This place is either a joke or a scam. I suppose it's a scam, since jokes don't rob you of over $40,000.00 a year in a bait-and-switch scheme. Why a bait-and-switch scheme? These people lie. The faculty lie. The staff lie. About 75% of your time at Shimer is spent learning how, as a student, to lie. Any talk of great books ends quickly once they have your money and have you in the door. Meetings, classes, assemblies, all stress the importance of Shimerians to write positive reviews for Shimer, get other students to attend, not ask too many questions and always keep the money flowing in the doors. How is that money spent? I don't know, but there are over 30 people who own this place, and all seem to have a friend, cousin, acquaintance or business partner who either holds a job at Shimer or is in the business of providing a service to Shimer that somehow never actually gets provided. 30 directors, or trustees in Shimerian, is over half the size of the whole student population. And these people will friend you on Facebook and then monitor everything you post on social media, whether it's Facebook or Instagram or Pinterest, and anything negative gets you a message directly or through a student that you need to watch what you say because any bad word could knock the college out of business. If you're lucky, you'll get one of the school's two or three internships making coffee, unpaid, for one of the school's owners at their place of business. This whole place is about the size and character of a crooked muffler shop, and they will personally come after you if you threaten to complain publicly or even if you say anything negative within the school's four walls, on the one floor they rent in an old small storage building with no windows on the south end of another school's campus. Faculty are often unaquainted with materials they'll be teaching, have only ever taught at Shimer or are fresh out of school and have never taught before in their lives. The faculty and students are nice enough, but what no one will tell you before you get here is that anyone with a pulse gets admitted. This doesn't mean there is a cross-section of different populations at the school, Rhodes Scholars and underachieving geniuses mixed together. It means there are one or two bright underachievers who drop out after about two years, but then there are basically just severely impaired students, autistics and early stage schizophrenics, no exaggeration, and most students are in their late 20s and have already been kicked out of at least one other college. Then there are people who, through no fault of their own, just aren't that bright. But I was really surprised to realize the average Shimerian can't read at a level much higher than the third or fourth grade. Faculty do nothing to control the situation and either seem happy to sit back and let class descend into chaos, or they lecture about their own hobby horse and shady politics about how political correctness means he can't help African American students who he claims have been proven as a whole to have lower IQs (???), or in one case often show up wearing the same clothes as the day before and smelling of stale wine. If you want endless discussions daily with a disabled student whose object of affinity is a Harry Potter book, no matter what the subject in class, while faculty smile cluelessly and fail to intervene, you've come to the right place. I'll give it 2 stars rather than 1 because in all fairness there SHOULD be a place where disabled, slow or otherwise maladjusted people could come give each other comfort and learn at a slower pace about Harry Potter or whatnot and not feel left behind by the rest of the world. But this place does not advertise what they really are, in fact, they cajole and harrass students and faculty alike to hide it, and they cost as much as a good school and for the first year they will hang onto you appealing to your charitable nature and saying they need your help, it's just a rough patch, the slow students will drop out and things will get better, but then the very opposite happens. Classes start out bad and go down in quality from there, and then when you complain, THEN is when they turn on the aggression and say you couldn't have gotten into a good school anyway, who are you to complain, do you think you're so much better than everyone, and if you apply for a transfer they WILL screw up your paperwork AND you will mysteriously get a D in at least one class you had previously been doing great in, after four semesters of straight A's. There is something unfair, dishonest, and cruel about this place that plays on people's "optimism" to get them in the door, thinking this time things'll be different, and then screwing you out of every penny of your loan money and never delivering any of what they promise. If your choices are suicide or Shimer, or jail or Shimer, then maybe you have good reason to come here, but it would still be a coin toss. read more

