid, but that through a combination of merit and(/or!) need-based aid, the actual price paid by the vast majority of students at private colleges is less than the “sticker price.” For example, in 2009-10, the sticker price at SJC Santa Fe was over $40,000. That same year the average price paid after aid was $17,564. My point: do not assume you cannot afford a private college. It’s possible you won’t be able to, but don’t assume it and let it prevent you from applying.</p>
<p>I’m all for small schools, but I’ve never been a fan of SJC. It exemplifies a “jack of all trades, master of none” education. Students receive some grounding in classical studies but far less than a second or third year classics major would have, some grounding in English and religion but much less than students in those majors would have, etc. If sampling lots of areas is appealing to you, which it is to some people, than I suppose it could be a good fit. Some fields like law don’t particularly care what you studied as an undergrad. (I also take issue with the unabashed Western slant of the curriculum, but that’s something else altogether.) I will say that SJC does not have the best reputation in the sciences, at least in biology and geology. </p>
<p>It is absolutely untrue to say that one could not learn the same things elsewhere that one would at SJC; most colleges offer everything SJC does plus a great deal more besides (including, at LACs, the intimacy). What makes SJC unusual is that everyone is learning pretty much the same thing, which is not the case at most colleges.</p>
<p>Personally, I think a much better option is something like Directed Studies at Yale, Cook Honors at IUP, or a college with a core like Reed; you get a firm grounding in the basics through a sequence of core courses but also get to develop real depth in a particular area by picking a major.</p>
<p>I agree with the other posters – you need other options, and they should be affordable with a minimum of struggle and loans.</p>
<p>St. John’s is an excellent choice, if a Great Books education – not to be confused with a conventional liberal arts or classical education – is in fact what you’re looking for. I’ve never attended there myself, but as a Shimer College alum, I’ve known a few Johnnies and they’re pretty decent people. (Maybe a little stiff… ) I would definitely urge you to visit the campus and sit in on a class or two before making a definite decision. But don’t let the naysayers get you down.</p>
<p>That said, I would not be doing my duty as one of the very few Shimerians on CC if I did not put in a few good words for my [dear</a> alma mater](<a href=“http://shimer.edu%5Ddear”>http://shimer.edu):
Although Shimer has a Great Books core curriculum in the Hutchins tradition (like St. John’s), it also leaves some room for electives (about 1/3 of total course load), which can be taken at the Illinois Institute of Technology and Vandercook College of Music as well as at Shimer.
Shimer’s up-front cost (~26k/yr) is much lower than SJC.
Shimer used to be way out in the boonies, but it is now located in the heart of Chicago, and in fact right on the campus of a large university, so there is no shortage of people to meet if you get tired of hanging out with Shimer’s own ~120 students.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you sit down with your parents, and find out how much they are able and willing to pay. Then run the aid estimators at the different college websites to find out what those institutions are likely to expect your family to pay. These often are two very different things. We are just going through this ourselves with Happykid, and one college that she really likes puts our total cost at 40k and another puts it at 19k (which is our FAFSA EFC). And we cannot afford 19k out of pocket. Unless there would be a surprise scholarship that appears along the way, some of that 19k would have to come from savings, some from current income, some from Happykid’s earnings and loans, and some from parent loans. The 40k university is completely off the table unless a big enough scholarship comes along to take it down to the same cost as the less expensive school.</p>
) I would definitely urge you to visit the campus and sit in on a class or two before making a definite decision. But don’t let the naysayers get you down.</p>