Simmons CollegeAcademics Summary

Because of its small size, teacher attention is one of Simmons’s strengths. But beware: If you are looking for a college where you can sink into the back row and sleep through a biology lecture, this is definitely not the place for you. With a student-to-teacher ratio of 13 to 1, professors are very acquainted with their students. Office hours are scheduled for students to meet with their professors, but they are often very flexible or will make changes to better suit the needs of individual students. First-year students are paired with faculty for scheduling and the planning of their time at school. Networking is emphasized at Simmons, and faculty members are easily reached as a resource for connecting many students to future employers. Teachers are well-qualified in their fields, and students do not learn from teaching assistants.

Special lectures are held to allow discussions of special topics relevant to professors’ particular fields of interest. Students are often invited to create independent projects and theses with faculty or assist on a professor’s own research projects. At the end of their classes each semester, students have the opportunity to critique their instructor’s performance. These evaluations are taken very seriously and have been used to give professors tenure or force a change in curriculum. Instead of the mundane freshman English classes of other colleges, first years are required to take a multicultural seminar and first-year-experience class. Simmons has also added a new requirement called ICOMP, which tests the student’s ability to use different computer programs.