Hi, Banezian. Both our admin, Matthew and I believe someone else, attended the seminary in Minnesota for a time. They could talk to you about it.

I was there many years ago now (1989 - 1991), so I can't speak to the current state of the seminary.  I too studied Classics ... got a double major in Greek and Latin at Loyola University of Chicago, and then completed the graduate coursework in the Patristic Greek and Latin program at The Catholic University of America.  I changed course and didn't take the exams, so I never got my Ph.D. (even though I took all the necessary coursework).  I was enlisted to teach Latin at the seminary.  While at CUA, I also took graduate-level theology courses, and I can say that I learned more theology in the first month at St. Thomas Aquinas than I did at all these classes combined.

I was actually a Freshman at Loyola when I first found an SSPX Mass center and started attending.  Then, after my Sophomore year, I decided that I wanted to enter the seminary.  So I took summer classes and finished my degrees by the end of my Junior year.  After leaving STAS, I eventually returned to grad school at CUA.  But I changed course and became a computer programmer (something I had done since the age of 10 on my own) ... to make a living and support my family.

I was there from 2000 - 2003, and I did Bishop Williamson's "zero year" a.k.a. Humanities. So I only made it partway through "third year" even though I spent 7 semesters there.

It was a different place then, and in fact the Winona, MN property is no longer used to train seminarians. The SSPX American seminary is in Virginia now, isn't it?

Different building, different location, different rector, different attitude in the SSPX, different language used to teach theology, different Canon Law taught, different attitude towards the Conciliar hierarchy, different views on the Crisis being taught, etc. (I know you didn't want to get into the Resistance vs. neo-SSPX debate, but frankly it's hard to pass over that element altogether.) There's a reason there's a Resistance -- there are a lot of concrete changes which have taken place, including at the Seminary, and these are the things that many decades-long, non-sedevacantist, serious Catholic, former SSPX supporters are "resisting" at the present day.

I loved my seminary experience, but it's sad to say that it wouldn't be the same today.

Unlike Ladislaus, I had no college experience before the seminary. I had only worked as a PC tech, then computer programmer, before entering the seminary. I was one of the oldest in my class, being almost 24 years old when I entered. When I was dismissed from the seminary (I didn't quit), I began "part two" of my programming career, this time focusing on web development (PHP, MySQL, Javascript, etc.) And also like Ladislaus, I am married with a large family to support.

I also took to computer programming at a young age (7) but couldn't get my hands on a computer until age 15 -- computers were too expensive back then. Even used computers cost several hundred dollars, and my family was poor at the time. I remember that in 1991, a cheap, slow, crappy computer system (with 14" monitor) used to cost $1,300. There were no "Raspberry Pi" $35 computers, no $300 laptops, no $400 small computers, no $200 little cube computers, none of that.

Call (better yet go there in person if possible, visit first in Virginia now as Matthew says) and ask to speak to Fr. James Peek. If you have a vocation, he is the priest at that seminary that you want to talk to.

I only reminisce about the Atari because it's solely responsible for the fact that I can now support my family ... as my Greek & Latin degree would not have cut it.

A Commodore 64 would have been great, as far as 7-year-old me was concerned. But it still cost hundreds of dollars, and we would have needed a monitor (and probably a disk drive or at least a tape drive) too. We didn't have extra TVs around the house -- we only had a single black & white TV which was used by the family. We were poor. We lived in a really crappy neighborhood at the time. My dad was a "statistic" as it were, being out of work in the early 80's. It wasn't for lack of trying, either. We were on food stamps and everything. That was one of the worst recessions in recent times.

But I almost forgot to point out that even a $400 computer, in 1982, was WAY MORE EXPENSIVE than a $400 computer today. Minimum wage back then was $3.25. The US dollar wasn't quite as worthless as it is today.

It really puts today's $35 Raspberry Pi in perspective. A person could buy that for about 5 hours of minimum wage. That would be like a $15 computer in the 80's.

"Old geeks unleashed" ?

No, I think it's called "going off topic"

Yeah, sorry ... my bad.

But I think we said what we could about STAS.  Both Matthew and I were there in a different era, so our experiences would not necessarily help the OP.

So, being 49, I am now "old geezer"?   :)  My dad lived to 92, so I'm only a little over halfway there!  Most of my grandparents made it to their 90s.  Yet my kids have no idea about what a cassette tape even is.