Truman State University Top Questions

Academics are the most important aspect of Truman. Most students that come to Truman come for academics. We aren't known for our sports and the city life is non-existent in Kirksville. We are in the top ten universities in the Midwest Region based around the US News college ranking lists. So when you ask what the academics are like all I can say is they are the core of our school.

Academics are Truman's top priority. Most of my professors know me by name, which is a rather odd thing to experience, as some classes still have a large population of students in them. Some of the schools academic requirements are a bit rough. For, an extreme, example: sophomore nursing students are required to pass every test with a 75{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c}, with one retake available. Should they not receive the 75{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} on the retake, they're removed from the program with a grade of "D." If you don't mind studying when it's time to study, Truman can be a navigable choice.

Truman's courses are tough. To be honest, many of the professors are quite demanding. However, this isn't a bad thing. This is the best way for us to prepare for a future where nobody is holding our hand and telling us what to do. Also, since Truman is a liberal arts and sciences university, we aren't merely funneled down a path that corresponds to our major. Instead, we have the opportunity to grow and learn in many different subject areas - regardless of our major. It certainly helps that Truman offers small class sizes and has a small student to professor ratio. I know my professors personally, and they are practically always willing to help me with anything from a homework problem to advice about applying to graduate school. I am a biology major, so I can't speak for every department. So as far as biology goes, I really can't complain. There are very tough courses, and difficult requirements. I love the tight bond the students have, though. I know many people in my classes through different organizations and previous classes, so that is always very helpful.

Truman's courses are tough. To be honest, many of the professors are quite demanding. However, this isn't a bad thing. This is the best way for us to prepare for a future where nobody is holding our hand and telling us what to do. Also, since Truman is a liberal arts and sciences university, we aren't merely funneled down a path that corresponds to our major. Instead, we have the opportunity to grow and learn in many different subject areas - regardless of our major. It certainly helps that Truman offers small class sizes and has a small student to professor ratio. I know my professors personally, and they are practically always willing to help me with anything from a homework problem to advice about applying to graduate school. I am a biology major, so I can't speak for every department. So as far as biology goes, I really can't complain. There are very tough courses, and difficult requirements. I love the tight bond the students have, though. I know many people in my classes through different organizations and previous classes, so that is always very helpful.

Truman's courses are tough. To be honest, many of the professors are quite demanding. However, this isn't a bad thing. This is the best way for us to prepare for a future where nobody is holding our hand and telling us what to do. Also, since Truman is a liberal arts and sciences university, we aren't merely funneled down a path that corresponds to our major. Instead, we have the opportunity to grow and learn in many different subject areas - regardless of our major. It certainly helps that Truman offers small class sizes and has a small student to professor ratio. I know my professors personally, and they are practically always willing to help me with anything from a homework problem to advice about applying to graduate school. I am a biology major, so I can't speak for every department. So as far as biology goes, I really can't complain. There are very tough courses, and difficult requirements. I love the tight bond the students have, though. I know many people in my classes through different organizations and previous classes, so that is always very helpful.

Truman's courses are tough. To be honest, many of the professors are quite demanding. However, this isn't a bad thing. This is the best way for us to prepare for a future where nobody is holding our hand and telling us what to do. Also, since Truman is a liberal arts and sciences university, we aren't merely funneled down a path that corresponds to our major. Instead, we have the opportunity to grow and learn in many different subject areas - regardless of our major. It certainly helps that Truman offers small class sizes and has a small student to professor ratio. I know my professors personally, and they are practically always willing to help me with anything from a homework problem to advice about applying to graduate school. I am a biology major, so I can't speak for every department. So as far as biology goes, I really can't complain. There are very tough courses, and difficult requirements. I love the tight bond the students have, though. I know many people in my classes through different organizations and previous classes, so that is always very helpful.

Classes are hard, but most of them are small enough that you're not just floundering along listening to a lecture with 200 other students. My largest class had 60 students, and that was pushing it. We actually only have a few classrooms that will even hold that many people. Professor here are hit and miss, although no one would argue that they are not brilliant in their own way. They are not required by our school to do research or write anything, however, which makes their main focus on their students. All of them have open office hours and most respond quickly to student emails for help. It is very nice knowing that you have someone who is willing to help you out if you need the extra assistance. As far as students go, the average student tends to be smarter than what you would find at a normal public university. That doesn't mean that every person is a super smart genius, but Truman is also chock full of the dumbest people you could even imagine, but the general tendency is kids who want to go far and are willing to work to get there. However, that means that our school puts a lot of stress on students to do well. Classes usually require more work and harder exams and projects, and it is not unusual for students to give up partying on the weekends to make sure they can survive a class.

