College of Charleston Top Questions

In the Political Science department, I've found complete inconsistancy. None of the teachers in that department can decide how they want things done, it seems as if the whole thing is arbitrary based on if the teacher likes your opinion or not. They remain unison in expecting really liberal projects, but they differ in almost everything else. That department really needs to find consistancy so that the students know what they are working towards and also need to offer all of the classes they list under their department. I have been there for 2 years and only see the same popular classes being taught over and over again. Overall the school itself over a large range of classes, which is interesting to be able to cross over into a lot of fields a lot. I think my favorite class at CofC was Chinese Foreign Policy with Dr. Lui, he is definitely one of the best professors I've ever had. He is really interested in teaching and being there for the students, unlike almost any other teacher in the POLS department.

Classes are good sizes. The business and sciences classes are pretty big (well pretty big at CofC, like 200 students). But in general, the classes are awesome. In most of my classes, I knew the teacher, and could recognize by name every student in the class (only 20 of us or so).

The library is almost always full, so studying is definitely a part of CofC. Classes are small enough so that professors almost always learn your name and encourage class participation. I've never had a problem with any class or teacher except Honors Western Civilization, second semester.

If you come from a small or medium size high school you will be a perfect fit. Majority of the profs are well qualified and know each student by name. Class participation is not well received at the school; debate and political upheavals rarely occur. Some students are very competitive and study around the clock, but most students coast by with only 5-7 hours of school work a week. This is a great school to come to if you have no clue what you want to accomplish as an undergrad. I would recommend looking at three different majors at the college, look at the requirements, and feel out which major is right when you get here. Students can easily finish in four years, especially if you take a couple summer courses.

The academics are tough, but not bad. There are certainly classes that will be very difficult to get a good grade, but no teachers are just there to give you a hard time. In my experience the professors are there to help you as much as they can, most are very willing to help during their office hours and they have other ways to contact too. Outside of class, most students do a fair amount of work, but usually none are too overloaded with work to not have a good time during the week. Come exam time though, that is when most students really buckle down and get their shit done... the students here really like to have fun, but they do care about their grades.

The academics at the college are pretty competitive. My professors expect the best from their students, and I strive to fulfill their expectations. My rationale behind working toward excellence is that we are being trained in the field that we would like to work when we graduate. If we want to be successful in our careers, then it is most important to understand and learn what is being taught. My favorite class so far has been my characteristics of students with emotional/behavioral disabilities. I didn't enjoy it so much on content, but I liked a few of the projects. We go to make poster and act out conceptual models. It was pretty fun. For content, I enjoyed my characterstics of learning disabilities course. I just enjoyed learning about the area of special education that I would like to teach. I found the concepts and research of learning disabilities extremely interesting. My least favorite class was English 102. I had to take in my junior year... not fun. It was just boring to me. I had absolutely no interest. As for studying, I don't so much study as I work on research and projects. My professors like to focus on application of concepts rather than memorization and simple understanding. In all of my classes we are expected to participate and converse using educational jargon. As a special education major, there are few of us. We are all very close considering we are all in the same classes with the exception of when we split into our area of specialization class. (IDD and LD) We are a very close group. During the semester we all stress together and we all overcome together. I have developed pretty good friendships with the girls and our one guy Ernest. I found my soon to be roommate. I dont know if we are all competitive, but I know that I am competitive with my grades. Grades are not typically openly discussed, but I strive for all A's. Ultimately, I am competing with myself.

CofC has alot of smaller classes, which I think is nice, because it gives the opportunity for more student/professor interaction and the professors are more accessible to the students. We do have an Honors College here at CofC, but I don't really know much about it. The students have to live in the honors dorm freshman year, which I think is kind of pointless, trying to isolate them from all of the other students. That's not what college it about, you are supposed to meet all kinds of different and new people, not be stuck with the same kind of people that you hung out with in high school. I think that most students on our campus are very aware of the political and environmental situations of not only our country, but the world. I think that CofC students as a whole are very aware and active in their concern for the environment and what we can do on campus to help. I think that this is a wonderful thing and it inspires me to help when I see other students doing activisim or promoting their causes on campus. Overall, I really enjoy the academic aspect of CofC, I do wish that we had more selections available class wise, but I understand that we are a small campus and the departments are doing their best to offer us as wide a variety as possible. I also love the closeness of our campus. It's nice to be able to walk into any department office and not have to go through endless other people to actually talk to the head of the department. I literally walked into the Psychology department and the head of the department was sitting in his office and welcomed me in to have talk. It was nice to see that he was interested in what was going on with me, even though I had never taken one of his classes. I feel like I have done well here at CofC, although I really wish that I had been given more information about the classes I took Freshman year. I took several classes Freshman and Sophomore year that I really didn't need and could have used for other classes, but I simply just wasn't aware of all the options. CofC definately needs to focus on Freshman more and that "Freshman Seminar" class is so stupid. It did not prepare me for the rest of my academic career here at CofC. I learned a lot of useless BS that I didn't need to know and it was BORING. I think that there should be a class that teaches first and second semester Freshman how to study and the different methods to use. That would be way more helpful that taking some stupid personality test that doesn't tell me anything anyway.

I found the professors at the C of C to be awesome. Most seem very educated in their area and try to learn who you are as an individual student. The workloads have been fair and rewarding.

academics are interesting -- it really makes a big difference on the difficulty of the course - depending on your teacher - overall though - except for first level classes and sciences most of my class sizes have been very reasonable - around 20 if that

Most of my professors this year knew my name. In bigger classes, they really don't have a chance to learn your name unless you make yourself known. My favorite class would have to be my french class and my math classes. My least favorite would probably be either biology, but that was because I did not really learn anything in that class and I already knew most of what was going on with whatever we were talking about. Students study very frequently, especially at or around exam time. Class participation is common in most classes. There are the regulars that choose not to show up for class. I haven't really seen many intellectual conversations outside of class, other than studying in a big study group for an exam or test. Students are somewhat competitive; it depends on what the professor is asking for and what rewards are involved. The most unique class that I have taken would have to be music appreciation. I really learned a lot in that class. My major is education, and I am very excited to go into field experience. I will spend time with my professors outside of class every once in a while. If I need help or I have a question, I usually can go to them just about anytime when they make themselves available. C of C's academic requirements are set at a high standard, which is very good. The education at C of C is geared both towards getting a job and learning for its own sake. C of C provides enough opportunities for on-the-job experience, while allowing your ability to learn.