Liberty Through Virtue

John Adams College is an independent college in the American West for students who are not satisfied with merely inheriting the world as it is. We educate those who feel compelled to understand first principles, challenge assumptions, and create something new, whether in business, public life, the arts, or thought itself. This is a demanding, reading-intensive, discussion-driven education grounded in the great works of civilization and pursued through the Socratic method. JAC is not for most students — and that is intentional.

Why John Adams College Exists

Most higher education is designed to prepare students for roles within existing systems. This model serves society well and is necessary and beneficial. But JAC educates the kind of thinkers who historically create those systems: entrepreneurs, statesmen, reformers, and original minds across the arts and sciences.

History shows that civilization advances because a minority of individuals refuse to think only within inherited frameworks. These thinkers — often misunderstood in their own time — push beyond the frontier of accepted knowledge and practice.

JAC exists to educate this minority.

John Adams College is a frontier for independent minds. We educate students who are dissatisfied with merely fitting into the world as it is, who feel compelled to understand it deeply enough to effect positive change through innovation.

John Adams College is preparing men and women to enter the world defending liberty, standing in humility, and upholding virtue.

Is This Education For You?

Our Philosophy

What Makes John Adams College Different

Education for the Unknown
We train students to confront problems whose solutions do not yet exist.

Unconventional by Design
Our curriculum and governance are intentionally independent of prevailing academic trends.

Socratic, Not Scripted
Students learn to test ideas through sustained dialogue, not passive absorption.

Intellectual Rigor Without Apology
The reading load exceeds that of most colleges. This rigor is the method.

Three Parts of a JAC Degree

Original Sources

JAC provides a four-year bachelor’s program designed to allow students to engage with the greatest thinkers of civilization and grapple with their messages. It is the perfect experience to expand critical thinking skills. JAC students take a principle, work through it to real comprehension, connect it to other great works, and then discuss what it really means. This is the stuff critical thinking is made of. Only after this effort can we be in a position to decide if what we have read and thought is truth.

Socratic Discussion

Socratic discussions enable students to deeply engage with both the readings and other members of the class. They must listen, understand, and respond, examining other’s comments as well as their own. Critical thinking, problem-solving, and good diplomacy are improved exponentially through these discussions. Combined with original source material, Socratic discussions form a key part of John Adams’s educational model.

Application

An important part of discovering true principles is the obligation to apply them to life. Without the courage to apply these newfound principles, there is really no reason to make the effort to learn them. The ultimate goal of a classical education is discovering fundamental truths and applying them; thus improving ourselves and the world around us.

John Adams College is not easy. A degree from John Adams
will take hard work, diligence, and a lot of courage, but those
who are up to the challenge will not be disappointed.

With the advent of AI,
soft skills are what matter most in education:

Mature deliberation
Problem-solving
Creativity
Understanding human nature
Teamwork
Leadership
Communication
Independent thinking

These skills are at the heart of
John Adams College, and they work:

John Adams College graduates have been accepted into graduate programs at Columbia, Rutgers, Ralston, Ashland, andAntioch universities. Our graduates have also received fellowships at The Spectator World in Washington DC and Encounter Books in New York City.

John Adams College:
Applying the Wisdom of the Past
to the Problems of Today and Tomorrow;
Liberty through Virtue.

Every age has its own outlook.
It is especially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistake of our own period. And that means the old books.
– C. S. Lewis

“If we do not change the way we teach, thirty years later we will be in trouble. . . . We cannot teach our kids to compete with machines who [are] smarter. We have to teach something unique that machines can never catch up to. In this way, thirty years later, our kids have the chance. Value, believing, independent thinking, teamwork, care for others; these are the soft parts. . . . Everything we teach should be different from machines.“
– Jack Ma, Founder of Alibaba

“I think the current education system is designed for a different era, where the main goal was to produce workers for factories. It doesn’t foster creativity, and it doesn’t teach people how to think critically or solve real-world problems. The focus is on memorization, not on understanding how things work or how to innovate.”
– Elon Musk

“It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough—that it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our hearts sing.”
– Steve Jobs

John Adams College is a private, non-profit college
located in Provo, Utah and is licensed by the State of Utah.