Admissions

Visiting the Santa Fe Campus

Why visit?

Our unique curriculum and uncommon teaching methods make St. John’s a particularly important school to visit. The great books program comes alive when prospective students attend classes and speak with faculty and students. Once here, you can tour the campus with a current student, eat meals in the dining hall, sleep in a dormitory, and attend classes ranging from a freshman seminar discussing Plato to a senior lab investigating quantum physics. Outside of class, students and tutors are accessible and willing to provide candid answers to your questions.

You can stay overnight, or visit campus for just a few hours. If you stay on campus overnight, you will meet with an admissions representative before leaving to talk about what you experienced and whether St. John’s College is right for you. We can also arrange a meeting with a financial aid officer upon request. If you plan a day visit, you can take a tour of campus and attend an information session led by an admissions officer.

A campus visit reveals the many ways in which students lead rich and full lives both in the Program and outside of it; how they work hard and yet know how to relax and have fun; how they combine rich intellectual and social lives; and how they prepare to step into interesting jobs and graduate schools after St. John’s.

Why Santa Fe?

It is difficult on a website to do justice to the beauty of Santa Fe and the St. John’s campus here. Within a day’s drive lie Bandelier National Monument, Canyons de Chelly and Chaco, and many pueblos that remain home to native peoples and cultures. The campus is surrounded by hundreds of thousands of acres of National Forest laced with hiking trails and hot springs, wild rivers and streams.

There is no other city quite like Santa Fe. With exquisite natural and man-made beauty, Santa Fe is proud of its multiple cultures – Anglo, Hispanic, and Native American – existing side-by-side, fine and performing arts scenes that are the envy of many a big city, and an international art market ranking among the top three in the world. For more information about the cultural events and fun things to do in Santa Fe, click here.

When to visit?

It is best to visit when classes are in session, but the admissions office is open year-round and offers regular campus tours and information sessions. Click here to access our visit calendar.

If you are seriously considering attending St. John’s, we encourage you to stay on campus for two days and one night. Typically, overnight visitors arrive on a Monday or Thursday afternoon, attend classes and investigate student life for two days, and leave on the afternoon of the second day (Tuesday or Friday).

We also schedule day visits, which can be as long or as short as necessary. Generally for a full day visit, students arrive at 9:30 am on a weekday, go on a tour, attend class at 10:35 am, eat lunch in the dining hall, and then attend another class at 1:30 pm. The schedule also includes an interview with one of our admissions staff. The visit concludes by about 4:00 pm.

Prospective students may want to attend one of our special admissions tours which take place throughout the year: Fall Tour, (Annapolis campus; dates TBD); Winter Tour, February 3 - 4; Spring Tour, April 7 - 8. Please note that the Fall and Winter tours are reserved for high school seniors, and the Spring tour is for accepted students only.

How was your visit?

If you have visited the campus and have thoughts or suggestions regarding your experience, please contact the Visit Coordinator at 1-505-984-6081 or visitsjc@sjcsf.edu.