Mike
Great. Every class I have had has been extremely approachable and remembered my name after speaking with them. With todays universities, its hard to find a school that offers such a big name with such individualized academic concerns.
Stephen
Clemson's academics are at a high level and will continue to increase in the coming years. As a part of Clemson's goal to be a top twenty public institution the quality of the professors is also increasing at a rapid rate. The classes can be difficult but there is no doubt in the high level of education that you are recieving.
Natalie
Clemson once again has a great balance. There are some big classes freshman year like some gen-eds where a lecture may have 130 kids (30 ususally show up). Professors are easily accessed though. Students study a lot but know how to balance their work. Staying in a Thursday night to study is the worst, but you usually do it maybe once a month. The Academic Success Center is really helpful, use it! They offer tutors, study groups, study hints, help you pick a major with tests and then sit you down to review your results, how to study classes, adjustment to college classes, and SO much more.
Elizabeth
Well when I tell people I go to Clemson they usually assume I'm really smart. It is a good school academically and it's getting harder to get into, especially for out of state like me. So I like that we are proud of academics. But really once you get in the classes are all different. Some are really hard and some extremely easy. Professors will know your name if you sit on the front row or talk to them. I recommend that even in a class of 200 students. They like it, you get to know a pretty cool professor, and it can help with grades. I recommend visiting their offices as well. Education at Clemson can be geared towards getting a job, but I recommend taking a few classes that are what you are interested in even if you don't want to major in it. Sometimes it's really good to learn just for the sake of learning.
Students are competitive. A little too much sometimes. My philosophy is don't worry about the other students and just do your best. But it is good that the competitiveness can sometimes remind us why we are in college...to learn.
Courtney
Most of my professors know my name in my smaller classes. Classes usually do not have much participation that i've been in. some students are just a drain on the entire class because they don't care about learning.
Amy
Academics at Clemson are rigorous, but depending on your major, you can get the easy or the more difficult way out of an academically demanding school. Since I was a Science major, most of my classes were in stadium-type settings until my junior and senior years. My least favorite aspect of my major was that the teachers were more focused on their research endeavors than their class. That said, I did have some amazing professors towards the end of my academic career! My favorite class was Entomology (the study of insects) because the teacher visibly cared about the subject and the class. You can definitely get to know your teachers by going by their office hours to talk about upcoming coursework or homework. The education at Clemson is geared more towards learning for its own sake, but if you take advantage of their career services it may give you an upperhand on graduating.
Sasha
Since I am part of the nursing school (one of the best I think), all of my professors know our names, they make a point to get to know us. One of my professors this past semester made us each meet with her one on one some point in the semester (in a class of 60, thats pretty impressive). My favorite nursing class was pediatrics. My favorite non-nursing class was old testament (religion 306). the professors really make the class memorable. Class participationis very common, the professors love feedback. Students are very competitive, but I think it is healthy for our university. The most unique class I took was camping and backpacking. It was just plain awesome.
Jimmy
The academics at any school depend on your major and who you are as an individual. My freshman year was pretty difficult but that is exactly what I expected. Some classes were harder than others to me. I think the general concensus at the school is that all the sciences and maths are pretty hard. The two hardest classes I took my freshman year were Physics 107 and Calculus 106. Now they were both hard for me but I managed to maintain a C letter grade without having to put in really any strenous work in either class. Some of my class sizes, I will admit, were too big. Now one good thing about Clemson that definitely saved me is the amount of free help you can receive. For just about every class there are study sessions and tudor sessions that you can attend to receive additional help. I had to go to quite a few of these sessions and they actually helped alot.
Lorie
Academics at Clemson are great. I have only had three classes ever that were more than 50 people. For the most part, your professors will challenge you and be very knowledgeable in their areas of expertise. However, there are a few professors who really need to go to teaching school, or at least take a class or something. But, that said, it is really up to the student to make the decision about how well you will do in school. I say that from experience. For my differential equations course, my professor was insanely difficult. I got a 75 on the first two of four tests in the class. I make A's and B's usually. Well, I wasn't satisfied with a 75, so I figured out what scores I needed on the the last two tests and the final exam for me to get an A. It came down to me having to score a 95 or better on all three of the tests. So I did. I studied for about 8 hours for each test, and longer for the final, but I made the grades, and earned an A.
Alex
Almost every class has a lab section, which sounds like a drag at first, but it's easy to appreciate at the end of the semester given the difficulty of some subjects. In the largest classes at Clemson professors definitely recognize their students, and in smaller classes they will absolutely make an effort to learn everybody's name. Students are very competitive, but graceful in the same respect.
The College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Life Sciences is definitely one of the focuses at Clemson. When taking a class in this department professors treat students as adults who have earned their place into that class. As a student you feel respected and encouraged to learn as much as possible about the material. It is obvious these professors believe in what they teach, but more importantly, they believe in their students.
I feel very confident about the academic requirements. I wasn't admitted directly out of high school, which is definitely a good thing considering the amount of effort I put forth. Once I transferred into Clemson I realized why I wasn't accepted in the first place; my roommates and classmates and everyone I interacted with around campus was very intelligent and focused. It was intimidating, but now I feel much more capable as a human being and I have my place in a classroom and on campus on equal ground with the rest of the student body.
Stephen
As far as my major goes, architecture, it is quite rigorous, requiring large amounts of my time in studio. My professors are very expectent of professional grade results in our projects. I find that I can generally connect with my professors very well, in and outside of class. Even outside of class, I find that students are very enlightening conversationlist on a number of topics that interest them the most.
