Truman State University Top Questions

Academics are the most important aspect of Truman. Most students that come to Truman come for academics. We aren't known for our sports and the city life is non-existent in Kirksville. We are in the top ten universities in the Midwest Region based around the US News college ranking lists. So when you ask what the academics are like all I can say is they are the core of our school.

Academics are Truman's top priority. Most of my professors know me by name, which is a rather odd thing to experience, as some classes still have a large population of students in them. Some of the schools academic requirements are a bit rough. For, an extreme, example: sophomore nursing students are required to pass every test with a 75{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c}, with one retake available. Should they not receive the 75{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} on the retake, they're removed from the program with a grade of "D." If you don't mind studying when it's time to study, Truman can be a navigable choice.

Truman's courses are tough. To be honest, many of the professors are quite demanding. However, this isn't a bad thing. This is the best way for us to prepare for a future where nobody is holding our hand and telling us what to do. Also, since Truman is a liberal arts and sciences university, we aren't merely funneled down a path that corresponds to our major. Instead, we have the opportunity to grow and learn in many different subject areas - regardless of our major. It certainly helps that Truman offers small class sizes and has a small student to professor ratio. I know my professors personally, and they are practically always willing to help me with anything from a homework problem to advice about applying to graduate school. I am a biology major, so I can't speak for every department. So as far as biology goes, I really can't complain. There are very tough courses, and difficult requirements. I love the tight bond the students have, though. I know many people in my classes through different organizations and previous classes, so that is always very helpful.

Truman's courses are tough. To be honest, many of the professors are quite demanding. However, this isn't a bad thing. This is the best way for us to prepare for a future where nobody is holding our hand and telling us what to do. Also, since Truman is a liberal arts and sciences university, we aren't merely funneled down a path that corresponds to our major. Instead, we have the opportunity to grow and learn in many different subject areas - regardless of our major. It certainly helps that Truman offers small class sizes and has a small student to professor ratio. I know my professors personally, and they are practically always willing to help me with anything from a homework problem to advice about applying to graduate school. I am a biology major, so I can't speak for every department. So as far as biology goes, I really can't complain. There are very tough courses, and difficult requirements. I love the tight bond the students have, though. I know many people in my classes through different organizations and previous classes, so that is always very helpful.

Truman's courses are tough. To be honest, many of the professors are quite demanding. However, this isn't a bad thing. This is the best way for us to prepare for a future where nobody is holding our hand and telling us what to do. Also, since Truman is a liberal arts and sciences university, we aren't merely funneled down a path that corresponds to our major. Instead, we have the opportunity to grow and learn in many different subject areas - regardless of our major. It certainly helps that Truman offers small class sizes and has a small student to professor ratio. I know my professors personally, and they are practically always willing to help me with anything from a homework problem to advice about applying to graduate school. I am a biology major, so I can't speak for every department. So as far as biology goes, I really can't complain. There are very tough courses, and difficult requirements. I love the tight bond the students have, though. I know many people in my classes through different organizations and previous classes, so that is always very helpful.

Truman's courses are tough. To be honest, many of the professors are quite demanding. However, this isn't a bad thing. This is the best way for us to prepare for a future where nobody is holding our hand and telling us what to do. Also, since Truman is a liberal arts and sciences university, we aren't merely funneled down a path that corresponds to our major. Instead, we have the opportunity to grow and learn in many different subject areas - regardless of our major. It certainly helps that Truman offers small class sizes and has a small student to professor ratio. I know my professors personally, and they are practically always willing to help me with anything from a homework problem to advice about applying to graduate school. I am a biology major, so I can't speak for every department. So as far as biology goes, I really can't complain. There are very tough courses, and difficult requirements. I love the tight bond the students have, though. I know many people in my classes through different organizations and previous classes, so that is always very helpful.

Classes are hard, but most of them are small enough that you're not just floundering along listening to a lecture with 200 other students. My largest class had 60 students, and that was pushing it. We actually only have a few classrooms that will even hold that many people. Professor here are hit and miss, although no one would argue that they are not brilliant in their own way. They are not required by our school to do research or write anything, however, which makes their main focus on their students. All of them have open office hours and most respond quickly to student emails for help. It is very nice knowing that you have someone who is willing to help you out if you need the extra assistance. As far as students go, the average student tends to be smarter than what you would find at a normal public university. That doesn't mean that every person is a super smart genius, but Truman is also chock full of the dumbest people you could even imagine, but the general tendency is kids who want to go far and are willing to work to get there. However, that means that our school puts a lot of stress on students to do well. Classes usually require more work and harder exams and projects, and it is not unusual for students to give up partying on the weekends to make sure they can survive a class.