I think I should start out by saying that Shimer College is not for everyone. We are fairly open about this, and aware that it attracts a certain type of people: usually bookish, self-motivated individuals; people who were unhappy with the type of education they'd received before; and yes, some people who because of our novel curriculum thought they might get a degree with less effort than going to a normal university. These people generally leave before they are halfway through their studies. I am going through my second year here at the college, and while I have gone through my share of ups and downs with the community and the curriculum, my overall belief in the mission of Shimer College has not diminished. It doesn't always live up to its ideals, but what university does? The student body is small. Lack of diversity? Maybe. It's true that it tends toward the white. Male/female seems pretty equal to me (sometimes more men than women). Political? Definitely left-leaning, but I see this trend in most college students, and I definitely know students here that span the spectrum. As far as ideology goes--I've had my own ideas challenged left and right, and the same text is approached from so many angles in a single class that it turns my head sometimes. Personalities come in an extremely wide range as well. The curriculum itself has its roots, in part, in the Great Books movement that surged in the 1950s and continues to spread small tremors even today. But Shimer continues to revise its curriculum, adding and taking away works in various classes, diversifying the material that we read. I won't deny it's mostly western. Any Eastern, African, Central/South American literature I'd want to read, I would probably take in an elective here. But the idea is to spark original thinking, to look at how the authors we read have over the ages struggled to answer the same problems we face today. For me, it got me excited about learning things again, after high school textbook memorization had all but killed it. One of the biggest concerns that most people have is practicality, I think. Reviewers below mentioned that Shimer grads (the recent ones) are having trouble finding work, etc etc. I think a good amount of this is due to the economy at the moment, among other factors. My mother graduated from Shimer in 1975; she is now a general editor of the religion section in a publishing magazine, works for religion news sources, and has published three books. My own plans after graduation include publishing novels, volunteering and traveling, attending culinary institutes and working at starting a cafe or something similar. Will I be in debt? I don't know. It's probable, but not yet speculative. It's a much-touted statistic that two-thirds of our graduates go on to higher education; accounting for the small number of students that we have, that still speaks of some successes. The way Shimer approaches reading, writing and analytical thought serves grad students very well when it comes to taking the GRE. As far as tuition goes--it's fairly expensive, but for a private college, it's on the lower end of the scale. Shimer has expanded its scholarships, most recently with the Michel de Montaigne scholarship competition, offering two full and two half-tuition scholarships. We may offer less financial aid than other universities do--we are small, we do have less resources. This is part of the reason we share a campus with the Illinois Institute of Technology. We are slowly building up our resources and our student body, and in the meantime taking advantage of the city location that IIT has to offer. Possibly the best thing about the campus is that as a full-time student you get a Upass, allowing you unlimited rides on CTA public transit for a single semester fee--huge savings on what you would normally pay for monthly passes. Shimer has two programs: a weekday and a weekend college. The weekday follows a more normal school schedule of classes; the weekend college meets once every three weeks for two days of intense back-to-back classes. It's ideal for working adults that would like to go back to college but don't have the time to do it on a weekday. I've taken classes in both programs and enjoyed them both immensely. They each have their differences and their advantages. For me, the best thing about being at Shimer is that I'm around people who are really excited about reading the things that we do, and have explosive ideas about the world. Yes, most of us are young and tend towards the ideological side without real-world grounding as of yet. But you have to grow up somewhere. I see nothing wrong with thinking you can change the world and trying. Sometimes you really can. Shimer has immensely helped my reading and thinking skills, which I know will serve me when I go to publish. I've run out of room here, but I could say so much more. Shimer has given me the freedom to think. read more

