College of Charleston Top Questions

Professors are really helpful and friendly. There is a good student-to-teacher ratio providing a good education. Also, there is a lot of support from the Career Center to help with job exploration.

Small classes with personable professors

Most classes have at least a portion of the grade determined by participation and attendance. Many students are competative, but not to the point of being hurtfull. The education at C of C is directed to whatever you want from it.

Fairly difficult, depending on the subject.

My freshman year was probally the easiest year by far. Most of my classes were fairly small with about 8-20 students.

Academics...I could not say enough about my department (Health and Human Performance.) All professors knew all the students by name, and would speak outside of classes. They were more than willing to help and be there for the student not only for academics, but also for the life lessons that some of us have a hard time learning alone. The students in my department were very competitive with grading and projects. We all wanted to do well, and worked hard together to keep each other afloat. I would see my classmates and professors at many of the school sports events, seminars, etc. My department made seminars available for the students by bringing in guest speakers, having department meetings, and bringing us all together at least once a semester. The academic requirements were demanding, but easy to master if you just learn how to manage your time. I felt very prepared when I graduated this past year. Within one week of graduating I received a job in my field at MUSC. I have utilized something from each class within the last week at my job! It pays to pay attention!

The Academics at CofC are challenging, but give you a great sense of pride when you succeed. The professors are always helpful and the classes are small enough where you feel comfortable asking questions.

College of Charleston professors are great about making themselves available to you. Classes are relatively small, so professors do usually know your name. The honors college at C of C is amazing. It provides a way for you to meet other academically oriented kids. I highly suggest anyone that is eligible to apply and stay in buist, which is the freshmen dorm.

Every single one of my professors last year knew my name.... even in a lecture hall of 100 students. The classes are typically small... no more than 25. The only classes that are big seem to be intro science lectures. Math classes and foreign language classes and english classes are all relatively small. I'm in the Honors College, so the "intellectual conversations" and things may be more common among them than others, but I generally think people that go to cofc enjoy learning and discussing things. Other students, as well as all of the professors I've had, are very helpful. Everyone seems to want everyone else to succeed... there doesn't seem to be a lot of negative competition. I'm a biochemistry major (that's within the chemistry dept, not the biology dept). A lot of people don't know this, but CofC has the second best undergraduate chemistry program in the NATION!!! pretty impressive! I believe it too. The professors I've had have been really wonderful. Because it's a liberal arts school, you have to take a variety of general education requirements but you still get to specialize and pick a major.... so it works out for the best because you can do what you think you love and that's great, but if it ends up not being what you want to do later in life, at least you had some basics in other departments.

CofC is one of the best public schools in South Carolina, and it has a great academic reputation. I have heard from an employer that if there are two people that are applying for a job with the exact same qualifications, except one went to CofC and the other went to Clemson, he would hire the one from CofC. I believe this is true because I have talked to students that have transferred here from other institutions in the Southeast, and they claim it is much more difficult at CofC. Most of the classes only have about 15 to 30 students in them so professors usually do know your name, at least half the time. Most of the professors are very attainable by office hours or email. One of the things that I dislike about CofC is that there are so many general education courses that you have to take that you might be terrible at or not like at all, but this is the same with almost all liberal arts colleges. Also, I changed my major from Elementary Education to Hospitality and Tourism Management, which caused me to have to take another semester's worth of Gen-eds because they didn't overlap at all. So if you are considering two majors, make sure that you take the GenEds that are required for both of them first. The education at CofC is definitely geared toward getting a job, and the professors seem very open with advice on how to do that. Many of the professors in the Hospitality department, for example, were professionals in that field before they came to the College so they know what is important in the real world. I just took a Wedding Planning class that was held for the first time this summer, and I absolutely loved it. It was so interesting, and it was nice to finally take a class that nurtured my creative side and also taught me how to do business effectively. Charleston is a great place to study Hospitality because it is such a big tourist destination.