St John’s University-New York Top Questions

Academics at St. John's University very from department to department, but my overall understanding from my own experience and talking to my classmates is that the education here is pretty good overall. Most of my classes, especially my English Major classes, have been excellent and challenging. My professors all seem to genuinely care about their department and their students, going out of their way to help us when we are confused, need a job/grad school reference, or just simply want to talk during their office hours about our life and future goals. St. John's has a large core curriculum that it requires all students to take, and while I was upset about being forced into so many courses that did not interest me when I enrolled, I have found that some of my most rewarding and fun classes have been core classes. For example, I took a history core Freshman year called "Emergence of Global Societies," which was basically a course on the history of the world. I usually hate history, but my professor was so dynamic and charismatic that I ended up falling in love with the subject! I got an A after many hundreds of pages of reading through out the semester and some very difficult tests, but My professor taught me how to manage my time, gain a valuable work ethic when it comes to classes, and most importantly to just broaden my horizons outside of just my major of English. I still meet that professor two years later and thank him for his wonderful class, and he takes an interest in hearing how the rest of my studies have progressed and my future plans to teach in Japan. So overall, the academics here are very rewarding and fruitful for a solid college education.

The thing i love the most about St. John's University's academics is the fact that our professors know you by name, the classes are really small about (15-20 students per class). For the most part there are active class discussions that allow the professor to hear how the students think and help them relate the work to the students. Students are very helpful towards one another. The professors are always available to help. I love that St. John's requires that you start your freshman year with 15 credits instead of 4 and encourages that we take 18 not that many universities do that and they definitely they their best to prepare us for the real world which is a huge plus. A lot of our professors are authors, judges, attorneys, philosophers etc. these are people who have thorough experience in the field who know exactly how to prepare us for what is to come.

The academics here are impeccable. The professors are really dedicated (at least in the classes I've taken) and really make an effort to teach you as well as get to know you. I can't really say what my favorite class has been, because I've loved so many of them. One thing that is unique about Saint John's is that you have to take classes outside of your major so that you get the ultimate learning experience, rather than the bare minimum required in order to obtain your degree. As far as the students in my classes, there has been no competition, as we all really work together to help each other do well in the class. I've recently changed my major to English, and this has to be the best semester I have ever had. I feel so comfortable, as if I've really found my niche. My professors in the English department are AMAZING. They help us to become better writers without trying to judge the writing that we create. It's all a part of the learning journey, as we get more and more out of it through every class.

Professors are very interested in finding who their students are and most of all know our names. I found that very unique because not many teachers care and at Saint Johns they do. My favorite class so far has been my introduction to literature critique and theory class. Not to be biased I am an English major. That is the class in which I am mostly challenged and where everyone has a say. I do not have a least favorite. The one that I have trouble staying up in is my emergence to global society. A class that is the most interesting and that every freshman must take is discover New York. It allows students to learn about New York in a fun interactive way. As I mentioned earlier I am an English major and the department is very helpful. When I go everyone is friendly and things get done quickly. The education at this school is all academic as well as learning about what to expect when you graduate. There is plenty of help when it comes to making a resume and we are even provided a career link where jobs and internships are posted.

The class sizes are very small here at st. John's. My biggest class has about thirty people. Most of the professors care about the students, and don't mind taking a little bit of extra time to explain things in class or outside of class. One major complain is that the school requires three sections of philosophy, and theology. Both of these classes are fairly simple though, but if you're a science major you can't help, but wonder why you're taking them. For the most part the classes are fairly easy. I spend a lot less time working on school stuff here than I did back in high school. However, I am an English major, and the physicians assistant program, and the pharmacy program have been described to me as slave labor.

Where do I begin? I do not have one particular class that I can claim as being my favorite. I recently switched my major from English to Criminal Justice so all of my criminal justice classes hold my interest. My least favorite class was my African American Literature class. It was easy to participate, but I just was not interested enough to really be excited about attending that class.The class size ranges from 20-30 students, occasionally 50-60 in the elective classes such as music or art. In regards to classes that focus on a major, like my criminal justice classes and former English classes, they were small enough that the professors could remember each student's name or at least place the name with a face. Class participation is expected, being that our classrooms are small in student number. My major now, Criminal Justice, is amazing! Most, if not all, of the professors have a background in either law, working as a police officer, detective, judge, forensic psychologist, and more. That means these professors are not only book smart, but they can teach from personal experience. I love when my professors start telling the class about their life stories because it actually has something to do with what we are learning. The academic requirements for St. John's are straight forward and reasonable. It was interesting that they required nine credits of theology and nine credits of philosophy. The most unique class that I have taken was my forensic psychology class. We actually did a lie detector session where the professor tested us on simple questions that we previously wrote answers out to and then we chose which questions to lie about. The students and I did not want to leave once class was over! St. John's has a place called the career center. At this center, they help students to find jobs and mainly internships. St. john's has a lot of relationships with different companies who favor St. John's students. So in my opinion, St. John's is very focused on students' futures after college.