Classes are hard, but most of them are small enough that you're not just floundering along listening to a lecture with 200 other students. My largest class had 60 students, and that was pushing it. We actually only have a few classrooms that will even hold that many people. Professor here are hit and miss, although no one would argue that they are not brilliant in their own way. They are not required by our school to do research or write anything, however, which makes their main focus on their students. All of them have open office hours and most respond quickly to student emails for help. It is very nice knowing that you have someone who is willing to help you out if you need the extra assistance. As far as students go, the average student tends to be smarter than what you would find at a normal public university. That doesn't mean that every person is a super smart genius, but Truman is also chock full of the dumbest people you could even imagine, but the general tendency is kids who want to go far and are willing to work to get there. However, that means that our school puts a lot of stress on students to do well. Classes usually require more work and harder exams and projects, and it is not unusual for students to give up partying on the weekends to make sure they can survive a class.

Truman has an awesome academic climate! My professors know me by name, and are truly committed to helping me succeed. People actively participate in class discussions and make it stay interesting. The professors make sure to challenge us, though, so we spend a good bit of time studying and therefore really learn our stuff. I am an English and Medieval Studies (an Interdisciplinary Studies Major) double-major, so i get to experience both Truman's excellent and well-known English department, and sample many of the other departments with my [unusual] Medieval Studies major.

The real reason you're attending any higher-education facility is to, well, get yourself edumakated. As such, you should have volumes of options anywhere you go as to what you want to learn, and what you want to do with it. No class you take won't improve you in some way, whether that class was take here or elsewhere; yet given the requirments @ Truman, much of the faculty clearly wants us there to learn for the sake of learning. This is not a school packed with - as one of my proffessors put it - Vo-Tech degrees. You may have an end-goal, a vocation that drives you through university. Yet, while you are here, expect yourself to get bogged down with that feeling OF university; the experience of being there, and the volumes of info to learn take precidence over the future. Many will speand a week, or more, a year trying to 'get out of here' and into the "real world," by forming a list of what classes to take and when. However, expact that to change once you have a plan. I spend less time thinking about an unpredictable future and more time thinking about the 'now' when I'm there. Can you get that at other colleges? most likely, you can. Can I garuntee you will feel that here? yes. You will end up attending this university not for the 'great, diverse, Liberal-Arts eduaction' quatation that the faculty's favorite ads will ram down your throat, but you will have found yourself staying here because of a love for learning, experiencing, and growing that might be un-achievable elswhere. As for the classes, the school is far from difficult. To get the A almost anywhere is difficult; the time you mut put in for that 90{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c}+ is enormus. to get a B or a C? not hard. All the professors keep to the required office hours, and if you make it your priority to get to know them, at least a little, makes everything all the easier. I'm not saying go suck-up to your teachers, but I am saying that the minimum effort plus getting to know your Prof. can earn you a B more often than not (except for the Math+Stats department, where I have found ONE professor that I like. One good person in a faculty of 12 that I have met? bad odds if you ask me...). It isn't impossible to get a D or fail a class; but I am a 3.0 student (2.9+ is close enough) and of the 2 D's that I have gotten, one was for a math class, and the other was a health class that I simply did not feel the need, my sophmore year, to attend. You honestly have to stop caring AT ALL to do poorly in a class here; nothing is really that hard (except for the Math classes; I took Upper level classes in a College prep highschool, and did fine. However, when the professor starts shaking when you ask hm/her a question, nothing gets done) if you put the minimum work in. As is true with many things, what you put in is what you get out. If you want to be competitive with grades, you'll get competition. If you want intellectual conversation outside of class, other students will supply. We have a great library and Student Union Building to study in, and many professors that I have had (except for the math department) have, often, invited students into their homes for big events (Thanksgiving, Easter, Superbowl parties, etc.) or offered up thier own offices for study times. The minimum effort will get you there, but the maximum effort is easier to achieve than many think it.