As a graduate of Shimer's Weekend Program, as well as a five-year student of a large state university, and someone who currently works at an excellent large suburban high school, I must dispute some of the criticisms I've read here. Shimer is far from perfect -- and it's true that one can have a less than stimulating class if one's fellow students (or oneself!) comes to class unprepared -- however, in my four years at Shimer even the worst class was better than an average class at a large university. I found at Shimer a love of learning that I had not seen in all my years of schooling. Both the professors and the students were curious and intelligent -- willing to challenge one another and themselves. The fact that the students had real control over the content of the class meant that if a class failed to engage or challenge you, you had to accept part of the blame for that -- you couldn't blame it on a lousy professor. There were many intelligent professors at my large university, but they were uninvolved with and disinterested in undergraduate students. Teaching us was a rather unsavory chore to be gotten through as quickly as possible. For several years I was convinced they had underground tunnels or secret passageways to escape the classroom buildings, as I never encountered them in the halls or on campus. At Shimer, we ate together, had wonderful conversations, and occasionally socialized on weekends. They were involved with and concerned about the students to a degree that I still find incredible. I think much of the dissatisfaction one might have with Shimer -- or any college/university for that matter -- is a result of incomplete research. I definitely should have done more searching before I attended that large university. There are many components that combine to make a school a good fit for someone, and there should be some extensive soul searching and a good deal of on-site examination and conversation before a decision is reached. One complaint was the size of the school -- it takes very little research to find out that information, and that should definitely be taken into consideration before one commits to attending a school - of ANY size. Why didn't the student think that through beforehand and perhaps talk to Shimer students about that concern? I cannot agree at all with the comment on cost -- you folks need to look around a bit -- as far as private schools go, Shimer is on the VERY low end. Most privates cost thousands more, and most don't even begin to approach the kind of education available at Shimer. It is true that you may well have an English teacher as your tutor in a science class. I found that incredibly refreshing -- we were learning together, and it was exciting and energizing! We frequently had visitors to our classes, and on several occasions the visitors weren't sure which of us was the teacher. Everyone in the class -- including the tutor -- was delighted by this, as we felt it demonstrated that we were asking good questions and digging deeply into the readings. Finally, the whole job thing is problematic for ALL graduates today. Liberal arts grads often have a tough time selling themselves, but generally, once they get that first job, their value becomes obvious. The trouble these days is getting that first job! I truly believe the faculty will help you in any way possible -- but no one will research this for you -- although they may provide alumni contacts and other sources of information, this is an every-girl/guy-for-her/himself sort of thing. Shimer provides something rare and wonderful in higher education, and I hate to see folks tear it down for things it never claimed to have in the first place -- at a school of 100, one can scarcely expect an extensive campus and resources (didn't you visit first?) -- or for things it doesn't want to have (professors lecturing away about their field of expertise, rather than acting as questioning guides to the student's own learning). I can understand that this type of education isn't for everyone, but for those of us who jumped in and really worked while we were there, I believe it was the best of all possible worlds. read more

Let's face it, if you're even considering Shimer College, it's because no place good is fighting to see who gets you. From the way Shimer markets itself, though, you might think it was not such a terrible choice. That's what I thought at first. But it turns out the people who run this place are dishonest to their core. A lot of good students will lose their time and money here. I am a rarity among Shimerians, a student with a high school diploma and a better than D average. However, I made one mistake (that I won't get into here) and there was a legal dust storm and when it settled my first-choice colleges wouldn't even look at me. Even my safety colleges were no longer an option. But we knew my cousin was kicked out of his first college after getting busted for selling roofies to fraternities, and his family paid cash to Shimer and Shimer took him right away, no questions asked. So that's how we heard about this place. Shimer still insist that they are a selective institution. This is a lie. In fact, I discovered Shimer gives away seats to local senior citizens every year. By counting the seniors on the wait list as legitimate applicants, they tamper with their figures and claim to turn away more applicants than they do. While I was here, admissions was frank about only getting 33 applications from real applicants. It was a cause for celebration. They said this was enough for them to turn away one applicant. I thought it was odd, their glee over being able to turn away one poor underqualified kid. Of the 32 they accepted only 19 showed up. One of the applicants who won a full scholarship even turned Shimer away. The result is that Shimer no longer pre-announces who's won a full scholarship until those applicants actually agree to enroll. I was told my AP science credits from high school wouldn't be accepted because Shimer taught science at "such an advanced level" that high school AP credits wouldn't really translate. This turned out to be the biggest lie. My science class required a hefty lab fee. It was mostly a lecture from one professor to twelve blank-faced students, including three senior citizens, a drunk, two homeschoolers, and a couple of smart kids who, like me, had trouble absorbing how bad things were. Sometimes class turned into an shouting match because one senior citizen (the one of the three who didn't drop out) was a Bible-believing creationist who'd never been exposed to a college-level class before and didn't cotton to all this book-learnin'. Not a debate. A shouting match! One other senior left class during break mid-semester and never came back. The drunk asked the most questions, sometimes the same one over and over. We conducted one "experiment" all semester, and built a model of an atom with tinker toys. That was lab fee money well spent: it reallly impressed the homeschooled kid. Another Bible-believer, though, he wasn't about to be taken in by this science nonsense, but he was willing to let us have our science "opinions." By the end of semester, there were only 5 students left, including the hardcore Bible faction and the drunk. The few classmates I had that seemed ready for college mostly gave up and left. Not just from that science class, from the whole college. And now I'm ready to join them. If you have a guaranteed job at the family firm (or the family farm) and money means nothing to them, or if it's worth it to your family to pay over six figures to keep you away from any real science, or if you're more interested in just telling yourself you're smart than in actually stretching your abilities, you may find this place really satisfying. It does, at its core, fulfill a function as kindergarten and daycare center for some rich kids. But it's not a real college. Even if you've already wasted some of your money, don't throw away good money after bad, and get out with me while you still have some loan and grant money left, before Shimer takes it all. read more

