Mount Holyoke College Top Questions

Half of them do. My favorite is a gender study first year seminar Women's Public Voices. Least favorite is my current Macroeconomics Theory because I do not feel I am learning anything new. Very often, they are very hardworking in general. Yes, class participation is excellent. Yes they do, but not very often. No not in general, depending on the nature of the curriculum and majors. Game Theory. I am an economics and mathematics double major, I like the econ department because of the professors and I know quite a few of them; but i haven't had a chance to know many math professors yet, so I'm not very visible in the department yet. Not usually, but I spend quite some time in office hours when I was a first year, not any more. I would actually prefer harder classes; almost all of my classes I find somewhat easy, humanities or science. It's more learning for its own sake.

Yes, Professors know my name. Chinese Politics was my favorite, although Physical Geology is pretty amazing too. All my classes are my favorite in their own little ways. Macroeconomics was my least favorite. Students are always studying 24/7. Class participation varies. Politics Department is nice. I like Profs, they're always nice. Academic requirements can be stressful, so get them done early. Education tries to be both--we're supposed to get a good job AND just want to study for the sake of it. Definitely both.

some of them......economics classes with Jim Hartley are my favorite!....Sttudents study a loottt!!...most unique class-folk dancing!....it was a loot of fun!!

Mt Holyoke is popular for its Science departments and my favorite professor, so far, has been from the Biology department too. Stan Rachootin is a total sweetheart. I'm not a science persona at all, and my concentration is Economics and English, but I had to take a class in the science department for my liberal arts prerequisite. I took BIO 145: Nature Harmoniously Confus'd, and it was taught by the most unconventional, hilariously engaging, charming, and adorable professor. Stan taught me how to appreciate the cuteness of a duckweed, helped me overcome my fear of snakes (at least that one time when he brought his son's PET SNAKE, named 'Snakie', to class), and I had never enjoyed science, cells, Archae or E-Coli more. If you go to Mt. Holyoke, you cannot leave without taking a class with Stan or just talking about life in general with him. He's a babe. A lot of students like to study at the college library, which has become a social place to hang out with friends, drink coffee at Rao's, or take a nap in the Info Commons. The work load is enormous at Mt Holyoke. Professors like to believe that students don't have a life and will actually be studying or writing papers all the time. So you will see a lot of people slaving away on their laptops or complaining about their work every single day of the week. One of the coolest departments at Mt Holyoke is the English Department. It is filled with a whole bunch of intellectual professors who know what they are talking about. I have taken classes with a couple of British professors, and they are adorable when they talk about Shakespeare in their English accents. The department offers a wide variety of unique courses, some of which are inter-linked with history requirements or critical social thought requirements. Class participation is a major component of almost all the classes at Mt Holyoke. They even constitute some percentage of the total grade in some classes. Students talk about issues from current ones to prehistoric debates, and Mt Holyoke women are very passionate about matters that they believe in which leads to stimulating class discussions. Such intellectual discussions are not limited to within class room walls. The campus center is teeming with people debating over environmental issues as well as presidential candidates.

Professors know the majority of students by name. My favorite class was my first year English seminar in southern American lit. All the first-years took over the class and we got really into our discussions. I liked that right from the beginning the women in my class wanted to speak out. Class participation is a MUST! Many intellectual conversations happen outside of class, especially over meals. Students are not very competitive. The most unique course I took was Queer Theory in Latin America. Heavy stuff! I am a history and Spanish double major and both departments have incredible faculty. History offers many more courses than Spanish. I wish there were more seminars in the Spanish dept. because they offer really great ones. History is superb, the department unfortunately itself is in an attic! Because I am President of SGA most of my time outside of class is with students and administration, but I do know many professors see their students all the time outside of class. I see mine as much as I can. I think the academic requirements at MHC are very fair. They require us to go to all disciplines as well as expand to multicultural affairs and languages. MHC is geared toward education for the sake of learning. Much of it is extremely useful. I had a philosophy professor who liked to say his class was "use empty" instead of "useful" but it did not make it any less engaging.