Classes are hard, but most of them are small enough that you're not just floundering along listening to a lecture with 200 other students. My largest class had 60 students, and that was pushing it. We actually only have a few classrooms that will even hold that many people. Professor here are hit and miss, although no one would argue that they are not brilliant in their own way. They are not required by our school to do research or write anything, however, which makes their main focus on their students. All of them have open office hours and most respond quickly to student emails for help. It is very nice knowing that you have someone who is willing to help you out if you need the extra assistance. As far as students go, the average student tends to be smarter than what you would find at a normal public university. That doesn't mean that every person is a super smart genius, but Truman is also chock full of the dumbest people you could even imagine, but the general tendency is kids who want to go far and are willing to work to get there. However, that means that our school puts a lot of stress on students to do well. Classes usually require more work and harder exams and projects, and it is not unusual for students to give up partying on the weekends to make sure they can survive a class.

Truman has an awesome academic climate! My professors know me by name, and are truly committed to helping me succeed. People actively participate in class discussions and make it stay interesting. The professors make sure to challenge us, though, so we spend a good bit of time studying and therefore really learn our stuff. I am an English and Medieval Studies (an Interdisciplinary Studies Major) double-major, so i get to experience both Truman's excellent and well-known English department, and sample many of the other departments with my [unusual] Medieval Studies major.

The real reason you're attending any higher-education facility is to, well, get yourself edumakated. As such, you should have volumes of options anywhere you go as to what you want to learn, and what you want to do with it. No class you take won't improve you in some way, whether that class was take here or elsewhere; yet given the requirments @ Truman, much of the faculty clearly wants us there to learn for the sake of learning. This is not a school packed with - as one of my proffessors put it - Vo-Tech degrees. You may have an end-goal, a vocation that drives you through university. Yet, while you are here, expect yourself to get bogged down with that feeling OF university; the experience of being there, and the volumes of info to learn take precidence over the future. Many will speand a week, or more, a year trying to 'get out of here' and into the "real world," by forming a list of what classes to take and when. However, expact that to change once you have a plan. I spend less time thinking about an unpredictable future and more time thinking about the 'now' when I'm there. Can you get that at other colleges? most likely, you can. Can I garuntee you will feel that here? yes. You will end up attending this university not for the 'great, diverse, Liberal-Arts eduaction' quatation that the faculty's favorite ads will ram down your throat, but you will have found yourself staying here because of a love for learning, experiencing, and growing that might be un-achievable elswhere. As for the classes, the school is far from difficult. To get the A almost anywhere is difficult; the time you mut put in for that 90{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c}+ is enormus. to get a B or a C? not hard. All the professors keep to the required office hours, and if you make it your priority to get to know them, at least a little, makes everything all the easier. I'm not saying go suck-up to your teachers, but I am saying that the minimum effort plus getting to know your Prof. can earn you a B more often than not (except for the Math+Stats department, where I have found ONE professor that I like. One good person in a faculty of 12 that I have met? bad odds if you ask me...). It isn't impossible to get a D or fail a class; but I am a 3.0 student (2.9+ is close enough) and of the 2 D's that I have gotten, one was for a math class, and the other was a health class that I simply did not feel the need, my sophmore year, to attend. You honestly have to stop caring AT ALL to do poorly in a class here; nothing is really that hard (except for the Math classes; I took Upper level classes in a College prep highschool, and did fine. However, when the professor starts shaking when you ask hm/her a question, nothing gets done) if you put the minimum work in. As is true with many things, what you put in is what you get out. If you want to be competitive with grades, you'll get competition. If you want intellectual conversation outside of class, other students will supply. We have a great library and Student Union Building to study in, and many professors that I have had (except for the math department) have, often, invited students into their homes for big events (Thanksgiving, Easter, Superbowl parties, etc.) or offered up thier own offices for study times. The minimum effort will get you there, but the maximum effort is easier to achieve than many think it.

