Shimer in a nutshell?

Some suggested talking points have been posted on alumni.shimer.edu, for those recommending Shimer to others. (Doesn't mention the weekend college or early entrance programs, but I suppose that is understandable given the needs of the "elevator pitch".)

Here is the text in full:

Graduate-like Experience, Undergraduate Support
The Shimer curriculum is rigorous and places a strong emphasis on student responsibility in learning. As in a graduate seminar, students are expected to have read the assigned text and be prepared for an in-depth discussion. But students at Shimer also enjoy the fully supportive environment of a small liberal arts college with a close-knit community.

The classroom is a safe and open space where students feel free to share ideas. At Shimer, faculty members don't hold office hours because they are always available to talk with students between or after classes. All Shimerians—faculty, students, staff, alumni, even the President—are on a first-name basis with each other. And with IIT's clubs and our own community events, not to mention the whole city of Chicago, there's always plenty to do with friends. 

A College without Professors
At Shimer, what matters most in the classroom is what students think and believe. Of course we have professors, but as one of them said, "We are completely convinced that each and every student has deep and complicated thoughts that need to be explored." Professors at Shimer act as guides for that exploration, helping students progress seriously by starting with students' own ideas and experiences of the world and what they read. At Shimer, professors don't stand at a podium and lecture. That is why we call them "facilitators" rather than "professors."

Preparation for a World Not Known
Shimer's curriculum—representing the best that has been thought over centuries—is a curriculum for any future. At Shimer, we don't teach job-specific skills but we do teach skills like problem-solving, communication, and associative and analytical thinking that prepare students for whatever careers might emerge in this quickly-changing knowledge economy. You, the alumni, are the best testament to the success of this particular outcome of the Shimer curriculum:  lifelong learning.

No Textbooks, No problem
Only primary-source readings. Ever. And every semester, each student gets a box of fresh, crisp books to keep, building up a library of canonical, time-tested texts from antiquity to the present day.

Chicago is Our Campus
For students at Shimer, the city is part of the college experience. Students have access to courses, services, and activities at IIT; they enjoy free membership to the Art Institute of Chicago; they see foreign movies, attend concerts and go to poetry readings. Bridgeport, the neighborhood where many students live and the birthplace of five of Chicago's mayors, is one of the most ethnically diverse communities in Chicago. It boasts great eateries, galleries, and non-chain coffee-shops.

In a nutshell:

• Students complete 85 credits in the core curriculum and 40 credits in electives.
• There are no majors, but some students concentrate in Humanities, Natural Sciences, or Social Sciences.
• There are no textbooks, lectures, or traditional tests. 
• All Shimer’s classes are discussion-based, and the average class size is 9. 
• Students may study abroad in Oxford during their junior or senior year.
• Shimer is located on the campus of IIT, and students have access to IIT housing, meal plans, health services, etc.
• Students have the opportunity to be meaningfully involved in Shimer's governance structure.
  
• Shimer is a close-knit community, and everyone is on a first-name basis. We have regularly scheduled community activities including chess tournaments, theater, lecture series, and Assembly meetings.
  

And, finally:

• Do encourage students to visit campus.
• Do speak positively about your experience at Shimer.
• Do ask students about what they like to read. 
• Do keep students’ personal information confidential. 
• Do refer inquiries to the Admission Office.

Elaine Vincent returns to Shimer College Admissions

Elaine Vincent has returned as Director of Admission at Shimer, effective August 14, 2012. The Admissions Office had been directorless since the departure of Cassie Sherman a few months ago.

Vincent previously headed the Admissions Office from 2006 to 2009. Her 2009 removal by then-president Thomas Lindsay was one of the key warning signs that led to the exposure of the attempted takeover scheme later in that year, and to Lindsay's eventual ouster. Her return is thus to be welcomed for many reasons.

Vincent's previous work laid the foundation for much of the impressive work that the Admissions Office has done in recent years, from the Shimer College viewbook to the use of enrollment management software.

From the official announcement:

Rebecca Sundin, Board Member and Chair of the Admission Committee, says, "I am so pleased that the college has decided to welcome Elaine Vincent back to the Shimer community. She has been a powerful ally to the college for many years. Her knowledge of the school and her experience with other small colleges will be a tremendous addition to the Admissions Office. I look forward to the opportunity to work with her again in the coming months."

The work of our admission team is central to our success. This appointment is a crucial one, and we urge the community to welcome Elaine as she continues the work of building a sustainable—and growing—admission strategy.

We also want to take this opportunity to thank B David Galt, Adrian Nelson, and the student staff for their hard work, Janet Henthorn in her capacity as Director of Financial Aid, and all of you who helped with recruitment during this search.

When you visit campus, please stop by the Office of Admission on the first floor of 3424 S. State Street to welcome Elaine back to Shimer.

Transfer Day at Shimer College, July 27th

On the 27th, later this week, Shimer will host a Transfer Day for students considering transferring from other institutions: schedule (PDF).

