Reliance College

"Sometimes it's like these philosophical seminars. Sometimes it can be like these tours. Sometimes it can feel like career counseling. Sometimes it can feel like it's just a connection activity with the people around you." Micala Wood is from Twin Falls, Idaho, and plans to study political science. A close friend from home, Maddux McClymonds, went to the Great Connections Seminar in 2025 and told her to apply. She came to Chicago because she heard the seminar would be different from other programs, and harder. By the end of the week, she said she had never discussed texts in that much depth before. The 2026 group had about 20 people in it, from high school students to recent college graduates, and she got to know all of them.

"In the texts that we've read, we're the ones leading the discussions and we are the ones trying to find the answers. So I've learned to think more critically when it comes to schoolwork, reading texts, and just life in general." Maddux McClymonds came to the 2026 Great Connections Seminar in Chicago from Twin Falls, Idaho. It was his second summer at the seminar, and he made the trip on his own. He came back because he had such a good time the first year. In this reel he talks about the readings, which taught him that a text doesn't always have one right answer and that it's up to the reader to find one. Every Reliance College seminar runs this way. Students read the text, then work out what it means by talking it through with each other.

"Either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing." - Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1738 Franklin left school at 10 and went to work in a print shop. At 21 he started the Junto, a club of Philadelphia tradesmen who met on Friday evenings to debate questions they had set in advance. Its members went on to found the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731. Our seminars still work the way the Junto did. A small group of curious people sits down with a hard question, and everyone has to back up what they say. #BenjaminFranklin #Entrepreneurship #SocraticSeminar #GreatBooks #RelianceCollege

The University of Michigan has paused a pilot that would have kept first-semester grades off transcripts for first-year students in its College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. The plan was due to start in fall 2027. Students would still have received grades, but those grades would not have counted toward their GPA. The college announced the pause on Sept. 28 (The Michigan Daily). Why should first-semester grades not count? Tell us what you think.

"I think that if you're undecided and weighing the pros and cons, yes, it's a lot of work, but it's a lot of rewarding work." Izzy Fugazotto came to the Great Connections Summer Seminar from Kansas City, Missouri. She had heard about Socratic seminars at school but had never been to one like this, and it was her dad who told her to go. Her advice to anyone still deciding: bite the bullet. The worst that can happen is you don't like it and you don't come back. The work she means is the reading, and then a table of people your age who expect you to back up what you say. This year the topic was love, and she says it was eye-opening.

"I would say that they should definitely attend. This will be a great experience. You get to make new friends, you get to think on your own, you get to explore Chicago if you haven't seen it before." Alex came to the Great Connections Summer Seminar from Northern Virginia, partly to be independent in a city he had never been to. Outside class, his week was friends, restaurants and exploring the city. His one note for himself at the end: plan a little more ahead next time. "Think on your own" is the annual Great Connections Seminar in four words. In every discussion, reason is the only authority, so each student works out an answer and has to defend it.

Nineteen students, ages 16 to 24, spent eight days in Chicago this summer arguing about what love is. They came from Phoenix and Baton Rouge, and from Colombia, Armenia and Australia. They read Aristotle, Emily Dickinson, Mises, Tocqueville and Ortega y Gasset. They watched Jose Ferrer play Cyrano in black and white, and nobody made a sound for the whole film. Seven of them have already said they want to come back next summer and bring their friends. This is how Reliance College teaches: read hard things, defend your reasoning out loud, and listen well enough to build on what somebody else just said. More programs are coming, and the next Great Connections Summer Seminar is next summer. Follow along so you hear about them first. Full recap on the blog. reliancecollege.org/great-bo…

🔗 👉 Apply to AI Proof U and build the skills no algorithm can automate. reliancecollege.org/ai

Joshua Jones came up from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and he graduates in May 2027. He had never attended a program like this one. He wanted a week of people who would argue with him, and he wanted a look at the city he is thinking about moving to after graduation. He got both. The Great Connections Seminar is a week in Chicago built on Socratic discussion. AI Proof U™ is the same Reliance College method, hard texts and a room of people who push back, and it is the part of your education no software can sit through for you. Starts October 2. Applications close September 25. Apply today at the link in our comments section.

