Shimer College
![](/Images/godic/202502/10/Shimer_College_Logo_JPEG4916.jpg"){kind=spacer}
![Frances Shimer (seated) and Cindarella Gregory, 1869](/Images/godic/202502/10/Frances_Shimer_Cindarella_Gregory_18694917.jpg")
![Metcalf Hall (built in 1907) was the main administration building of the Mount Carroll campus, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.[29]](/Images/godic/202502/10/Shimer_metcalf4917.jpg")
![438 N. Sheridan Road, built in 1845, the main building of the Waukegan campus. The former campus was designated a historic district in 2006.[39][40]](/Images/godic/202502/10/DSCN04484917.jpeg")
Shimer College (pronounced /ˈʃaɪmər/ SHY-mər) is an American Great Books college in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1853 as the Mt. Carroll Seminary in Mount Carroll, Illinois, the school became affiliated with the University of Chicago and was renamed the Frances Shimer Academy in 1896. It was renamed Shimer College in 1950, when it began offering a four-year curriculum based on the Hutchins Plan of the University of Chicago. Although the University of Chicago parted with Shimer (and the Hutchins Plan) in 1958, Shimer has continued to use a version of that curriculum. The college left Mount Carroll for Waukegan in 1978, moving to Chicago in 2006.