Boston College Top Questions

Freshman year its very difficult to get to know your professors because the classes are so large. As a biochemistry major, I was in all of the basic classes that premedical students have to take, so they were held in the largest halls on campus. However, professors are very interested in their students and if you seek them out they will gladly meet with you and get to know you. By the time you are in upper level classes, professors will know you by name and stop you in the hallways to say hello. My favorite class may have been Recombinant DNA Technology with Professor Hoffman, who is the jolliest man with the largest mullet I've ever seen. He's an amazing professor and really challenged us to learn. My other favorite was the Challenge of Justice with Stephen Pope, which is a theology/philosophy class. He really challenged us to live consciously, which I think is a message I've learned at BC. My least favorite class? I can honestly say I have liked every class I've taken at BC so far...I guess that makes me a nerd! Students at BC are very academically motivated, and tend to spend a lot of time studying both individually and in groups. They participate in class, meet outside to discuss issues, and meet with professors. Its a very positive atmosphere, until you enter the realm of the premeds, who are incredibly cut throat and scary. I have really loved the core and I reccomend that students take full advantage of the wide array of classes you can take. I took a painting class, an Irish step class, philosophy, and my science load one semester and the liberal arts classes definitely helped me balance out my heavy science classes.

Other than in one very large class, every professor I have had at BC has known my name. My favorite class was probably Mass Communication Theory. My professor was extremely interactive with the class, making sure that we all understood new concepts by having us discuss the material and apply it to real-life situation. Rather than simply talk at us in an hour-long lecture, the professor made the class interesting and fun. Students definitely work hard and get their studying done during the week, but they make sure to unwind and have a good time on the weekends. BC is a "work hard, play hard" kind of place. BC students have intellectual conversations outside of the classroom, but they have just as many conversations about celebrity gossip and arguments over what Boston taqueria makes the best burritos. One of my favorite things about the conversation at BC is that I can make an otherwise nerdy reference to biology while telling a story, and my friends will know exactly what I'm talking about. I am a Communications major, which is known to many as "the major of college athletes". Communications is vastly popular at BC, so many of the core requirement classes for the major are large. However, the professors still take these classes seriously and take attendance to make sure that student are not just gliding through the courses. No matter how many students are in a class, the Communications professors are still effective teachers and are still open for extra help and questions from individual students.

for the most part classes/learning can be bullshitted away or taken seriously. if the former is the case, you're likely to play into a lot of stupid shit that goes on here, eating up some if not all the delusions of college and of BC culture. if the latter, then you're like to feel alienated from everybody and have a tough time coping with the reality of things. i think a healthy number of people try to achieve a happy medium, but it's the extreme cases that produce more interesting life events, so try it all out! the theology, philosophy, and literary courses offer a fair amount of self-questioning (we'll say continental rather than analytical) and lend themselves to good conversations, sometimes. many at BC come from high-achieving backgrounds, so most are inclined to be somewhat competitive. fortunately, there's a fair amount of denial that goes on at this school, so if you try to balance and try to think for yourself, life will be a lot simpler.

Students can be competitive in CSOM, but I've never heard of people giving the wrong answers to classmates or ripping pages out of books in the library. (which I have heard of from friends at other schools) There is competition to do well but it is based on individual achievement and doing the best you can. Professors know your name if you want them to. Obviously if you sit in the back and never speak you will be invisible. This is college, theoretically you are here because you want to learn, some self-motivation will be required. Students study very different amounts, I probably spend 1-2 hours a week per class unless there's a big project, paper, or test. It depends on the individual and how efficiently you spend your time. The work load is definitely manageable if you stay on top of it and make sure you don't have all hard classes in one semester. Right now I'm taking a class (new this semester) called Economic Development: The El Salvador Experience. Only 10 students are in the class and we had to apply and interview, but it is amazing. We study development and El Salvador with Fr. McGowan who is great in and of himself. Then for spring break the university pays for all of us to go down to El Salvador. I'm a double major and a minor, in three schools at once. Human Development from school of ed, Economics from A&S and then a minor in Organizational Studies from CSOM. It is the perfect combination of subjects for my future plans. The univeristy has been flexible in allowing me to create this rather unique combination. I wish that I had been required to become fluent in a language - one regret about core requirements. Other than that I think it's great to experience different subjects and learn about things you wouldn't otherwise even try. People have found majors that way.

I have absolutely loved my academic experiences at BC. But, I must say that my encounters are not the norm--as an English and Studio Art major, I have never had a class with over 25 people (in my majors), and I have become very close with a great deal of professors. Instructors are really here for you, and I'd advise you to make your connections early--asking for letters of recommendation for jobs and grad school came so easily because of the fact that I keep in touch with my professors over the years.

As an English major, I've had the privilege of having much smaller classes. While some of my core classes are 80+ students, none of my major classes have been more than 35 people. My English professors get to know all of us, especially through our writing. I love my writing classes. I get a chance to get to know the other people in the class in a way I wouldn't normally. I think the relationship with a professor is what a student makes it. There are some teachers I have put in the effort to get to know on a personal level, and those are the people I will stay in touch with once I graduate. Yet I also have professors that I've never had a personal conversation with, and don't know anything about me. But that doesn't mean that the professor never made him/herself available for me to start that conversation. I think what the classes are geared to depends on your major. CSOM's classes advance in a specific way, and are geared towards job experience. My classes, on the other hand, are more for all around development. English majors are helpful in so many fields that the experience is how you apply it in a job situation.