Did you know MIT once required all students -- engineers included -- to study the Great Books? Tech entrepreneur Ray Stata, founder of Analog Devices, says those philosophy courses shaped his thinking more than any engineering class. They trained him to reason clearly, lead ethically, and build a billion-dollar company grounded in trust and responsibility. Today, those humanities courses are gone. But Stata believes we need them now more than ever -- especially in a world driven by AI and rapid innovation. 📺 Don’t miss Ray Stata’s full interview with Reliance College founder Marsha Familaro Enright—on why philosophy still matters in a tech-driven world.  reliancecollege.org/ray-stat…

🔗 👉 Apply to AI Proof U and build the skills no algorithm can automate: reliancecollege.org/ai

One week left. Applications for AI Proof U™ close next Friday, September 25. Pew Research Center found that 52% of U.S. workers are worried about how AI will be used at their job, and only 6% think it will mean more opportunity for them. What separates those two groups is judgment, and judgment is the one thing you cannot prompt your way into. So the program puts you in a room. You open October 2 with a three-day intensive in Chicago, then six Tuesday night seminars online reading Aristotle, Adam Smith and Viktor Frankl, then back to Chicago on November 13 to present your own work publicly. Ten weeks, $2,500 with monthly payments, professional certificate at the end. Anyone can generate an answer this year. Very few people can stand up and defend one. AI Proof U™ trains the second thing.

🔗 👉 Apply to AI Proof U and build the skills no algorithm can automate: reliancecollege.org/ai

"I am taking with me a lot of knowledge, and except for my personal usage, I will take all the experience to the country where I live and I will apply it on the students. I would like to organize such kinds of talks and seminars and to discuss great authors through this Socratic method and maybe to create great connections in my country." Arpine Ayvazyan is a teacher. She came to Chicago from Hrazdan in Armenia, she has already been through university, and she has students of her own waiting at home, which makes her the one person in the room who had already run a classroom. She spent the week watching how the discussion was run as much as taking part in it. So this clip is her plan. She wants to hold the same thing in Armenia: great authors, the Socratic method, her own students around the table. The week she is describing is the Great Connections Seminar. AI Proof U™ is the same Reliance College method, the one she is taking home to run herself. Starts October 2. Applications close September 25.

Hayek's argument against central planning was never about computing power. It was about the nature of knowledge itself. The knowledge that actually matters in an economy is dispersed, tacit, and tied to particular circumstances. It lives in people, not in datasets. That's why AI, for all its power, can't solve the knowledge problem. It can automate knowledge. It can't automate judgment. reliancecollege.org/knowledg…

"𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴." – René Descartes Reading isn’t escape. It’s connection, power, and personal growth. Which of these books has spoken to you?

"There's no cons of coming here. I think I've only seen benefits. So if you're nervous about something, you shouldn't be." Riley McKinley had never studied philosophy before this week. She came because a friend invited her, and that is her answer to the person still deciding. Riley is talking about the Great Connections Seminar. AI Proof U is the same Reliance College method, hard texts and a room of people who push back, and it is the part of your education no software can sit through for you. Starts October 2. Applications close September 25. 🔗 👉 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗜 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗳 𝗨 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗻𝗼 𝗮𝗹𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗺 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲: reliancecollege.org/ai

At the 2026 Great Connections Seminar, students came to each discussion carrying their own questions about the text. In small groups they decided which question most needed an answer. At no point did an instructor say one question was better than another. Allison Quatrini, who teaches political science at Eckerd College, watched a group work through Mises' "The Anticapitalist Mentality." One of them got stuck on what it would mean to transfer the means of production to the masses. So she asked them "who gets to make the tables?" and a few of them answered at once. "Anyone." She could have made the connection for them. "They wouldn't have learned anything from it." This coming spring she rebuilds her own syllabus around Weber, Anderson and Dahl. Her students will do the same work. Read the full story below. 👇👇 reliancecollege.org/reason-i…

⏳ Applications close September 25. AI Proof U™ is ten weeks that change how you think. It starts with a three-day intensive in Chicago on October 2, where you'll dig into self-knowledge, leadership, and judgment in an AI-driven world. Then six online seminars, from decision-making to economics to entrepreneurship. Then you come back to Chicago and present your own work. No lectures to sit through. Socratic dialogue, great texts, and real projects, with a Professional Certificate at the end. If you've been thinking about it, this is the week to act. APPLY NOW 👉 reliancecollege.org/ai/

Want that for your own career? AI Proof U trains the same muscle in 10 weeks. 🗓️ Cohort begins October 2 | Chicago and online | Certificate | Ages 18+ Apply to AI Proof U at reliancecollege.org/ai