The “Why?” Advantage:
How St. John’s Graduates Outrival Peers in the Work Place

Professional work consists of procedures: what an organization does, and how it does it.

• A doctor follows a procedure for a diagnosis.
• A lawyer follows a procedure for writing a will.
• A tax professional follows a procedure for accounting.

A good employee masters procedures quickly, asking “What do we do, and how do we do it?”

But a great employee also examines assumptions, asking “Why do we do it, and can we do it better?”

This “Why?” advantage is a direct outgrowth of The Program at St. John’s College.

At St. John’s, faculty teach one primary thing: how to ask the best questions. Students tackle everything from reading Aristotle in the original Greek to solving quantum wave equations.

This kind of education has prompted billionaire Mark Cuban to predict that, in 10 years, “a liberal arts degree in philosophy will be worth more than a traditional programming degree."

Highly skilled workers are pouring out of America’s top colleges and universities – and they’re a dime a dozen.

As artificial intelligence takes an increasing share of the job market, the skills of specialized graduates will be outdated in 3-5 years.

Johnnies provide exactly the opposite: disciplined listening in a world of hypercomplexity; independent analysis in a market besieged by artificial thinking; and the wisdom that develops from 3000 years of interdisciplinary knowledge. 

Together, these qualities are what the future demands and where Johnnies’ competitive advantages lie.

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“What a gift. What an education.” -The New York Times