Professors definitely know your name. Even in my biggest class of 60 students for into to Physics, my professor still new the names of students.
I have had lots of favorite classes. In the spring of my junior year, I took a research seminar in Philosophy with 5 other students. The class met 1-2 times a week. Every other week, we read a philosopher’s paper pertaining to Friedrich Nietzsche and some other area of philosophy, then the philosopher would come to campus the following week and present their paper to the department. After the lecture, the six of us were able to discuss research, ask questions, and even argue with the philosopher. The course quickly became one of my favorites because it was such a small class so we were all able to interact with each other, the professor, and the guest-philosopher. Reading so many papers really helped me get a sense of how to organize an academic paper which has helped me as I write my honors thesis in Philosophy. Our professor even provided sushi for every meeting we had with the guest-philosopher.
We all have intellectual conversations outside of class because we like learning, but we are not dorks. We don't sit around and talk about what we are learning all day, but it's common for friends to talk about what they are learning in class or get into heated political conversations over dinner. I think the type of student who is drawn to Colgate is the type that likes to be engaged and is interested in learning, and so having intellectual conversations just kind of happens on its own from time to time. Students study quite a bit. There are definitely students who do not study as much but they will suffer for it. Most students do work every day, and the libraries are pretty full when midterms come along. Since students are typically in class 3 hours a day (not including labs which might meet once a week for 3-4 hours), students have the rest of the day to study and can take breaks and relax and study again after dinner. Science majors have lab which can add a lot to the work load depending on the class.
Thankfully, students are not cut-throat competitive. The best illustration of this is that when I took Organic Chemistry, we would order pizza and do reaction diagrams with other friends in the class. Most students want to do well for themselves and they do not feel like another student's success affects their success. This is also true in lab-- lab partners will help other lab groups that are stuck on something they don't understand. My philosophy classes have all involved individual learning and so there has not been much group interaction or competition. I will say that if someone finds a helpful book that clarifies an issue discussed in class or could be useful for a paper, it's common to get an email from a student saying, "Hey class, I found this book and thought it would be helpful..."
The philosophy department is close-knit and fun. It's common to see great student-student and student-professor interactions in all departments, and this is especially visible in the smaller departments like Philosophy. I know just about all the professors--even ones I have never had in class--from attending sponsored lectures and Philosophy barbecues. I have spent time with professors out of class by participating in extracurricular activities with them, baby-sitting their children, and by working on independent projects.
Some family friends have thought my being a philosophy major is not conducive to getting a job, but I definitely think they are wrong. Colgate's education is not geared toward getting you a specific job (that's what our career services can do for you), it's about getting a learning critical reasoning and writing skills, and getting a liberal arts education that you can apply to any career path. Of course there are students who get to Colgate and study a specific field because they know that they want to go to get an advanced degree in that field. But most students are somewhat undecided, and it's common to see people from all different majors going into different career paths. Career services has an amazing network of alumni and employers and can help you get jobs, summer internships, and interviews. They can also set you up to shadow an alumnus in any given field, and it's quite common for internships to come out of those interactions. Colgate is all about the alumni network.