Institute on Religious Life

Thomas Aquinas College

Thomas Aquinas College
10000 Santa Paula Ojai Rd.
Santa Paula, CA 93060-9621

800-634-9797

http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/

Community Information

Year founded

1971

About Us

Mission statement/description

Thomas Aquinas College is a four-year liberal arts college in southern California offering a single inter-disciplinary curriculum in the intellectual tradition of the Catholic Church. Philosophy, theology, laboratory science, mathematics, and the humanities are integrated into a comprehensive curriculum that replaces electives, majors and minors.

With over 350 students, all classes are conducted in the Socratic method: seminars, tutorials, and laboratories in which students are guided by their teachers in analysis and discussion of the primary sources of wisdom — the Great Books — in each of the arts and sciences essential in liberal education. The College's program is a thorough introduction to the arts of enquiry and reasoning and aims at providing students with a broad and integrated vision of the whole of life and learning.

U.S. News & World Report Profile

Qualifications for entry
Students' applications will include: 1) The application form and essay responses to questions posed on the application; 2) Three letters of reference (two are to be written by recent teachers); 3) Results of the SAT I: Reasoning Test or the ACT (the SAT verbal scores of accepted students generally range from 580 to 800 and math scores range from 520 to 800; composite ACT scores generally range from 22 to 36); 4) Transcripts of high school and college studies.

Formation program
There are full-time chaplains on campus. Mass is offered three times daily and confessions are heard after every Mass and at other times throughout the week. Eucharistic adoration is scheduled for several hours each day. The Rosary, Compline, and other liturgies and private devotions are well attended. Religious vocations are fostered and spiritual direction is offered.