The SCIENCE DEPARTMENT JMDNVN/DVDLKNS/JMULRH & FRMR HOUSING DIR. ERC?? Have Almost Single handidly, along with the "letting BS politics instead of merit" rule attititude that lets only the favorites get whatever electives AND tutorials AND Oxford Study Turorial Selection is done based on who is Liked!! & popular rather than based on the ACTUAL NEED FOR ADVANCED STUDY BY UPPERCLASSMEN w/ Particular, Specialized study. And even then, ALL ELECTIVES are on an "Invite Only" and on an "In the Know Shh don't tell anyone else" basis; once again, not based on NEED particularly from upperclassmen with no more core/gen. studies left that other wise, if not popular or unliked by the ONLY 1 or 2 PROFESSORS even MILDLY Qualified to teach the info you need (which again, brings us back to why Oxford selection based, yet again, Popularity and "whose gonna get along" and what, party together best??? Again, rather than based on NEED FOR SPE IALIZED STUDY NOT OFFERED IN TRADITIONAL ELECTIVES...like say ANY HARD SCIENCE COURSE. I could go on and on...Grades, Answers, PURPOSEFULLY KEEPING SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE JUST AS MYSIFYING AS IT WAS AS THE TIME IN WHICH THE TEXT WAS WRITTEN SOLELY, imho, for the purpose of DISCOURGING Students of seeking them out for advanced JR/SR level hard nat sci specialuztion. And if your a FEMALE or UNPOPULAR (Or on the Weekend Program)...You might as well just ACCEPT your going to be a Humanities Major, because that's the ONLY Electives your going to be able to get. And if you Persist, Dont give up able Persue your Dreams...YOU WILL BE CAST OUT, NAME SULLIED, life & Rep Ruined, Not to mention Years of your Life, close to or more than 6 FIGURES Debt, Emotionally Destroyed, & left w/ virtually untransferable elective humanities credits anyway...likely at Freshman status transfering as a Shimer Senior with of course, no commendation or GPA credit for years put in there. But the Saddest part of this story may not even be the countless lives ruined by the trifecta of folly in the first sentence. I Sincerely believe it is the fact the HS, EB, DM, AF, RK annand others that have graced these halls with there genius and this SHOULD be One of the Finer Institutions in the world... but Some have been lead astray at Critical moments like the CB Disaster of '06 . However, as these overlords emerge, still standing draped in their scum, victorious at the end of the day- with their minions afoot...is their ANY WONDER why Shimer is in the state it is today and Who lead and Where we have gone since to hatchjob shut out "Community Vote" from Waukegan; which BY De-Serting our Independance, was the Begining of the End. Because Despite ANY & ALL Efforts...when your own people watch you burn their own ...again..and again..&..while Insulating and practically Worshipping others & then make ZERO REPERATIONS...You cannot expect anyone to maintain respect for an instiution after this from NEITHER those you've Insulated Nor from those you've burned. God Bless You D&EB, AF... I'm SO SORRY What they have done to your life's work. I DID Try my VERY best but it was powerless against these fools to stop them. Its hard to believe or understand how they Not opperating with Inentional malice and I know you are tired....Im Sorry I couldn't do more. Love Always, Annonymous;) read more

