Arizona State University-Tempe Top Questions

I feel like academically as a school we are completely average. The business school however is great in my opinion.

ASU has so many great academic fields. We have superb journalism, business, and law schools, along with the first school of sustainability in the country (that is also great). Internships are built into the major maps of the majority of the majors, which requires students to earn real-work experience outside of the university. I know that when I leave ASU, I will be well prepared to go to graduate school, and many others will be well equipped to get a job. ASU is one of the most sought after schools by Fortune 500 companies. Classes are large, however, but only for your first two years. After that, they shrink considerably and are much more relevant and major specific. Going to professor's office hours is a MUST. They can give a lot of insight and attention that you most likely won't get in class.

The school is too large and has too short of semesters to get to know your teachers personally. If it is not a lecture class, yes teachers will learn your name. If it's a class of 5, no, the teacher will not learn your name. The teachers are generally good, some are way better then others and you can see the gap. Fun classes are classes you want to go to on the other hand there are the teachers that are just plain boring. All we do outside of class is think and talk about classes!

Academic life varies dramatically between colleges. The Barrett Honors College, for example, has a rich academic life. Students sit at the cafe located within the honors complex and have intellectual conversations with each other. Professors know you well thanks to small group classes just for honors students and special sessions of larger classes that are just for honors students. For the sciences, there is great precedent for student research. Almost all students in the biochemistry program worked directly with a mentor on cutting-edge research projects in the lab. This is not the same experience, however, that you would get outside of the Honors College, from what I hear.

I am a social work major. I chose this major because I eventually want to counsel families with autistic children. This major is relatively easy for me, but you have to have the right mindset in order to do well in the class. Expect a lot of exploring feelings. If you have many discriminatory behaviors, you will not get through a single class. Social work is geared towards getting a job. I am just finishing my Bachelors right now and the school requires me to have an internship, therefore I am writing this right now to stall going into my intership-which is a hospital. I like my internship but it is hard to be motivated to go in when I don't see any type of paycheck from it.

Full of holes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Full of booby traps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I loved most of my professors in my major. I still keep in touch with them and see them occasionally. I also attend any asu design event I can to support my college.

Now that I have transferred out to West..My proffesors actually make an effort to get to know a little bit about us students..It is not like they ask for our lifes story though. Another thing is that every single one of my professors that I have had highly encourage us to come to them if we are struggling. That to me says A LOT. Students at West are not loud and abnoxious. It seems like they actually want to succeed. They seem to be a lot more focused. ALL of which is a plus!

Academics at ASU might be a little unnerving to those who don't go in expecting large class sizes. That, I think is the scariest thing, walking into a lecture hall and seeing over 400 other students, some sitting together, some not. You starting thinking, "Am I going to sit next to anyone in this class more than once?" "Will the professor know my name?" "Is the professor hard?" So many thoughts go through your mind all at once and it can be a little stressful. The truth is this, most professors in those large lectures aren't going to have any idea of who you are unless you make contact first. That is a key thing if you want your professor to know who you are and it makes for a great resource later on if you need held studying or if you need a letter of reccomendation for grad school. Not all classes are huge lectures though, most of the math and english course offered at ASU are generally smaller class sizes with no more than 25 students. And if you're a science major your labs will have no more than 14 students because the labs can't handle more than that at a time. At ASU the students are very competitive, especially in the majors in which you have to apply for upper division after your first year. In those majors, if you want to succeed and move forward it is crucial for you to be competitive with your peers and make your best effort to stay on top. Out of class, many students have very intellectual conversations with one another. Whether its classmates discussing the days lecture topic or just two friends talking about each other's majors there's always some sort of intellectual conversation going on between students all the time. ASU offers a very wide variety of classes for students to choose from. I think the most unique class I have taken thus far was a Forensic Anthropology class this past spring semester. It was a very interesting course that I would reccomend to anyone who is interested in forensic science. I am a Biochemistry major at ASU, mainly because there is no Forensic Science major offered. It involves a heavy load of math and science but its not bad if you enjoy it like I do. I make it a habit to meet with my professors outside of class, just so that they can get to know me and I can get help where I need it and show them that I am interested in their course, which helps a great deal if you miss a class because your sick or if you really don't understand what was taught one day in lecture. I think that ASU's academic requirements are pretty easy to meet. Personally I think the university should have higher expectations of it's students because I believe that most students would be able to meet those requirements without much more effort. The education itself at ASU is mainly geared toward learning for its own sake, at least in the science department. Professors aren't worried about what kind of job you're going to get once you graduate, they just want you to learn as much as you can about the subject they're teaching and for you to figure out how to apply it to your everday life. Personally I think this is a great method of edcucation because students learn a lot about the subjects they're taking and then have to use their own minds to apply what they've learned to everyday life. I think that this allows for a much more personalized education.

Few and far between, but there is a solid group of people who are looking to excel in this area...