Converse CollegeAcademics Summary

Written by Gwendolyn Smith

Gwendolyn Smith

Hometown

Greenville, SC

Major

English

View all previous student authors

Converse offers incredible academics, with an excellent and well-deserved reputation among Southeastern colleges. Students are happy with the amount of personal attention they receive from their knowledgeable professors, finding programs both challenging and enjoyable. In terms of instruction, Converse encourages its professors to focus more on teaching than on publishing, so there is little of the “publish or perish” ethic that many students will find at other colleges. Most professors take this teaching focus to heart so that they are academically supportive of students both inside and outside of the classroom. Professors also act as advisers to students within their discipline. Overall, Converse is definitely the college to attend if you want academics to be a focus.

Converse’s small size lends both advantages and disadvantages. An advantage is that class sizes are small, with rarely more than 25 students per class. In addition, class sizes are even smaller in the higher level courses required to complete majors and minors. However, Converse’s small size also affects academics negatively. As a small school, Converse doesn’t offer a large variety of classes at one time. Some classes aren't offered every semester, which can be a headache when you need certain courses. Although Converse doesn't offer a large selection of courses at any one time, this does not mean that the offerings are monotonous. January-term offerings are especially interesting, with classes on topics like Bollywood films, the politics of Harry Potter, and puppetry.