Curriculum history , whose great-books philosophy of education influenced Shimer's curriculum; Adler and Robert Maynard Hutchins founded the
Great Books Foundation in 1947. Shimer follows the great-books tradition begun by
John Erskine. Erskine's
Socratic seminar at
Columbia University (begun in 1919) impacted his colleague,
Mortimer J. Adler, who came to believe that the purpose of education was to engage student minds "in the study of individual works of merit ... accompanied by a discussion of the ideas, the values, and the forms embodied in such products of human art".
Robert Maynard Hutchins, head of the University of Chicago from 1929 to 1951, brought Adler to the university and implemented a program (known as the Chicago Program and, later, the Hutchins Plan) based on Adler's ideas. The Chicago program comprised sequences in the natural sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences which were supposed to integrate past and present work within these divisions of knowledge. In addition, these sequences were capped by work in philosophy and history. The emphasis in teaching was on small classes with bright students, where discussion could supplant monologue as the dominant pedagogic technique.... At the same time, in order to retain high academic standards and contact with the "frontiers of knowledge", the College's pedagogy emphasized reading originals (sometimes although not invariably, defined as Great Books). Shimer, affiliated with the University of Chicago since 1896, adopted the Hutchins plan (including University of Chicago syllabi, comprehensive examinations and several university instructors) in 1950. When Hutchins left the university in 1951 and it abandoned the Hutchins Plan, Shimer continued to use it and it is still reflected in the college's curriculum.
Degree program Shimer was
accredited by
the Higher Learning Commission. Its core curriculum was a sequence of sixteen required courses in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and
interdisciplinary studies. Basic-studies courses are generally taken during the first two years, advanced-studies during the final two years and integrative-studies courses in the final year. In addition to core courses students take
electives, which offer basic instruction or in-depth work in particular subjects. Students may also take
tutorials, with one or two students per course, tailored to their interests and similar in structure to the
Oxford tutorial system. Shimer College students did not pursue traditional majors, instead having broad concentrations in the humanities, natural sciences or social sciences. Within these areas, students could specialize in
literature,
mathematics,
philosophy,
political science or
psychology. The school's 200-book reading list remained largely faithful to the original Hutchins plan, with new works judiciously added to the core curriculum. These included voices originally overlooked in the formation of the canon, or not yet published when it originated, including
Martin Luther King Jr.,
Carol Gilligan,
Frantz Fanon,
Michel Foucault and other contemporary authors. Readings were organized by broad historical and philosophical themes. Small seminars were the sole form of instruction in all subjects, from mathematics to poetry. Classes were composed of no more than twelve students (the average class size was seven), who read and discussed only source material. The curriculum emphasized writing; students were required to complete a semester project each term on a topic chosen in conjunction with an advisor, and were required to complete a research paper during their third year. All students needed to pass a basic-studies
comprehensive examination to register for upper-level courses, and at least one area-studies comprehensive examination (usually in their area of concentration) to graduate. A senior
thesis was required of all students. Usually an analytic or expository essay, it could also be a piece of original fiction, poetry, a performance or work of visual art. Students were encouraged to present their theses orally, and the public was invited to the presentations.
Special programs Early Entrance program The
Early Entrance program, which admitted students who had not yet graduated from high school, was pioneered by Hutchins at the University of Chicago in 1937 and adopted by Shimer in 1950. It continued with the support of the
Ford Foundation, the
Carnegie Foundation and the
Surdna Foundation. In the past, up to 80 percent of Shimer's student body was composed of Early Entrance students. In 2008, 16 percent of new students were early entrants or home-schooled.
Joint programs in
England The Great Books + Law program, introduced in 2007, was offered in conjunction with the
Chicago-Kent College of Law (the law school of the Illinois Institute of Technology) and the
Vermont Law School and allowed students to complete undergraduate and law degrees in six (instead of seven) years. Shimer had a dual-enrollment program with
Harold Washington College, one of the few
community colleges in the U.S. with a great-books program. The program allowed HWC students to take a Shimer course, and was intended to encourage students to transfer to Shimer to complete their bachelor's degree. Whether these programs will continue at North Central is unknown.
Study abroad Shimer first offered a year of study abroad (in
Paris) in 1961, and the college has had a biennial program in
Oxford since 1963. The Shimer-in-Oxford program allowed third- or fourth-year students to study for one or two semesters in Oxford, supervised by a Shimer professor. Students took a core class each term with the supervising faculty; the rest of their work is completed in
tutorials of self-selected subjects under the guidance of academics associated with the
University of Oxford. Programs were also offered at least once each in Berlin and Köln during the late 1970s.
Teaching Fellows Program The Teaching Fellows Program, now discontinued, was a
graduate-level great-books course designed for
kindergarten through
12th-grade teachers. Teachers could then earn
professional development credit with the program; it complements traditional education courses by providing background knowledge for teachers to impart more content-rich instruction. The program was developed in conjunction with the
Core Knowledge Foundation, founded in 1986 by
E. D. Hirsch (author of
Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know) to promote a common core in U.S.
elementary education.
Faculty In 2014, Shimer had eleven full-time faculty and one part-time faculty member, Shimer instructors teach across disciplines; the "ideal is that any faculty member can teach any one of the core courses". The college accepts students it believes will benefit from, and contribute to, its intellectual community. ''Barron's Profiles of American Colleges'' rates Shimer "very competitive plus". Candidates were counseled before applying, and nearly 90 percent of those who applied were admitted. Studies based on Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium data found that Shimer had the seventh-highest alumni Ph.D. rate of U.S. colleges and universities, and the highest rate for Ph.D.s in linguistics. Shimer students who took the
Graduate Record Exam outscored three out of four potential graduate students, "consistently rank[ing] among the best in the nation in scores on the verbal and analytical portions of the test" with average analytic scores in the 91st percentile. The
conservative Insight magazine named Shimer one of its "15 Most Politically-Incorrect Colleges": "colleges that had strong and effective traditional curricula that were not 'obsessed with the recent educational fads and fetishes such as multiculturalism and diversity.
Barron's called Shimer one of the 300 best buys in college education, noting that "the success of the Shimer curriculum depends a great deal on the knowledge and skill of the faculty facilitators, who receive accolades ranging from 'fantastic' to 'brilliant. Shimer was one of the top 50 colleges in
All-American Colleges: Top Schools for Conservatives, Old-Fashioned Liberals, and People of Faith, which highlights "programs that connect in a special way with the core values of the American founding and the vibrant intellectual traditions of the West". In 2007, Shimer joined a national effort by the
Education Conservancy to boycott participation in college-ranking surveys. President
William Craig Rice said, "What Shimer does well – educating ourselves in on-going dialogue with the greatest minds of the past – can't be captured in the
U.S. News measurements".
Washington Monthly ranks Shimer 200th among liberal-arts colleges, based on social mobility, research and service. The college is unranked by
U.S. News & World Report. == Campus ==