Student Profile
Alex
- Class: Sophomore
- Major: Literature
- Gender: M
- High School: Valley High School
- Transfer Student: N
Big Picture
I have a problem with the dining hall closing at nine, at the latest, and the Max diner closing the grill at 8. Often I like to eat at ten or eleven. Especially if you have a meeting that starts right before you're hungry enough for dinner, and goes past when everything closes. That is a common occurrence. The best thing about college is you start exploring the freedom to establish your own daily schedule, except now I have pressure to get up in time to eat lunch early enough to be hungry enough for dinner before 8. But this is not a huge deal, in terms of actual significance, I suppose. Sometimes when I tell people I go to Emerson they worry about my heterosexuality. More so than my status as a non-smoker (of cigarettes). Sometimes they assume I'm a film major. I spend most of my time literally on campus, though that is just because I live there currently. Everything is very convenient, and leaving Boylston St. is not necessary. I have my dorm, my friend's dorm I can kill several hours in, my class building, my library, my dining hall, and my c-store all without even crossing Tremont. I think the administration is fairly solid. They could use some work in terms of inter-department relations. Like I'm a writing major with limited access to screenwriting classes, unless I want to go through the process of changing departments, not just majors. One experience I'll always remember is during the first few weeks of Freshman year. The atmosphere of breaking yourself down and just meeting a bunch of people was so prevalent, I just chilled in an elevator for an hour or two, talking to people. Towards the end, someone walked in and said "Oh good, I was hoping you'd be here" and asked for advice on his love life. Then I was invited to hang out with his group for a while. I don't sense an abundance of school pride.
Academic Life
I've seen my professors outside of class no more than a few times. I've had a few, though, I would kill to have lunch with. They are very knowledgeable, and when it's on a topic I have chosen to pursue with my lifetime, it creates a great learning environment. This is in the Writing, Literature, Publishing department. Mainly literature professors. I have had good writing professors, but also some bad ones. Some of them use my name often, others know it, one or two I know did not know my name, and a couple knew it a year later. There's often a cluster of students designated to being the ones who participate. They bring it upon themselves, and I do my best to balance being among them and being apart from them. I don't sense much competition in terms of the classroom, though that is probably different for film kids. I run into plenty of intellectual conversations outside of class, though I only am participating in so many. There are probably more conversations about South Park. The most unique class I took was either Oral Presentation of Literature, or Epic Genres: Reniassance to Modern, where we began at Homer, Virgil, and Dante, went through Milton and Pound, and ended at Phillip Pullman. One giant epic poem per week. And I got a very nice sense of the big picture from it. They could loosen up on the general education requirements. I didn't benefit as much from having both an expository writing class and a research writing class, though in their defense I was turned off from their purpose to the point of applying myself only so much. Mostly every program is geared toward being a filmmaker or a musical theater performer or a magazine editor or a marketing consultant. But that's what we signed up for.
Student Body
The only student I can think of who would be out of place here is the star quarterback from a town twenty minutes outside of Atlanta, Georgia. And I doubt he exists to the hyperbolic degree I've drawn him as. This place works to find friends for all the outcasts. If you chose not to be very social here it's usually because you can manage yourself. Even the few rough, athletic types I've seen here (more seem to be coming in the incoming classes) have banded together with each other. Most kids wear hoodies. Most are from Philly, New York, and Jersey. The right-wing contingency is a staunch minority, though there are a lot who are liberal mainly because it's popular or reasons like that. There are a group of politically involved students, but there are plenty of uninformed students as well. They don't even regularly watch The Daily Show. Almost all of us talk about how we're going to be starving artists.
The Best Things
The students
The Worst Things
It's expensive
