Professors are extremely accessible at St. Joe's. Every professor has known my name and been available even outside of their office hours for any issue I had. As an English major, my classes were very small. The maximum students I ever had in a class in my major was around 25, and that was in a Shakespeare class that was a requirement.
St. Joe's students run the gamut of competive/non-competive, and intellectual/slacker. I was somewhat discouraged by what I see as a lack of preperation for college, and a lack of competent writing skills in many of my peers; however, my opinion may be skewed because I am an English major with a minor in Secondary Education.
My favorite class was African American Literature, which had a service learning component. As a Jesuit school, St. Joe's prides itself in continuing the Jesuit tradition of service. Jesuits teach to the whole person in the hopes that their students becomes people who live for and with others. While I learned about African American Literature in the classroom, I also had the opportunity to spend time teaching in a 7th grade African American Literature classroom in a local, inner-city, school, Our Mother of Sorrows. It was an eye-opening experience for me, and one that I wouldn't give up for anything. It was extremely rewarding to see students (all African American) learning and growing in the classroom. I was sad to leave at the end of the semester, and some of my friends who could still volunteer there.
Many students complain about the fact that St. Joe's has a set of GERs that includes 3 Philsophy classes and 3 Theology classes; however, this policy is something that comes from the Jesuit tradition that St. Joe's wants to hold on to. While I think, like many students, that 3 of each is overkill, I hope that St. Joe's does not lose this tradition all together, because it comes directly from St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuit order.
Also, I loved taking a class on Jesuit Theology and learning more about St. Ignatius in my junior year. I am not Catholic, but I found this course enlightening and extremely interesting.
Much of St. Joe's teaching in very much geared toward getting a job. Even in the English department there is a strong push towards figuring out what you want to do beyond graduation. Most of my friends have had internships many times throughout our years at St. Joe's. In the business school, especially, the outlook is very much toward job placement.