I started at Shimer College in '01 and graduated in '07, having taken some time off. I saw the college go through various notable changes, some that took place in as little as a year, due to its small size and creative culture. I moved the college from Waukegan to Chicago the summer before my final year, working on the Buildings and Grounds crew, which no longer exists. I stay in touch with current students, former co-workers, and fellow alumni. When I started teaching, I sent an e-mail to all my facilitators asking for advice; all responded. It is a close community. The community can also feel narrow-minded and stifling sometimes, which is why I respect the narratives of Aaron and Jeremy. The college does not suit many people's ideas of rigor and interest, and it's inability to include them stems from and reinforces its social and academic narrowness. I see this as a problem, and I want to work within the community to address it. That said, a Shimer education is both challenging and enlightening for those who commit to it. Because each member of the community has a voice, the shortcomings of the school can be addressed by each member, and problems are often rectified. I've attended a state university, a correspondence program, and now a community college for brief stints, and none of them has begun to compare to Shimer College. The program is grueling, but interesting and rewarding. This page will be helpful for anyone interested in the specifics of Shimer's curriculum. The links from it also contain valuable information for anyone hoping to get a sense of what we do: http://www.shimer.edu/academicprograms/curriculum/index.cfm I would recommend a Shimer education to anyone who loves to read and think. But people should also know that the college faces a grave threat at the moment. The president and a majority of the board, all recently imposed by an anonymous donor, have spurned Shimer's long-standing tradition of self-governance and open dialogue. They have put the college's accreditation in danger by adopting a mission statement that lacks the support of the students, faculty, and a vast majority of alumni. Community members worry that the president may begin firing cherished faculty whom he perceives as threatening to his dominance. Many of us are working to regain our voice at the college (though the offices of Board and President have always had legal control of the college, they have taken the wishes of the rest of community seriously). If we are not successful, Shimer risks losing its accreditation, faculty will be distracted from their academic duties by worrying about their jobs, and students will no longer be able to meaningfully participate in the decisions of the college, missing out on an unparalleled civic education. A Shimer education would still compare to that of many other universities, but it would seriously degrade. Shimer has plenty of problems, but the current regime will only exacerbate them. To learn more about the current situation at Shimer, read the February issue of Promulgates, the student newspaper: http://www.mediafire.com/?nzxjfdidynj read more

Wow! Three terrible reviews of Shimer College in the past few months! (Luckily, they are buried in the "not recommended" reviews, for obvious reasons). Well, gee, I suppose I would write a bad review if I had been expelled from the College for selling drugs to minors (as in, middle school kids), or attempted sexual assault, or if I had flunked out. The real story is that Shimer is a great college for independent thinkers, non-conformists, and anyone who wants to learn HOW to think, not WHAT to think. The college is tiny--about 100 students--so if you want to sleep in the back of a class of 500 students, don't come here. If you want easy A's, go somewhere else. If you want to be on the football team, the cheerleading team, or join a fraternity or sorority, Shimer is not for you. But if you want to hang with some of the brightest kids you will ever meet, who are not afraid to be who they are, who will never treat you like dirt if you are not cool, who will support you academically, socially, emotionally, and pretty much every other way, this may be the place for you. Oh, and since most of the grads go on to graduate school (Shimer is one of the top colleges in the country in percentage of grads who go on to get Ph.D. degrees--ahead of Harvard, Yale, and Stanford), the reputation of the College among elite universities is pretty high (two years ago, the student whose GPA put him exactly in the middle of the graduating class got a full scholarship to a Ph.D. program at Harvard). And Shimer is fun, in an intense, collective, almost family like way. Plus there's a whole neighborhood near the campus with recent Shimer grads who live & work in Chicago and can help you with jobs, housing, whatever. It's just a cool, different kind of college. Oh, and they have great financial aid. There's a lot of students who have everything, or almost everything, paid for with financial aid, and not a lot of loans, either. Try it, you'll (probably) like it! Just don't sell drugs to 12 year olds or try and sexually assault someone. Shimer won't stand for that. Of course, if you do, you can always leave a negative review and a lot of lies on Yelp. read more