Shimer College invites all students who are thinking of transferring to Shimer in the coming year to visit with Shimer for a day! The event will be held Friday, July 27. We will answer all your burning questions about transfer to Shimer, financial aid, and more. If you are able to submit your transcripts to us a few days in advance, we may be able to do an initial transfer credit evaluation for you as well. Please RSVP to Adrian Nelson, Admission Counselor (a.nelson@shimer.edu, or 312-235-3549) if you plan on coming.

Transfer student Sarah Scalise has recently blogged about her experience on blog.shimer: "Transferring to Shimer College."

Many students transfer to Shimer from Harold Washington College (see also Dean Barbara Stone's recent letter in the Chronicle of Higher Education about this program). Previous accounts of that experience have been given by current student Ed Vlcek and 2012 graduate Kieran Kelley.

Shimerian Grey Litaker represents 49th Ward on WBEZ

WBEZ is running a "50 Wards in 50 Weekdays" series, and as the representative of the 49th Ward (Rogers Park and environs), they chose current Shimer College student Grey Litaker: "49th Ward’s Grey Litaker enjoys her ‘small beachfront town’ but not the commute". (Full audio and partial text at the link.)

Shimer is not the primary focus of the piece, but it nonetheless provides a snapshot of the contemporary Shimer experience.

On Shimer in general:

“Everyone should go there, because it’s great and wonderful,” Litaker says, before reciting a Shimer rhyme. “'Sex, drugs and Socrates. We kick ass at GREs.’ It’s totally grad school prep. That’s all it is.”

On why you can't fake your way through a Shimer education:

“It’s better to admit that you didn’t read before discussion starts and then just not talk, then to try to act like you did your reading,” Litaker says. “Because you’ll sit there and you’ll be like, ‘Well, I think Alexis de Tocqueville really thinks that democracy is amazing.’ And it’s like, ‘I think if you’d actually read the homework then you would see on page 35 that actually what he says is that this is bulls----.’”

Listen to the whole thing. Kudos to WBEZ's Sam Hudzik for a great interview.

(Previous WBEZ coverage of Shimer and Shimerians includes this Worldview interview with Steven Werlin, and this story about the 2006 move to Chicago.)

Gawker reminds us that not all anti-Shimer idiocy comes from the right

After a few years of Shimer being assailed from angry right-wing zealots on NRO and points beyond, who profess to believe that Shimer is some sort of leftist indoctrination camp, there's something refreshing about being criticized from the other side of our country's impoverished political spectrum. At least that's the best spin I can put on this week's idiocy from Gawker writer Moe Tkacik.

Tkacik's chosen target is not Shimer in general, however, but Dorian Electra, of Shimer's class of 2014 -- known in Tkacik's fevered imagination as "the Libertarian Lolita." (You may know Dorian from the front cover of the current issue of the Symposium, or from the recent Shimer video.) (In fact, in what may be the most unforgivable sin of this ugly hit piece, Tkacik does not mention Shimer at all, although she does at least include a link to one of Dorian's numerous posts on blog.shimer.)

Here is a representative paragraph from Tkacik's piece:

Now, where the conservative movement will probably never want for obnoxious junior Bible-thumping blowhards like Jonathan Krohn, Gomberg/Electra is the product of a much more delicate and nuanced decades-long project to make right wing ideology hipster-friendly. Her love affair with free markets began at the $16,000-a-year School of the Woods Montessori of Houston, Texas, producer of 66% of the recipients of 2009 Students for Liberty Foundations of Freedom Fellowships. (Montessori education has been infested with libertarians since Ayn Rand decided it was "the most promising educational method now available"-the Charlie's Angels of learning, if you will.)

Showing admirable restraint, current student Matt Kawahara responded in the comments:

This article makes it seem like she was constructed in a laboratory by libertarians to be some sort of fiscal-conservative propaganda machine. [....] I am a socialist. I find libertarianism to be an intolerable doctrine. I think the Koch bro's are evil corporatist assholes that are actively ruining this country. I have a lot of conversations with Dorian about economics, liberty, and politics. Let me tell you, you have her wrong. And honestly, you're just making yourself look pathetic. (...more...)

A fairly thorough -- if regrettably ideological and self-satisfied -- dissection of the article has been posted by Steve Horwitz of St. Lawrence University on Students for Liberty:

Moe Tkacik’s July 6 Gawker.com column on the young musician Dorian Electra is a perfect example, as she manages to simultaneously distort her ideas, accuse everyone involved in the movement of being either stupid or out to indoctrinate, and most offensively, turns a young woman who writes the lyrics and music, produces, directs, and stars in her own music videos into a mere pawn and sexual toy of mysterious dark (presumably male) forces. (...more...)

Much of the Gawker piece hinges on Dorian's viral hit "I'm In Love with Friedrich Hayek" ... the careful viewer will, I think, detect several layers of nuance that appear to have eluded Ms. Tkacik:



If nothing else, Tkacik's piece serves as a useful reminder that the "humorless doctrinaire liberal" is not exclusively a figment of the right-wing imagination.

I wonder what Tkacik thinks about quantum physics? Is it evil too?