As an English major, I love reading and writing. Here, you'll certainly be doing a lot of both. They require three courses in philosophy and three courses in theology. At first, I thought that was ludicrous; one course I could understand, but three?! However, while the classes are a pain, the professors are nice and the material is interesting and pretty cool; it's certainly not as bad as I expected. At St. John's, although they certainly care about preparing you for your job, they spend a lot of effort in deepening your knowledge of the world and of yourself. As for my professors, there's not one I don't like. They genuinely care about the students and their learning. All of my classes are 20 students are less, and I'm a freshman taking core courses! I find this amazing. I get individual attention and the professors promote student engagement. People are reluctant to participate in class, but many of my classes are in the morning and we're all dead tired. Something I love about academics here is that the students care about doing well; study groups are extremely common and it's easy to make friends in your classes. The English Department here is amazing; the best class I'm taking is Literature and Culture: Monsters (we're reading books like Frankenstein and Dracula), and my professor is the head of the Department. It's easy to talk outside of class not only with him, but with all of my professors. They're always happy to have a conversation with you, whether it's about the class or about life in general. I'm very satisfied with the academics here.

With the smaller class sizes at St. John's Staten Island students are able to communicate with their professors on a daily basis. Almost all of my professors know me by name and a few I have come to develop a academic relationship that without smaller class sizes I would not have been able to. It is through these smaller classes that participation is peaked and the professor is able to clearly hear almost every students voice. The conversations that develop in classrooms are largely interactive and allow students room to develop their ideas. At the moment I am an English Major, and I feel that everything that I have learned in this academic program has fully helped me grow as writer. Not only has these classes enabled me to grow but it is the interaction with professors that has created a deep core to the learning.

Some of the classes may seem like they are very large and the students may think that the professor doesn't know their name but contrary to belief, the professor knows everybody's name. Recently this semester, I thought one of my professors didn't know my name because I didn't speak very often in that class but it turned out that he did know my name and like my name because it's not spelled how everyone believes it should be spelled. One of my favorite classes during my past three semesters at St. john's was History of Latin America II. I really enjoyed this class because it was very structured and the professor stayed on schedule with all the material he wanted to cover. He was a really nice professor and every so often he would throw a small joke in his lesson that had some awkward punch line but it was still funny. My professor was from Mexico so our class would teach him the proper meaning of one English word if he taught us a really interesting word in Spanish. On the flip-side of the coin I had a class or two that I absolutely just did not like whatsoever. My least favorite class was Intro to the Study of Law. I truly despised this class because my teacher would tell us that he would see us Thursday morning for class and never show up. Th first two times that this happened I wasn't mad but when it became a constant thing everyone in my class became annoyed. If that didn't happen he would send an email after class time started telling us he wasn't coming in that morning. On the rare occasions that he did come to class he didn't teach my class anything; the only thing he talked about was the traffic on the way to campus and what he had from Dunkin Donuts that morning. The students at St. John's are always studying for something. We're always hard at work doing some kind if assignment for a class. Class participation is common because in some classes your grade depends on the students amount of participation in class. Some professors say that class participation isn't just about showing up; they want you to be active during the hour of class. Outside of class students are bound to have intellectual conversations because they usually end up talking about the material from the class or something events that are occurring around New York or around the world such as Occupy Wall Street. Some of the students at St. John's are competitive but some of them aren't as competitive. The students that I've noticed are the most competitive are the Pharmacy, Biology, and Chemistry students because they need to maintain certain grades to be in specific programs. I'm competitive with myself because I know that I can do better so I always try to get straight A's. I actually am a double major in English and History. Being in the English and History department is interesting because all of the professors that I'm around all have different teaching styles and they all teach something different. the professors in the English department all have different personalities and very creative ways of writing. The professors in the History department may seem like they teach about issues and topics of the same geographical region but they cover different aspects of that countries History. I do spend a majority of my time outside of class with my professors because I'm a student with many ideas to approach writing topics so i like to ask my professors their opinion on it and I like to pick their brains about different topics we've spoke about in class. Some people complain about the academic requirements to be considered for certain programs at St. John's but I believe that if you're determined to be a particular program you'll get your grades up so you can be considered for it. I think the school gears their academics toward learning so that the students are educated but at the same time they try to give you a push into the work force so the students can eventually get a job prior to graduating.

I couldn't ask for better academics. Since classes are relatively small (usually about 50 and under), professors typically know all the students names. I'm in the Honors Program, so the classes are even smaller. The professors are always accessible by e-mail and, for the most part, they want to help out. My favorite classes, so far, have been Introduction to American Literature and Introduction to Creative Writing. My peers in both those classes were enthusiastic and willing to learn. The most unique class I've taken so far is Introduction to Creative Writing. It's almost like a book club since we discuss our favorite parts of our peers' pieces. However, we also provide suggestions and share our insight as educated readers to help our peers better their craft. I feel as though the school leans toward teaching and learning for its own sake. There are a lot of internship opportunities, but the classes are more learning-based. It really makes for an interesting classroom experience. I've learned so much!