Harvard (1636) is oldest. William & Mary (1693) is second oldest. Yale, the third oldest, was founded in 1701. Thomas Jefferson spent two years at W&M and was graduated in 1762.
Just to show that St. John's is not just a bunch of dumb croquet jocks, here's an article about the academics from Friday's _Post_.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2002Apr26.html>>
A Classic Conundrum at St. John's
College Lures More Scholars but Hopes to Keep Its Characters
By Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 27, 2002; Page B01
Almost every class at St. John's College used to have someone like Stick Boy.
The enigmatic young man earned his nickname for his habit of carrying a tree branch everywhere. Even at bookish St. John's, where students spend four years contemplating thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle on a tiny campus in Annapolis, Stick Boy was unusual. But the college had always embraced nonconformists and even outright kooks.
These days, though, Stick Boy might not make it into St. John's.
In the past decade, the private, nonparochial college has seen its applications soar, reflecting not only demographic trends but also the school's success in promoting its Great Books program. So many students want in that St. John's can no longer accept almost every student who applies, even those who were abject failures in high school or couldn't fit in anywhere else. And that is making St. John's a little less weird.
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