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Published: March 11, 2010
Press Release - Thomas Aquinas College
“Panoramic” Photographs Featured on Thomas Aquinas College Website
 SANTA PAULA, CA—March 9, 2010—Thomas Aquinas College is happy to announce a new addition to its website. The 4-year, Catholic great books college now features 25 panoramic photographs (“panos”) that show off its beautifully landscaped campus, its Spanish Mission-style architecture, and the striking beauty of its location at the entrance to the Los Padres National Forest. The photographs are a gift of the father of current students at the college and were provided through his company, Rack Photography.
Says Jon Daly, Director of Admissions, “This panoramic tour offers a wonderful window into Thomas Aquinas College for the many applicants who seek admission to the college but have not yet been able to visit the campus.” Each year, the college welcomes a steady 65% of entering freshmen who come each year from outside of California, as well as a small percentage of students from overseas. “We fully expect these 360-degree, interactive photographs will inspire students to want to know more about the College — and to schedule a visit to sit in on classes and meet some the students, staff and faculty in person. They also provide a convenient way to check in on campus development. To my knowledge,” he adds, “we are one of only a handful of colleges and universities in the country to have this feature on its website, and, again, we are deeply grateful to Rack Photography for offering it to us.”
 Digital cameras, computers, and cutting-edge software are all required to produce panoramic photographs. In addition, expensive motorized equipment is needed to precisely regulate the movements of a camera so that about 7 overlapping, flat photographs can be stitched together to create the one interactive image file. When completed, the viewer then “stands” in the center of the resulting spherical photograph and with the computer mouse, “turns around” in the space as though he were actually there.
Vice President for Development, Quincy Masteller, remarks, “Not only will applicants to the college benefit from this new feature on our website, but so also will our benefactors — individuals and foundations — so many of whom reside in cities and states all across our country. Through their generous gifts to the college, we have been able to build out a truly beautiful campus. Now, though they may be 3,000 miles away, they can have an almost firsthand look at the good their generosity has brought about.”
 Among the 25 new “panos” are tours of the residence halls, the student coffee shop, St. Bernardine of Siena Library, Albertus Magnus Science Hall, and beautiful outdoor locations around the campus. Perhaps of greatest interest to viewers are the “panos” of the school’s recently completed Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel, which has been featured in publications such as Architect magazine and Traditional Building.
To take an interactive, panoramic tour of Thomas Aquinas College, please visit the school’s website at www.thomasaquinas.edu and click on the link on the homepage.
Posted Thursday, March 11, 2010 4:12 AM By 1abqdad
What about curriculum and religious thought? I know that this is probably the BEST Catholic college in the US, but they need to re-enforce this on their website! I would LOVE to see them expand their offerings to include hard science, math, and engineering! It is desperately needed! This is the crown jewel for Catholics!
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Posted Thursday, March 11, 2010 6:48 AM By Maryanne Leonard
Just one more nifty thing about wonderful Thomas Aquinas College, a truly Catholic college. You can send your kids to Thomas Aquinas with confidence that they are getting a first rate education. Check it out!
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Posted Thursday, March 11, 2010 11:02 AM By Maryanne Leonard
They are not weak in math or even science at Thomas Aquinas, but this is definitely not a trade school. This is a Catholic college which teaches students how to think and uses the Great Books as the basis of a profoundly satisfying liberal arts education. You can learn a trade in grad school anywhere, but you will find few places left in the nation where you can attain a broadly based education in the classics. Check out their curriculum; read the list of books the students study and discuss in depth for four years with brilliant educators; ask a graduate of the college if he or she is delighted with their experience; and then search the nation for a truly Catholic college like this one. It is a gem among gems!
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Posted Thursday, March 11, 2010 7:43 PM By JLS
I once looked at their math curriculum. It looks philosophical and not practical.
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Posted Thursday, March 11, 2010 9:04 PM By JLS
Back when I was a student at ucla I called the library and asked if there was the works of St Thomas Aquinas. The librarian said yes, and added that it would be a blessing if someone would read it. The way she said it implied that it was covered with several feet of dust from disuse. It would be an exciting trip to loaf through the stacks at TAC.
