Emerson College Top Questions

I always thought I would rather be a number than a name in college but I ended up choosing Emerson over far-larger Northeastern. I realized from the start that this was a much better situation than I thought. Teachers are closer to students and starting school isn't as intimidating, at least it wasn't for me. But the size is also big enough to guarantee diversity and enough space so that you don't feel as if you are in high school and you recognize nearly everyone you see. As far as campus goes, I love being in the city. All the buildings are close so that if I have class at 8:30 in the morning, I wake up at 8:10 and leave by 8:25 for class. It's convenient and love it. Plus all of Emerson is right across from the Boston Common. If you feel a yearning to be outside, just walk across the street and suddenly you have a grassy common to lay on and read a book. It's the perfect city college campus. And of course being in the heart of Boston means you can walk or take the T to endless destinations and distraction and fun is never far away.

Emerson is really an awesome school. It is in the heart of Boston, a great location and a perfect size. Whenever I tell someone I go to Emerson they are very impressed. My mother went here and she tells all her friends that I am going there and they say that it is quite the accomplishment.

Emerson is by no means worth the money it asks for. I'll explain why in further questions.

The best thing about Emerson is the faculty. They are well respected and connected, but also accessible. Office hours are very open and the faculty will take you through a lot of your writing. The campus is located in the very heart of Boston, which is an amazing opportunity, but it can also be overwhelming. I think it can be hard for freshmen at Emerson to become comfortable with their surroundings because the campus is so integrated with the city. However, over the four years of college this becomes less of a drawback and more of an advantage.

The school is really small with only about 3,000 students which for me is perfect. The class sizes are small which gives you a lot of contact with the professors, most of whom are really willing to help students succeed in anyway that they can. Being located in the heart of Boston gives you a lot of opportunities to explore the area and with so many other colleges around you run into a lot of other students. The food at the school isn't the greatest (but what college dinning hall is?) but because you're in Boston (and about a block away from Chinatown) you can easily access better food if you're willing to pay for it (and stuff isn't as expensive as you would think).

Not that many people know about Emerson, but when you mention the name and they know of it, they describe how great the school is. Then they ask about the acting and journalism programs.

I came from a small, very personal art school. It was were I went to middle school and high school so I knew college would be a big transition from that, but with Emerson it wasn't a big deal. The school is small, but not too small. There are always different people to hang out with and new clubs and events to explore, but at the same time you've seen a lot of the same people around and can know everything going on at the school if you really want to. This size is also perfect because you can get to know (or know of) most of the people in your major, which is important for film and theatre majors. The location

Emerson has a great thing going for it a far as the community feel. I think the smallness of the college makes it feel more tight-knit, and I don't feel like I'm lost in a sea of students. But personally, I really dislike the attitude of the students at Emerson. They seem naive, pampered and babied, wrapped up in their own coolness or their own interests, and are for the most part isolated from the community outside of the college world. I don't think Emerson does a very good job at culturing students outside the Arts. There isn't really a big emphasis on integration with the city and its people. I think Emerson seems to breed the same elitist mentality students enter the school with. Of course this is all probably heavily biased by my own experiences, so take all of that with a big ol' grain of salt. My biggest issue with the school is its cost. So far, I have seen absolutely nothing about Emerson College that warrants paying $40,000 a year to attend. The classes don't seem that remarkable to me (I've taken more challenging and worthwhile classes in the AP Program in high school for a fraction of the cost), and from what I've seen about how the school allocates its budget I'm not so sure my tuition money is going towards noble causes, like giving me an education that's worth forty grand. And since the financial aid situation at Emerson is absolutely awful, I'm not even getting a break with tuition rates (why very wealthy Honors Program kids get full- or half-rides while kids from lower working-class families get zip is yet another issue i have). Perhaps I just have yet to see the true worth of the school and the education it could give me. But chances are I won't be able to stick around long enough for that to happen.

I transfered to Emerson College in 2007. The process of transfer was very difficult. As a transfer, you are forced to sign up for semester classes after the entire school has been given the chance to design their schedules. This made it impossible to take anything outside of broad requirements for my first semester. The film department/visual media arts department seems to be saturated with students. Though this makes for a good community of working film students (there are always student film shoots to work on), it makes it impossible for the school to meet any equipment needs.

Students often complain about the ubiquitous red tape that they encounter at Emerson. This becomes particularly troublesome when attempting to get equipment from the Equipment Distribution Center, trying to get into classes that you need / want, and dealing with the upper levels of the administration. Emerson is a small school, yet seems to be growing in more recent years. While a small number of undergraduates promotes a close-knit community, it can often feel claustrophobic. There is, however, a certain charm in being able to walk down Boylston Street and know the vast majority of people that you encounter. Located in the heart of Boston, it could not be in a better location. It is close enough to Boston University, Northeastern, and Harvard that one can party there yet still come home to dorms in the theatre district. Its proximity to Chinatown lends itself to a certain degree of sketchiness, but affords students the opportunity to have delicious food late into the evening.