St John's College, Maryland and New Mexico

Perhaps the most famous Great Books Program, St John's College's Annapolis, Maryland and Sante Fe, New Mexico campuses maintain a four year undergrad reading list as the basis of its arts degree program. The reading list that serves as the core of the St. John's College curriculum had its beginnings at Columbia College, at the University of Chicago, and at the University of Virginia. Since 1937, the list of books has been under continued review at St. John's College. The first year is devoted to Greek authors and their pioneering understanding of the liberal arts; the second year contains books from the Roman, medieval, and Renaissance periods; the third year has books of the 17th and 18th centuries, most of which were written in modern languages; the fourth year brings the reading into the 19th and 20th centuries. Visit St. John's College here.

Shimer College, Illinois

Shimer is a small independent four-year liberal arts college located just minutes from downtown Chicago. Our students develop their capacity for critical thought and interpersonal communication through careful reading of the Great Books, which sustain a life-long passion for learning.  With classes of 12 students, a full-time teaching faculty, and great books, Shimer offers a rare and enduring educational experience. Visit the college site here.

Columbia University, New York

The Core Curriculum is the cornerstone of the Columbia education. Central to the intellectual mission of the Core is the goal of providing all Columbia students, regardless of their major or concentration, with wide-ranging perspectives on significant ideas and achievements in literature, philosophy, history, music, art, and science. Visit the Columbia University site here.

Brock University, Ontario, Canada

The Centre for Great Books/Liberal Studies at Brock in St. Catherine's Ontario offers a program of interdisciplinary courses focused in the humanities but also connecting with the social sciences and natural sciences. The program seeks to develop the skills and habits of inquiry, analysis, argument and expression needed for a rigorous treatment of these diverse subjects. Classes are small and emphasize learning in seminar discussions.Visit the Brock University here.

Boston University, Massachussetts

The Core Curriculum is an integrated series of courses that provides the foundation of a liberal education — an education that frees, orients, and empowers the mind.
The Core interweaves the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences into a single structured curriculum. While maintaining its base in the classics of Western thought and literature, the Core Curriculum introduces students to important and profound works of Eastern thought and art. Visit the Boston University site here.

St. Anslem College, New Hampshire

The St Anselm program has strong roots in history. One can point to an old and long honored tradition of liberal education which reaches back to a beginning many centuries before Christ. The works of the greatest minds have, until recent times, always been the preferred material of study. And the discussion method of teaching is as old as Socrates. Visit the St. Anslem College site here.

University of Notre Dame

Founded in 1950, the Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) offers a three-year prescribed sequence of seminars and tutorials anchored in the Western and Catholic traditions. At the core of the Program’s undergraduate curriculum are the Great Books seminars, in which small classes of 12-16 students meet twice weekly to study and discuss major texts from the Western and, to a limited extent, Eastern traditions. Parallel to the seminar, PLS students take a required sequence of tutorials that offer deeper, more focused explorations in literature, philosophy, science, theology, political theory, the fine arts, and intellectual and cultural history. Visit the Notre Dame site here.

Mercer University, Georgia

The Great Books curriculum of eight courses is one of two General Education "tracks" in the College of Liberal Arts. The faculty of the College believes that careful study in the primary texts of Western thought and belief, guided by committed and rigorous instructors, is a valid means to a good general education. Through this survey of political, religious, philosophical, and scientific thought, students can increase their skills in disciplined thinking and effective writing, can heighten their moral and ethical reflectiveness, and can understand how the seminal ideas of the past have formed our twentieth and twenty-first century selves Visit Mercer University here.

Malaspina College, Vancouver Island University

Progressive book program at this Western Canadian college. Malaspina College,

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