Davidson College Top Questions

The professors here are great, and go out of their way to make themselves accessible to students. The workload is intense, but most professors will do just about anything they can to help you out.

GPA. GPA. GPA. Davidson students constantly talk about how low their GPAs are and how it's impossible to have a 4.0. While there was only one person with a 4.0 in the Freshman class last year, it is possible to have a decent GPA without locking onesself in the library. Classes are challenging but stimulating. Professors are happy to meet students outside of class (there are no TAs!). Keep in mind though that Davidson is a Liberal Arts college. Expect to find learning for learnings sake and few course offerings that apply directly to possible jobs after Davidson.

Professors are very close to their students, classes are small. Class participation is very important, you can't miss class. Davidson students have ONLY intellectual conversations outside of the classroom. Students are ridiculously competitive, sometimes it's annoying. You go to dinners with your professors, and your classmates. Davidson's a really challenging school, that's why we only have competitive intelligent people.

Professors are always available for help outside the classroom, they are really focused on making sure you are getting the most out of your education.

way too hard

Academics at Davidson are completely different than any other place I visited. Davidson professors really know your name, know when your in class, and can most likely pull up something you said in class at any given moment. There is no shrinking into the background here. The workload can be insane and every student realizes that "hell week" could easily turn into "hell semester." In class everyone has to participate or get called out by their professor; not speaking in class basically equate to not having done the work - a serious offense. While professors can be strict about their classes, they are fantastic outside of them. Going to office hours is a sure fire way to improve your grade in any class, and the opportunity to have dinner with a professor is no rare occasion. Outside of class, students strike up intellectual conversations casually...on some level I think it is all we are able to talk about. Students will talk politics while completely wasted at a party and no one bats an eye.

Top notch in every way. The attendance policy sucks but at least you get something out of class.

Professors at Davidson know our names. You cannot "get lost" here. You are a student and they treat you like a person, not just a number or a body in a large lecture hall. I took a history class my first semester here. I got to know the professor as the semester progressed. I passed him the other day on the sidewalk and he said hello and asked how my semester was going. We talked for a few minutes and at the end of our conversation he said "Hey, stop by my office sometime and we can catch up." I had not seen him since December and over three months later he asked me to stop by so we could catch up. I am not even a "history person" and he cared enough about me to ask about me when I was not in his class any more. Professors here care about us as students and it shows. I do not imagine there is a more caring faculty than the one we have here at Davidson.

Academics can be a major source of stress at Davidson, because classes tend to have very heavy workloads, and can be very rigerous. However, the rewards are worth it for the amount of hard work we do. Professors are attentive and available, and I have found it very easy to get very interested in classes that I take, even when they are just fulfilling requirements in departments that are nothing like my major. I think the education at Davidson is geared toward learning for its own sake, I feel encouraged to take classes based on what I am interested in, rather than what will help me find jobs in the future. (hopefully the two will end up converging anyway!)

Academics are hard at Davidson. Students are competitive, intelligent and extremely hard workers. We do a lot of studying! One great thing is the professor involvement- I've seen every professor I've ever had one on one in their office. Education here is geared toward learning for its own sake, and professors really care to see their students learn and succeed.