The purpose of a Great Books education is to present yourself with challenging prose, meticulously deconstruct the text, and then attempt to understand. Shimer College is an accredited institute of higher education that allows you to practice this unique curriculum in the city of Chicago. Here you'd find a big lack of hierarchy. You're not required to climb ladders to reach certain goals. You merely say, "I'd like to study this." Shimer College provides you opportunities to either get credit studying with a professor one-on-one or cross-register with Harold Washington or IIT to obtain whatever intellectual goals you have. Shimer College, though, is a liberal arts college that focuses on general education. The students, faculty, and staff members are all deeply committed to the spirit of democracy, the socratic method, and conversation. This is perhaps the only place you can walk into and immediately expect a serious conversation. For those who are self-driven, independent, and free-spirited, this college will not only improve you intellectually -- but would thoroughly cleanse you of any strict dogmatic belief that holds you steadily to whatever political ground you stand. That doesn't mean you will change you from an Objectivist to a Tolstoyan, but rather, you will learn how to talk about concepts and ideas in ways you probably haven't done before. The tools that Shimer will give you after days of dialogue are the ability to comprehend your own ideas, translate your thoughts into words, and then communicate yourself to any audience willing to listen. read more

Shimer College is, without a doubt, the best college in the country. Shimer graduates are five times as likely as Harvard or Stanford graduates to attain doctoral degrees. Shimer graduates outperform virtually every other college or university on standardized tests. Yet Shimer accepts 90% of their applicants, some of whom are high school dropouts, others of whom only attended high school for two or three years! How do they do it? Incredible teachers (called "facilitators"), tiny classes (usually between five and twelve students), an amazingly supportive environment, teachers who know EVERY STUDENT personally (there are only about 120 students, so it is not that difficult)...I could go on and on. Sure, it's too small for some people and too difficult for others--you have to read a lot, write a lot, think a lot, and talk a lot in class. But you will achieve things at Shimer that you never believed possible--and without being miserable or worked half to death. And for the (quite reasonable) cost, you are getting an education comparable to what you would receive at Oxford University in England--where many Shimer students spend their junior or senior year. My entire education was wasted years--middle school, high school, graduate school--except Shimer. What an experience! What an education! What incredibly wonderful faculty and students! How I wish I could do it all again! read more

I honestly had faith in this college for about a good 5 years. As the deep researcher and analytical person I am, I was able to depict the real picture of this college. They are terribly unorganized, it takes them weeks to get back with you. No one really answers the phone and for it to be a private college, they really need to make it look as if they care about it being under threat for being shut down. It's student driven, which is great. But I believe the supervisors should put more effort into meeting future students and getting things done! This college cost too much money for them to be this behind. I am so glad I listened to my parents and went on to another college. I honestly believe I would have gotten here, and ended up getting my GED because I didn't gain anything but drained pockets. You can take this with a grain of salt. But I advise each and every student to carefully analyze the colleges to make sure they are right for you. As for me, I really am displeased with my experience. To put icing on the cake, one of the admission counselors literally stopped replying after I said a simple statement. It wasn't my fault they took to long with information that was due two weeks earlier. It is like they forget you exist. Almost. Like I said-- be careful when applying to colleges in general, you may end up in a world of b.s. read more