The music faculty are on the whole great. Outside the music department I have not had loads of expierance, but, many of the expierances that I have had have been throughly dissapointed.

I love the small class sizes and the fact that if you attend class, your professor will know your name. I'm a huge fan of our Agriculture Department, even though most students don't even know we have one! All the professors are so happy to help out with whatever you need, and they're always available! I've had professors give out their home and cell phone numbers in class to make sure we can reach them if we have trouble with anything.

For the first time ever, I have had to work hard. In high school I didn't have to put much effort forth to get top grades. At Truman I have been forced to not only work hard, but to really learn what it means to study. I have also learned how to fail in a way. I've always received top grades, barely breaking a sweat for better than a 4.0, and at Truman I've struggled to maintain a B average. That's hard to swallow, but a good lesson to learn in anycase.

Speaking of studying, that's mostly all I do. The classes are hard. The professors work you to death, but most outsiders know about this and they respect us. The nursing department actually gave us the nickname "Harvard of the Midwest". I don't know how accurate this is considering how cheap we are, but academics are definetely number one at Truman. My major is a great example of this. I'm an interdisciplinary major. This means that I study one thing throught the eyes of many different disciplines. My interdisciplinary major is Leadership Theory. It is based on the theory that leaders are born, not made. Its purpose is to help me to suceed in law school (the next step towards me becoming a great leader). It is divided up into three parts: problem solving, knowledge, and human relations. I take classes in Justice Systems, Communication, Political Science, Psychology, and many more. I love it. I think it makes me a well-rounded scholar!

I love the professors here. Most of the professors in my major have taken the time to learn my name, and over the years have developed a fairly close relationship. This is great, considering most of the professors I have had, I have had more than once (not simply by choice I might add.) I have never, ever had a grad student teach a class. You can't say that if you attend a major state school. Students are always studying, everywhere. Class participation is common, but not usually required. However most professors take notice if you are skipping class on a regular basis. My only complaint about Truman academics...well make that my only two complaints. The biggest complaint I have has to do with Truman's "modes of inquiry." The modes are basically required classes that you have to take to graduated. Most of them...you guessed it, are bullshit. I am studying to be a physician, and I see little need (as well as every medical school I have ever talked to) for me to take calculus or 3 semesters of a foreign language. I know that may come off as being a little closed minded; that I may find English as the only important language. That is NOT THE CASE. Most people who attend this school have higher ambitions than just a Bachelors degree, and would like to finish their undergrad as soon as they possibly can.

Academics are very strong at Truman and the success rate is rather high. The professors will help you succeed as long as you do your part. Plus, the admission to grad school is very very high from TSU.

Truman students are competitive, have intellectual conversations inside and outside the classroom and are very challenged by their professors. Don't come to Truman looking for a cake-walk.

There are very good caring professors, all out to help you and they all know their students names', encourage you to drop by their offices, etc.

The thing I love about Truman is that it's perfect in size. You get to know your classmates and your teachers fairly well and I can tell you that the majority of my professors knew my name. As a psychology major I think my favorite classes were the ones based around children (Behavior Modification, Child Development, Attachment Theory). I feel like I learned the most in those classes and carry that information with me still. Having said that, I will say I worked my butt off all 4 years of college. Some students are competitive, but unless you want to share your grades, generally they are only for your eyes to see. The psychology department is one of the largest on campus. It's hard to get into classes as a freshman and sometimes even as a sophomore. But some professors are flexible and will let you override the capacity so you can take the classes you need.

classes are relatively small at Truman and most, if not all, of the professors I've had at Truman still know my name. Many Truman students spend most of their week studying then making up for their stressful week on the weekends (binge drinking, perhaps?). I've had many favorite classes, particularly anything with Roberta Donahue or and of the HES faculty (they are amazing!). I've held many intellectual conversations with students outside of class ranging from politics, religion, pop psychology, the environment, health behaviors, etc. I have been invited to Java Co and yoga classes by some of my professors and I've also baby sat for many of them. Some of the LSP courses at Truman seem ridiculous- you could attain these requirements at a community college, but they are necessary. Many students are lucky if they get to graduate on time; some are on the super senior track. Truman is both geared towards getting students the jobs they want/need, getting into grad school, etc. It is also geared towards making a well rounded, intellectual individual as well.