Shimer College Core Program

The Shimer Great Books School Core Program is a curriculum sequence of 16 required courses in humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and interdisciplinary studies. "Basic Studies" courses are generally taken during the first two years, and "Advanced Studies" during the final two years. The "Advanced Integrative Studies" courses, numbered are taken in the final year.

In addition to required core classes, electives offer in-depth work in a particular subject, or basic skills instruction. Tutorials follow a similar protocol, but with only one or two students per course, and are similar in structure to the Oxford-Cambridge supervision system.