This school is awful- could be the worst school ever. Ran by manipulative students and duped faculty. The faculty have absolutely no clue what is going on outside the classroom which is really bad considering that of the 5 or 10 faculty members they have, all of them have joint roles as the director's of either financial aid, dean of students, housing director, academic dean, etc. This school is very cliquish and the students that do not leave after 1 or 2 semesters are extremely manipulative, particularly to the faculty, who basically control everything. The clicks ultimatly end up determining what elective classes are taught, who gets to take them, who gets in (or out) of housing and where they stay, who gets scholarships- basically who leaves and who stays. Most students that attend (particularly the quality ones) either get fed up with all the manipulation and resulting poor administrative choices made by the faculty and transfer (which almost none of their classes do) or give up with school altogether because they are too in debt now and disenchanted to start over some were else. Those people I know who did put up with it (or were in the clicks) and have graduated had a sour experience and are typically employed as waiters. read more

Shimer is a fantastic school. i just read 'what is art' by Tolstoy, and 'waiting for Godot' by Beckett for my humanities 1 and 2 classes respectively. i had rehearsal for a collection of David Mamet shorts, i attended a Quality of Life committee meeting where i actively participated in the governance of my school. also happening was a SMELT meeting (our student activist group), where a speaker from a local community organization conducted a Q and A session. the reading, the community, the classes all make this a really outstanding school. i like the people and atmosphere that is created in polite and honest discourse. it is a very small school, with limited resources, but i think that it serves its mission well. 'to serve rather than be served' is the official motto, and one i love and think truly represents the spirit of this college community. 'let us discuss this' is the unofficial motto and one we see enacted everyday, in and outside of classes. i'm really happy i came to shimer, i think that it creates a unique environment that many people could benefit from and fosters critical thinking and an active mindset. read more

What Aaron says about it being limited in diversity is certainly true but hopefully we will fix that. Certainly it is also true what he said about laziness. I have been lazy lately myself. It is certainly true that you have to get your own education out of it: if you want to be lazy as all hell you sure can, but that is your own fault and it is possible to get a beautiful experience. But as he says this is "as with any school". But the community for me is the most beautiful part. I can talk about beautiful academic topics all the time: all kinds of beautiful discussions all the time on feminist theories, gender theories, discussing religion, theories of how the mind works on drugs, theories of consciousness. Huge amounts of dialogue. If the teacher doesn't show up we still have class just discussing what we want to more freely. I am convinced that Shimer will save the world. I think that Aaron was in the weekend program which is less amazing than the weekday program apparently. Here is a website that I made which contains my opinion of the school: http://braults.net/shimercollege/index.html read more

About three years ago I decided to become a more active alum at Shimer because I valued deeply the experience of open and vigorous inquiry at the college, the commitment to thoughtful dialogue, and the affirmation that an informed life is truly possible. Alums from various decades often report the ways in which Shimer "changed their life," just as it had done for me. I am so inspired by the students that I meet on campus today. They are incredibly bright, dedicated, involved, and are living proof that the education at Shimer continues to nurture real intellectual and personal development. I have been able to be more flexible, creative, collaborative, and discerning in my professional life because of my education at Shimer. Going to Shimer was one of the best choices I ever made, and I love the fact that what was great about Shimer when I attended remains great today. read more

Only three students who have ever attended Shimer College have anything negative to say about the college. There are about TEN TIMES as many positive reviews, except Yelp has chosen to "filter" those so you cannot see them without searching. I don't think there is another college in the country where 90% of the students talk about how wonderful their college experience is. And as a former student at Shimer (and not one who dropped out or never even attended, like one of the front page reviews), I can categorically state that the education at Shimer is unsurpassed, the students warm, thougytful, considerate, and just plain fun to be around, the faculty amazingly knowledgeable about almost anything, and the experience unsurpassed. Try it--90% of those who do so love it. read more

If you like reading and thoughtful discussion, and don't care for the mass-produced drivel that masquerades as "education" in much of the world, go to Shimer. I am a 1998 graduate of Shimer College, and I would recommend it to all independent thinkers. Shimer offers a blend of Great Books learning, participatory governance, and dialogical education that no other college has ever replicated. Few have even tried. read more