Angela
Professors at Salve will know your name, and class sizes at their very largest are in the 40s. Most departments contain only 2-5 faculty members. This has pros and cons; your professor will get to know you well, learn your strengths and weaknesses, and be able to write you personalized recommendations for jobs or grad school applications. There are problems, however, in that the low number of faculty means a low number of classes outside of the 101-type basics. There are also problems if you don't like one of your major's professors, or if that professor leaves/retires, because there are few other options.
Students are not competitive, intellectual conversations outside of class are rare, and class participation is like pulling teeth; I genuinely feel bad for most professors who address questions to the class. The honors program used to be a joke, but due to new administrators it is in fact improving, and I look forward to hearing where it goes.
The school is known for nursing and teaching, but I know both Nursing and Education majors who mentioned lack of resources and other limitations that left them feeling less prepared than students in other programs. The graduate program here is very weak (Salve is not a research university) and graduate students rarely interact with undergraduates. Most of them are local retirees or housewives who decided to go back to school. This is unfortunate, because graduate students are an excellent resource for undergraduates who are interested in further education.
I am a Cultural/Historic Preservation major, which is a unique field rarely taught at the undergraduate level. If it weren't for this program and my dedication to it, I would certainly have left Salve. In my opinion, it may be the only major at Salve worth putting up with all of Salve's other problems. Even so, it has its own shortcomings. For those who want to work in the Newport mansions, the Newport Preservation Society (which manages them) does not have the best relationship with Salve, and even though they have the perfect learning tools, many specialists, and active programs, they are not generous about working with students.
Salve is not the place for "undecided" students who don't know what they want, which is curiously most freshmen. Salve is too small to have enough variety for students to fully investigate what they'd like to commit to. I am extremely dedicated to my field and am near the top of my class, but in spite of the small class size and close relationship with professors, I received very little guidance and had to struggle on my own to find scholarships, internships, conferences, grants, summer programs, etc. I constantly felt limited by the lack of variety in classes and local internships that left me unable to explore my fullest potential in my sub-specialty. Students who aren't on their game constantly will be left at a significant disadvantage in comparison to their counterparts at other schools. It made me a stronger person to do all that work in the end, but the amount of stress, frustration, and easily-avoidable missed opportunities was not worth it.