Shimer College

Shimer College

Former names	Mount Carroll Seminary, Frances Shimer Academy, Frances Shimer Junior College
Motto	Non Ministrari Sed Ministrare
Motto in English	Not to be served, but to serve
Type	Small, four-year, Great Books, undergraduate, liberal arts
Established	1853 (1853)
President	Susan Henking (2012)
Academic staff	12 (2014)
Students	97 (2014)
Location	Chicago, Illinois, United States 41°49′55″N 87°37′33″W / 41.83194°N 87.62583°W / 41.83194; -87.62583Coordinates: 41°49′55″N 87°37′33″W / 41.83194°N 87.62583°W / 41.83194; -87.62583
Campus	Urban
Mascot	Flaming Smelt
Website	shimer.edu

Shimer College (pronounced ⁱ/ˈʃaɪmər/ SHY-mər) is an American Great Books college in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1853 as the Mt. Carroll Seminary in Mount Carroll, Illinois, the school became affiliated with the University of Chicago and was renamed the Frances Shimer Academy in 1896. It was renamed Shimer College in 1950, when it began offering a four-year curriculum based on the Hutchins Plan of the University of Chicago. Although the University of Chicago parted with Shimer (and the Hutchins Plan) in 1958, Shimer has continued to use a version of that curriculum. The college left Mount Carroll for Waukegan in 1978, moving to Chicago in 2006.

Its academic program is based on a core curriculum of sixteen required courses in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. All courses are small seminars with no more than twelve students, and are based on original sources from a list of about 200 core texts broadly based on the Great Books canon. Classroom instruction is Socratic discussion. Considerable writing is required, including two comprehensive examinations and a senior thesis. Students are admitted primarily on the basis of essays and interviews; no minimum grades or test scores are required. Shimer has one of the highest alumni doctorate rates in the country.