Finding Your Best Fit School Spotlight on Emerson

These Are a Few of Our Favorite Things... This week, our Marketing and Student Enrollment Coordinator, Sarah, tells us about her experience at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts: My favorite thing about Emerson College was definitely the academic environment. All of my classes were small and hands-on which made it easy to learn, participate, and be heard. Coming from a small high school, this was something that was truly important to me in identifying my best fit colleges. The unique thing about Emerson is that you aren’t just learning – you are doing. So many of my classes were spent in studios and labs where I could take advantage of the school’s amazing resources. If you are in a creative field, there is a good chance you will graduate with a very useful professional-grade portfolio. And the Emerson experience extends far beyond the classroom. Organizations such as WERS, the student-run radio station highlighted for its frequent live-performances; Ploughshares, the nationally acclaimed literary journal; and the Cutler Majestic Theater, the beautifully restored opera and playhouse, always made me feel like I was part of something great and dynamic. An alumni network including Jay Leno, Dennis Leary, Bobbi Brown, Kevin Bright, Max Mutchnick, and Seth Grahame-Smith, and the passion of my fellow students, made me and still make me proud to be an Emersonian. While Emerson is classified as a Liberal Arts school, if you are looking to figure out your future career path by dabbling in several different options, it is probably not the best fit school for you. For the most part, students at Emerson are super focused and have been developing their creative resumes for years. As the only liberal arts school in the country solely devoted to communication and the arts, Emerson attracts a very specific kind of student with very precise goals. That said, there is definitely room for growth and exploration within the offered fields. I started out with a major in Print Journalism and in my sophomore year decided that I wanted to focus more on graphic design and the industry as a whole. I was able to change my major to Writing, Literature, and Publishing, and apply my already completed coursework towards a minor in Journalism. In addition, Emerson has a general education curriculum, which was the source of some of my favorite classes including America n Sign Language, Weather and Climate, and Contemporary Art. My other favorite thing about Emerson was the location. No quad here! While surely not an ideal for everyone, I loved the city campus. Step outside the Ansin Building or the Little Building, and you are on the Boston Common (where classes are often held in nice weather). A few more steps will lead you to the Public Garden and Newbury Street. Hop on the â€Å"T† at the Boylston stop and in minutes you can be at Fenway Park, Harvard Square, or the Museum of Fine Arts. And although being a Massachusetts native I admit I am bias, more than 300,000 college students seem to agree, there is no better place to go to college than Boston. Insider Tip: Collaborate, don’t compete! With so much talent in such a small place, some students lose site of the fact that it is college and should be a supportive learning environment. Use your fellow students as a resource rather than as your rivals – put your heads together and see what you can come up with!