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Posted Friday, March 12, 2010 7:08 AM By Maryanne Leonard
JLS, with all due respect, I disagree. Publications issued by independent third parties evaluate the quality of education at colleges across the country, and Thomas Aquinas College is consistently rated highly academically. It is also rated as one of the best values for your educational dollar. A client of my husband's taught math at Thomas Aquinas from its earliest days; from all accounts, there was no lack. The emphasis is on a liberal education, which is not the same type of instruction some students seek in order to prepare for a specific job. The phrase "liberal education" does not mean they are educating your child to become a liberal, of course, but to have a broad educational foundation, from which one can go on to pursue any other advanced course of study. I never fear having to defend academic excellence at Thomas Aquinas College when I recommend it to friends; it is well known. While the quality of education at Thomas Aquinas College is remarkable, there is also immeasurable value in spending four years in a serenely appealing, natural environment in the company of intelligent people who respect Catholic values and appreciate the importance of thinking clearly. And did I mention the exquisite new chapel whose beauty alone might attract your child to seek out a place to contemplate, pray and worship Our Lord?
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Posted Friday, March 12, 2010 10:04 AM By Abeca Christian
JLS in your opinion is this a good Catholic school? What school would you recommend if a child is looking for a medical school, to become a pediatrician or OBGYN? Just curious? I appreciate your humble opinion.
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Posted Monday, March 15, 2010 10:42 AM By CA Mama
Plenty of schools have nice buildings, traditional architecture and beautiful landscaping. That's not even a criteria when choosing a college for my child. I'd send my child to school in a trailer park or tent city if the education was solidly Catholic.
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Posted Monday, March 15, 2010 10:21 PM By JLS
Abeca, I was not trying to diss TAC; it is perhaps the best college for Catholic kids. The type of education it does seems to be a philosophical level rather than a school of material science. I would guess its goal is producing faithful Catholics who can take leadership in bringing Christ's government to the world. Medical school as presently configured in this nation seems to be a technical affair. I do not see how a Great Books preparation would be sufficient for learning the scientific foundations required for med school. How can Great Books prepare a student for an engineering career? Law, yes. Politics, yes. Corporate business, yes. What is the education most demanded by Catholicism right now? What are the biggest problems to solve? I suspect TAC is geared to this challenge, the challenge of making moral decisions for others and of persuading others to make moral choices. Be a great school for preparation for seminary. Be great for a career as a professor of subjects important for proclaiming Catholicism such as history, philosophy, theology. Getting admitted into medical school requires a lot of course work that does not seem to be offered by a Great Books program. But a student could spend a couple years at TAC or even get a degree and then do the specific med studies at a college geared for it. Same with science and math. Writing ambitions would do well at TAC. But please, Abeca, I have no qualification to be definitive on this. Call the college; they'll no doubt happily talk with you comprehensively. Have you seen their brochures? Looks to me as though TAC is trying to move young people into influential social situations, rather than technical applications of the sciences. You can go there and walk around their campus and meet people there. I understand their chapel is open to the public. As you know I tend towards harsh criticism, and look how I'm talking up TAC pretty good. If I were college age I would opt for TAC first.
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Posted Monday, March 15, 2010 10:27 PM By JLS
Abeca, one of the things you could do in your exploration of this question is contact medical doctors who are active in prolife organizations.
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Posted Tuesday, March 16, 2010 11:37 AM By Abeca Christian
JLS thanks : )
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Posted Tuesday, March 16, 2010 3:30 PM By John F. Maguire
Santa Paula's Thomas Aquinas College offers a student an INTEGRAL Great Books program in a double sense: (1) Great works of literature and learning are not studied eclectically or haphazardly; rather, they are studied from within the horizon of the metaphysics of being, which is also to say, from within the horizon of the very Being Who is Uncreated Love. Whence the importance of St. Thomas Aquinas, precisely as teacher, within this, and just this, educational program. (2) TAC is also integral in the sense that its program of study is an integral FOUR-YEAR program. TAC is not a college relative to which a student "could spend a couple of years at" and then do something else. An unhurried look at TAC's curriculum is all that is needed to realize that TAC's program of study is integral in an intensive and holistic sense.
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Posted Wednesday, March 24, 2010 8:57 PM By Tracy Jamison
Integrated with the Thomistic curriculum is a campus full of beauty. St Thomas would appreciate the significance of this!
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