<p>Hey there FullTimeDreamer, I’m curious what the goal of good freshman philosophy courses would be? You noted you wanted to be part of a ‘fundamental’ college; does that mean one that’s well known, or one that gets to the fundamentals of things? I’d ask that because I’d echo the suggestion of looking into “Great Books” colleges (a breed of LAC that employs only primary sources and discussion-based classes), but since your four years there will be spend rather intensively reading, writing, and discussing, you’ll want to be serious about that sort of thing. So it depends on whether you want that to be more of a starting block, or your main thing in college (and that type of curriculum really is excellent grad school prep in terms of the abilities it gives you). St. John’s has two campuses in Annapolis and Santa Fe, more suburban/rural feel; Shimer is very much an urban campus. Those are the only two secular GB schools; the others have some kind of religious affiliation or another (it sounds like from your criteria that St. Thomas Aquinas might not be the best fit). I’m an alum of Shimer so feel free to ask me more about them in general if you’re curious.
But lots of good advice here for you already - good luck!</p>