St. John's College is a private institution that was founded in 1964. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 340, its setting is urban, and the campus size is 250 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. St. John's College's ranking in the 2016 edition of Best Colleges is National Liberal Arts Colleges, 100. Its tuition and fees are $49,194 (2015-16).

St. John's commitment to collaborative inquiry and to the study of original texts fosters intellectual courage, a continuing readiness to learn, and the self-knowledge that arises from exploring fundamental issues in community with others. All classes at St. John's are small, student-driven discussions devoted to the examination of seminal works of philosophy, literature, mathematics, science, and music. The college's highly respected undergraduate curriculum and educational practices have long given St. John's a distinguished place among American colleges and universities. Through close engagement with the writings of authors such as Homer, Plato, Euclid, Dante, Shakespeare, Descartes, Cervantes, Newton, Kant, Austen, Darwin, Dostoyevsky, Einstein, Woolf, and Joyce, to name only a few, students at St. John's learn to ask penetrating questions, hone their ability to tackle complex problems, develop imaginative vision, and cultivate enduring habits of thoughtful reflection. The faculty shares the college's dedication to an education that emphasizes the essential over the simply technical, literacy over mere proficiency, and intellectual engagement over rigid expertise. This emphasis has made St. John's a vibrant community of learning, where discussions begun in class continue naturally on the placita or in the coffee shop. Because all students are immersed in a common, four-year curriculum and most live on campus, students in all years form lasting friendships. Students share their interests and discover new ones by participating in student-initiated study groups, in student-directed theatre performances, in the active musical life on campus, and in diverse athletic and recreational activities, which include hiking and biking on the mountain trails surrounding the campus, skiing in the Santa Fe Ski Basin, just minutes away, whitewater rafting, and a wide range of intra-mural athletics and martial arts offerings. Santa Fe, the oldest capital city in the United States, is considered the cultural capital of the Southwest and is home to a rich and eclectic artistic, musical, and culinary scene. The college attracts a diverse student body from across the United States and from around the world. Students may also opt to spend a year or more at the college's sister campus in Annapolis, Maryland.