Student Profile
Christine
- Class: Sophomore
- Major: Journalism
- Gender: F
- High School: Ridgefield High School
- Transfer Student: N
Big Picture
The best thing about Syracuse is the variety of night life activities. Students can party on south campus if they want something low-key, go to a frat house, a house party, Marshall St. bars or downtown bars. There's always something to do and you always meet new people when you're out. I would change the weather, but if we did have warm weather year round, students wouldn't appreciate it as much or party as hard when the snow melts and the sun comes out (even if it is finals week). Perfect size- for every 10 people you know on campus there are 100 more you can meet. They ask me if I'm in Newhouse- and I am so they are always extremely impressed. During the day when I have classes, I spend most of my time in Schine student center upstairs- its a quiet place to study or nap if you don't want to walk back to your room or in Newhouse III. When I don't have classes, either in my sorority house, my boyfriend's fraternity house or my dorm. When I'm going out I'm usually at Maggie's or Harry's or a fraternity house. It's a great balance between a city and a college town. Marshall St. provides a small town environment with restaurants, bars and shops. You'll almost always see a familiar face on M street, especially after 2 a.m. on a bar night. Downtown provides entertainment (Syracuse Stage), great restaurants (Ambrosia), bars and there's a huge mall close by too. The Syracuse administration is helpful, but you don't come into contact with them too often. It was slightly controvercial when Chief Justice John Roberts came and spoke at the Newhouse III opening. It was an honor to have such an accomplished individual speaking at the school, but it was also contradictory because he is so conservative and not the best representative for free speech, it seemed as though we might have found a better candidate. There is a ton of school pride- the Carrier Dome is the most noticiable thing on campus and students go all out for D1 sports games. Basketball season is amazing.
Academic Life
Now that I'm a sophomore I've gotten through most of my big lecture classes. Almost all of my professors learned my name by the third class. Professors are also always available for office hours and once you come and talk to them there, they never forget you. My favorite class was MAG205 last semester. My professor (who I have again this semester), is a former writer for People magazine and knows all about the industry. Since this is my major, I found this class to be interesting because we took a magazine of our choice and wrote a term paper about all the different components. Basically we got to look at magazines and really understand what goes into them to get a better understanding of how the industry works. Human Sexuality is another popular class. You basically come to a two hour lecture and talk about sex. It's like sex ed only with the details that people actually care about added in. It's funny and extremely eye opening. My least favorite classes were big lectures like astronomy or nutrition. The professor never takes attendance so I'm not motivated to go to class especially since I can get the notes from another student. Then the tests are impossible. Students study a good amount, but it's broken up nicely throughout the week. Students usually go out on Tuesday and Thursday nights (in addition to weekends) and study in between. Most students don't have classes on Fridays which makes life easier. Class participation is extremely common and very encouraged in all of my classes aside from large lectures. My news class is essentially based on class discussion about story ideas and how we can make things better. I definitely discuss class readings as well as current events and politics with students outside of class. If I really enjoyed the reading from the class I'll talk to other classmates about it before and after class. Newhouse students are constantly discussing current events- especially politics right now. It's impossible not to. Most students aren't competitive with one another. I've found that students block off according to their major and they all help each other along the way. In terms of looking for internships, students may be more competitive in that area, but in terms of school work, everyone wants everyone to succeed. The most unique class I've taken is within my minor- religion in the news media. It is definitely an interesting class because it intersects two subjects that seemingly do not intersect, but you find everywhere. My major is magazine journalism. It is definitely a unique program to Syracuse. There are specific classes that teach students how to write magazine articles as opposed to newspaper. Almost all of the professors are experienced in the field and help give the perspective of the industry and prepare the students for that. I see my magazine/news professor in his office hours on a regular basis. I'm in the process of finding an internship and he has helped with networking or any questions I may have about the business. Professors are helpful not only in the classroom, but for questions that pertain to jobs or the industry. Most respond to their email within a few hours (some within minutes) and almost all of them give their office or cell phone numbers for easy contact. The core requirements are relatively annoying for students who already know what they want to do. Syracuse has a variety of strong programs such as communications, management, architecture, performing arts, design, film etc. For those students, many came to Syracuse solely for that major and do not plan on changing. For them, the core requirements of say a science class for a right-brained writer may be tedious. However, they do not take long to complete and AP credit helps boost students through the core early. Newhouse definitely prepares its students to get a job. Finding an internship is important right away, however the curriculum focuses on giving students a breadth of skills. Dean Rubin always said that more than anything, students should leave Newhouse knowing how to write- if they didn't learn anything else but that, they would succeed.
Student Body
There is a wide diversity of students on Syracuse campus. There are various religious centers on campus including Hendrick's Chapel, a Jewish center and a Muslim center. There is a LGBT center on campus and they do a fantastic job on campus. A student who needs an intimate environment in terms of student body size might feel overwhelmed by the size of the school. The majority of girls around campus wear leggings (hard tail/so low pants), ugg boots, and long sleeping-bag jackets. In the dining hall, you'd see a table of a few girls all wearing their sorority t-shirts or letters, a group of ESF students talking about trees or smoking pot, a loud group of rowdy, athletic men who are the crew team and a group of students (girls and boys) who live on the same floor as one another laughing about an inside joke that no one else on any other floor understands. There are a lot of students from random places in New York state (Westchester), Long Island, New Jersey, just outside of Pittsburgh, Connecticut or Ohio. There are random people who come from Texas or California because they wanted a change. Most students are wealthy and able to afford to buy $4 drinks at the bar or go shopping at Shopbop.com quite often, but there are also students who are on financial aid and or here on scholarship. Most students are pretty affluent because it is a private school. Many students are politically active. Students vote on absentee ballots. More students are liberal than conservative. That may be because there is a huge journalism school here at Syracuse, but most students who are well educated on politics at Syracuse are democratic. All Newhouse students hope to be making more than the average communication school graduate- many will climb to the tops of the ranks or become famous faces on TV. Most students expect to do well and make a lot of money.
