Emerson College Top Questions

Most of the classes are small, which is nice if you like the teacher to know who you are and if you like making friends in class. The General Education requirements, or "perspectives," can be a hassle especially since most kids know what they want to do and don't care about taking history or science if they want to make films. However, the professors teaching these classes tend to know their audience. 8AM classes are also terrible, and if you get out of here without one, you're lucky. I've only been in one class where the teacher didn't know my name and/or face, which is really good for grading. I've been told we have the least number of classroom hours required for a private college, which means they have a pretty strict attendance policy, but we do start late and get out early in the school year.

The political communication department is really available. I am really close with several professors after only a few months at the school, and they do a lot to help you get involved on campus. Its the kind of comfort where I can sit on the floor of my professors office, researching a project, and another professor will come in an say hello to me. The general education classes are really pathetic. If you can take them elsewhere do so, they are not worth the money. Most classes are small(15-20), though I am mostly in major classes which you will almost definately not experience as a freshman, and the gen-eds are typically bigger(maybe 30-40). Because of this there is a lot of class participation typically. One thing that I think is a positive thing about Emerson is that most students are passionate about their major, they know what they want to do, which can be intimidating, but also encouraging. It really depends on your major on how competitive the atmosphere is. There is a lot of competition for actors, musical theater, film, but a multitude of oppornities for Political Comm majors.

Academics at Emerson are very different than at a large University and this is due to the size of classes. I have never had a class with more than 50 people in it and due to this almost all of my professors know and remember my name. Also Emerson is extremely unique in terms of classes offered.

Academics at Emerson are taken quite seriously. Since the majority of the classes are small (under 20 students per class), you create a relationship with your professors. They are always available to meet outside of class and some will even meet you at Starbucks, rather than the library, if you prefer. Students always participate in class, because most of the classes are discussion based.

I've seen my professors outside of class no more than a few times. I've had a few, though, I would kill to have lunch with. They are very knowledgeable, and when it's on a topic I have chosen to pursue with my lifetime, it creates a great learning environment. This is in the Writing, Literature, Publishing department. Mainly literature professors. I have had good writing professors, but also some bad ones. Some of them use my name often, others know it, one or two I know did not know my name, and a couple knew it a year later. There's often a cluster of students designated to being the ones who participate. They bring it upon themselves, and I do my best to balance being among them and being apart from them. I don't sense much competition in terms of the classroom, though that is probably different for film kids. I run into plenty of intellectual conversations outside of class, though I only am participating in so many. There are probably more conversations about South Park. The most unique class I took was either Oral Presentation of Literature, or Epic Genres: Reniassance to Modern, where we began at Homer, Virgil, and Dante, went through Milton and Pound, and ended at Phillip Pullman. One giant epic poem per week. And I got a very nice sense of the big picture from it. They could loosen up on the general education requirements. I didn't benefit as much from having both an expository writing class and a research writing class, though in their defense I was turned off from their purpose to the point of applying myself only so much. Mostly every program is geared toward being a filmmaker or a musical theater performer or a magazine editor or a marketing consultant. But that's what we signed up for.

One thing I was worried about, from a few reviews I had read about online, was that Emerson professors were stand off-ish and removed from their students. In all of my classes, however, I've had professors who know my name, remember details I've shared about myself in previous classes or personal introductions at the beginning of the year, and who are very willing to help with a project, answer questions, and advise their students. I am a marketing major, with an emphasis on Public Relations, and so far those classes have been the ordinary introduction to how a business works that all students should be familiar with. Although these introductory classes are not alway challenging, they ensure that all students have the basic, common knowledge necessary to take the more specified higher lever courses. The professors in the Marketing Department are all very skilled and experienced. They have worked in business and applied the principles they teach in class to their own professional lives. Everything at Emerson, within the major departments, is about being practical. What will we need to know to do the jobs we want after college? How does all this theory actually apply to the real world? What can we, both as students and human beings, help to use our education to create a better world?

About half the professors I have had knew my name. Luckily the professors who taught classes involved with my major knew my name because those classes are smaller. My favorite classes have been the creative writing workshops and modern art history class. Least favorites have been history and science lectures. Every class involves class participation and it is often graded. Students constantly have intellectual conversations outside of class. I am a Writing, Literature and Publishing major. So far the only class pertaining to it has been a creative writing workshop. But next year I have more workshops, magazine writing and two literature classes.

Academics here are not your normal "academics." Here that word means your major. Mine is design/tech where I am studying to work as a scenic artsits painting sets for theater. Not your average major. So if you mean "academics" those would be considered general education requirments. Those are your math, lit., science, world languages...ect.... Those however are the joke. They are not taken seriously. People don't do the work or the readings because they know that in 4 years their need for their knowledge on statistics isn't going to be the first thing they reach for when they pick their brains.

Due to classes and projects like film and theatre work that can really help someone's reputation and career, students are extremely competitive and professional. I love my major, which is actually a makeup specialty that falls under the costume design major. My mentor/advisor is also my boss in the costume shop where I work, as well as my academic advisor and a previous professor of mine for costume design. He's very well known in the costume field and I respect him, but he is intimidating. The education here, as he stresses, is geared towards making students understand how things work in the professional world and they strive to provide that experience while we're here so we are better equipped to land a job.

Emerson's academics are fantastic if you find the right teachers. The classes are small and very intimate and as a whole the teachers are great. I have had a few experiences with unqualified professors but I think that happens everywhere you go.