Providence College | Student Reviews | Best College

Student Profile

Cath

Class:
Major: Education
Gender: F

High School:
Transfer Student: N

Big Picture

PC is a great size if you like to know all of the faces around you. It has a very large community feel, and the majority of the people are very friendly. Sports are a big deal, especially mens basketball and hockey. There is a very large bar culture at PC that makes every night of the week interesting. If you tell people that you go to PC, they generally assume that you are a very social person that likes to party and have a good time, but also has a strong sense of character and is well educated. Since PC is a Catholic College run by the Dominican Friars, there is a strong religious representation around campus. The College does not shun other faiths, and has a very welcoming attitude towards sharing faith with the campus community. The PC campus is always improving. There is a great gym, coffee shop, and they are working on a better student center. The housing is pretty good once you get to be a junior and senior, but freshman and sophomore year it is the luck of the draw. PC was the best four years of my life. There is a lot of support and guidance from faculty, and you will find yourself keeping in touch with your professors long after you have taken their courses and graduation.

Academic Life

Be prepared to work hard in all of your courses. You are required to take the development of western civilization for the first two years five days a week. The earlier sessions of that class are generally the easiest, however you would need to wake up at an earlier hour. That is probably the largest class you will have at PC (about 100 students in a lecture). There are a lot of other core requirements on top of CIV, and that needs to be looked at as an incoming student if you are considering double majoring. Class participation is very common, and professors know everyone by name. You are definitely not just a number at PC. The Education department at PC is like a family. The professors support you in everything you do and always have their doors open for you to pop in. By the time you are a senior you will find yourself just as sad to leave the Education department as you will to leave your friends and the school. PC has a nice balance of developing careers as well as giving you the opportunity to learn for the sake of learning. Since you have to take so many core requirements, you may find that you are interested in something that you never thought you would be interested in. PC is also very supportive of study abroad opportunities. I went abroad to Spain and was able to take a theology course designed just for Providence College students when I was there. While PC wants their students to expand their education overseas, they don't just hand it to you. You can't go unless you maintain a specific GPA, have your core requirements planned out so that you can graduate on time, and you have to take five courses while abroad that are pre-approved by the Dean for transfer credit back to PC. PC requires organization and planning if you want to go abroad. It is not something you can decide a semester before you leave.

Student Body

The PC student body is as a whole very connected to one another in some way. Everyone looks very similar in dress and ethnicity (mostly white middle to upper middle class). There are varying ends of the spectrum but the majority of the students come from families that support them financially for the four years that they are at PC. People tend to be very trendy in dress at PC, but it always leans towards a preppy flare. JCrew flip flops adn Ugg boots are essentials in the PC female wardrobe. Different types of students interact all the time at PC. While everyone is more comfortable with people that they have things in common with, there is no animosity towards fellow members of the student body because of any type of difference. At PC, there is a mixture of political views. Since it is a Catholic school a lot of students are more right winged, and the students who claim to be left winged are fairly moderate. No one at PC talks about potential earnings after college. Money is a very taboo topic at PC, everyone pretends to be a poor college student even if their clothing and spending habits say otherwise. Money does not effect who you are friends with at PC, and even if people do have it, they are very humble about it.