Emerson is an amazing school and the people who stay here are incredibly happy with it. Emerson has a lot of school pride, but we show it by getting involved and supporting theater groups instead of wearing emerson shirts and cheering on the basketball team. It's not your typical college experience. The campus is pretty much the Boston Common, which is awesome! I don't ever feel disconnected from people because it's not a traditional campus, I usually pass my friends along Boylston street. It's a city atmosphere, I also think Emerson has the best location out of all the Boston schools. It's directly across from the Common and a T station, which is the subway. It's also near china town and Newbury street, which has great food and shopping. The administration is incredibly supportive and totally understand the type of student at Emerson and how to cater to them. The cafeteria is getting a bit too small as the school grows and I bet they're going to expand soon. The food isn't bad and they have a vegetarian section, and tons of other vegan options which is really great.

Academics at Emerson are incredibly informal. The teachers usually go by their first names and communication is easy and honest. Students at Emerson are usually very focused on their major so any general requirement classes are ignored and not taken seriously. The school doesn't try very hard to make them any more interesting either. The main nightmares are Expository and Research writing, you can get out of Expository with credits from highschool but you've got to take a semester of Research writing unless you're in the honors program. I've hear tons of complaints about research writing, but I think it all depends on the teacher and the class topic, the topics range from Technology (gross) to Travel Writing, which i've heard is great. I'm in the honors program so my classes are very different. My first semester honors class was focused on literary analysis. We read tons of articles by psychoanalysts like Freud and Melanie Klein and also a lot of historical pieces. We read about 6 novels and used to articles to analyze the texts. Ok that sounds really daunting but it wasn't bad at all, in fact from what I heard it was a lot easier than the Expository and Research writing classes as far as the amount of work. Second semester you do the same thing plus a writing class which focuses on a 20 page paper about anything you want which you have all semester to write. I've been really happy with the honors program. I feel like it's a good addition to my acting major, because my brain would have probably shriveled up if i'd just done vocal warmups and yoga poses. The acting teachers are amazing, they are honest and encourage honesty from students. They know what they're talking about, all of the teachers have amazing backgrounds and credentials. Amelia Broome is a goddess, get her if you can. You go through phases with the acting program here, I get burnt out easily on some of the more abstract techniques and it can be hard because you don't feel like you're ever "acting" in class. The good thing about that is all of the acting opportunities outside of class. Their are hundreds and hundreds but you have to take the initiative to find out about them and go to auditions, no one is holding your hand, it's the real world.

The student body is diverse as far as different ideas go, but looks incredibly white from the outside. I know of very few African American students at Emerson, or very few students of any ethnicity to be honest. It's an incredibly liberal school, so liberal it's not diverse. I know of both the republicans on campus and they aren't very popular. While the students are liberal I wouldn't say that most of them are politically active, they're is a lot of apathy at Emerson towards the government, but less so now during the Obama, Clinton race. The social groups at Emerson are usually determined by major. The film kids hang out with film kids and the marketing majors hang out with marketing majors. Ofcourse there are cross overs, a lot of actors and film kids hang out, that's the most common combo. Musical theater kids tend to stick with themselves so if you're worried about that don't be. Emerson kids tend to be on the wealthier side. We have a lot of famous sons and daughters, but generally I'd say upper middle class dominates. But the thing is everyones a poor college kid and everyone is a private school kid who wishes they weren't so if you're poor you'd be cool cause they all wish they were. People dress up for class, even the guys. By dress up I mean but on some of the coolest clothes i've ever seen in my life. It can be intimidating.

As an acting major all of my friends are either actors or film majors but from all different years. It's really easy to make friends with upperclassmen just from working on plays or films. I also don't have very many friends that I made from class, it's mostly from outside stuff I auditioned for. Your first week at Emerson will be all about getting to know people, some of the get to know you events are fun and some of them suck. The truth is I met most of my close friends that week from a couple of the events and also at New York Pizza, which is a popular place right next to campus. A lot of people also make close friends with people who live on their floor. And a lot of people don't meet any close friends in the first week and it just takes getting involved to meet people. The first two months everyone is really friendly because you're all in the same boat, trying to make friends and form groups. The people at Emerson are generally incredibly nice and open so I wouldn't worry about making friends. No one goes to sporting events, I mean no one and everyone goes to the plays. Every little student show has a packed audience and usually the shows rock. The party scene at Emerson is difficult. I guess the main party place would be the SAE house, pretty much our only social frat. They suck and are gross so after the first month you stop going and it's pretty much the same group of people who go, you shouldn't be one of those people. The best parties are just at peoples apartments or houses. Also a lot of Emerson students go to BU, BC, MIT, and Berkley parties which are really great, especially MIT parties. If you don't drink don't worry, you could see a different student show every night and a lot of kids do other things on the weekends. People go the the Rocky Horror Picture Show a lot although i'd say it's probably way more fun drunk, you don't have to be. Weed is probably more popular than alcohol on campus. Students smoke up and then do creative things.

Emerson has a lot of stereotypes. We get labeled as all being hipster kids and Emerson is known for having a cloud of smoke hanging above it from all of the students who smoke. Oh Emerson is also known for having a huge GLBT community. Emerson students are also known for ignoring religion completely. On the bright side Emerson is known for having a kick ass film program and amazing acting facilities.

The hipster thing is only half true, about half the school is hipster kids or wanna be hipster kids, which is funny. We've got a lot of people from California, namely San Francisco so that's were that comes from. I'd say most of Emerson kids smoke, including those who start once they get here. I've personally never felt pressured to smoke, you do it or you don't no big deal, I think it just adds to the artsy vibe on campus. Their are a lot of gay men at Emerson but a smaller lesbian community and hardly any transsexuals so don't be fooled by that stereotype, it pretty much only relates to the gay male community. Hardly anyone on campus is religious and if they are they keep it quiet. Judaism is prevalent on campus, however, but it's more of a cultural practice, I went to a great Hanukkah party this year! Emerson's film program is kick ass for sure. Emerson dominates the Campus Movie Fest competition and three of our film makers are up for MTV's best film maker on campus award for the 2008 MTV awards oh and some Emerson student films are showing at the Cannes Film Festival this year, wow! The acting facilities that we have are great but we need more, badly. They are building more space and that'll be done in 2009 so you're in luck future students!

If you're the Emerson type and you know if you are you will freakin love it! Everyone here is happy with the school. If you don't know what you want to major in don't come here. I know it says this whenever you look up Emerson, but i'm surprised when kids are here and in that situation, they almost always transfer. Kids at Emerson want to be successful. They're major is what they've always known they wanted to do. It's a very professional atmosphere so take everything seriously.