Alex
I think Clemson has some of the best professors in the nation. Not only are they intelligent, but they are also very caring. I can always depend on them to respond to your emails quickly and offer you their time. The environment at Clemson makes it easy for students to have a healthy competitive nature. Everyone wants to succeed.
Kyle
Classes are good sizes - besides the intro lecture halls they usually stay at around 20 people. Speaking of the engineering department, they have a general engineering program for first year kids that sucks. It's not really hard but they're extremely hard graders and have really rigorous standards. It's really just to weed people out, I'm going into my sophomore year and I hear it gets a lot better after that first year. I wouldn't say students are extremely competitive - most of the redneck kids don't really care that they're in college they just get wasted in a field somewhere whenever they can. The out of state kids are a lot more competitive - it really depends on the major you choose, for instance engineering has a lot more out of state kids than something that agriculture would. I hear Clemson has really good job hookups after you graduate but I wouldn't really know for sure. There are a lot of internship and co-op opportunities which is always a good thing.
Toni
The academics at Clemson are for the most part really great. I am a Poli Sci major and the majority of my classes are 10-15 people. Obviously the more general classes that you take, the bigger they will be, but for most classes you really can have an option of if you want a big or small class. In smaller classes there is obviously more class participation and I really enjoy the discussions in my classes. Students here are pretty driven and can be competitive but professors are usually pretty helpful and going to your prof's office outside of class will always earn you some bonus points! There are some amazing teachers here with some impressive resumes. Dr. Benjamin (I had him for econ 211 and 212) is really great. His class was prob 250 kids because everyone really wants to take him but he is a great teacher and made econ incredibly interesting. For most of your classes you are really going to have to study, but it is not going to kill you. I remember being in high school and wanting to cry when I heard about college kids studying for 6 or 7 hours at a time. But it really isn't that bad and nothing can replace the feeling of doing well on an exam that you worked really hard for.
Joshua
You become closer to your professors as you get into classes in you major. Every professor has their own unique teaching style, but they each work in their own unique way. Of course you like some better than others, but that is expected. The one thing i wish is that the university would put more funding into the undergraduate program instead of expending sooooo much into the graduate program. As you go around campus you see a lot of great facilities but then, as a student, you just frown as you realize that almost all of them are fro graduate students only. Prime example, ICAR.
Elizabeth
Professors all know my name and when I'm not in class. This may not be true the first couple years at Clemson but by junior and senior year classes range from about 15-25 students. Some students are competitive while others aren't. Most of the time if students are at the top of the class people know and will often ask those people for help on homework assignments or help with studying. Clemson academic requirements completely prepared me for moving into the work world. It was not only good in building my skills in classes but my social skills as well. I got a job right out of Clemson in Boston because I worked hard at Clemson. Classes are generally not difficult as long as you don't go out every night of the week. I decided to not go out until weekends and was able to get only one 'B' my whole career at Clemson (2 years) and the rest 'A's'. You have to make a choice because their is pressure to always go out downtown or to parties. It depends what you want out of school, a ton of friends thinking you're a partier or a job when you get out. None of my friends got jobs but they made the best in college by meeting so many people through partying.
seth
Professors are very educated. Students study all the time, the library is always full. Class participation is above average. Intellectual conversations outside of class happen frequently. Students are pretty competitive.
Eric
Academics vary a lot at Clemson. I think every school has its good professors and its bad ones. Clemson is no different. In my first year, I have had professors that made class fun and interesting, and have taught me a lot, but I have also had some who didn't meet my expectations. Like I said, I think every school has this; not all teachers can be awesome. I was impressed with the class sizes. All of my classes were fairly small.
Tyler
Clemson is big on academics. There are all kinds of programs to help students keep and maintain good grades and to ehlp students get their grades back up when they drop. There are so many free tutors and study groups availiable, it's not even funny. My sister, who attends a different college, visited Clemson, and after I showed her around campus, she told me that she could tell Clemson put much more focus on academics compared to her school just by seeing our academic buildings.
Whether or not your professor knows your name all depends on you and your professor. If you have a class of 200 students, of course your professor isn't going to take time to remember your name unless you take the initiative and introduce yourself to your professor, ask questions after class, visit him/her during office hours. Most of my professors knew my name because I did these things. If you show your professors that your willing to learn and that you desire help, they're going to take the time to help you and get to know you too.
I'm an Engineering major. I didn't think that the material covered in the Engr courses was that hard. It's just that the rules for the Engr courses are strict, and there are a lot of them. For instance, if your homework is stapled incorrectly or your name is in the wrong spot, your homework is thrown away. Don't let that scare you away from Engineering. They're just trying to teach us that we have to be neat and organized. Once you get the silly rules down, there's nothing to the actual homework...well, most of the time.
My favorite classes at Clemson have been my math classes (MthSc 106, 108). I enjoy math and find it easy. On the other hand, I found out that I hated Chemistry. Chem 101 lecture isn't that bad...boring, but alright. The lab, however, is a killer. The lab is 25{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of your overall Chem 101 grade, and it's meant to bring the lecture grade up. However, it usually lowers it. The Chem 101 lab completely drove me away from anything Chemistry. It might have been that I had a very terrible TA (teaching assistant), but most of my friends hated the Chem 101 and 102 labs. Good luck with those!
Shelby
The engineering department in Clemson is fantastic. Granted, the freshman year engineering courses are primarily bull s&{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c}!, but their purpose is to "weed out the weak" as my engineering T.A. so delicately put it. Once you actually start into your major courses it's really interesting and, for the most part, really well taught. Being an engineer is hard as hell. Don't let anyone ever tell you any differently. The engineering department at Clemson will not hesitate to push you to the limits of your academic ability. But, if you graduate with a Clemson engineering degree pretty much any employer will take you.