Texas State University Top Questions

What are the academics like at your school?

Karissa

The academics at this school are challenging enough to make me feel like I am working towards what I am learning. They are not easy classes that anyone could take and pass, but they are not so difficult that it is incredibly stressful either.

Valerie

My favorite class that I've taken so far was Functional Biology. That class was easy to engage in and other students were also excited to be there. Of course that course was mostly filled with pre-med students and nursing students so they were competitive with each other. I liked that because that made students strive to be better than their peers. I am a Biology major, and you probably guessed it.... Pre-Med student! I am trying to pursue pathology. I actually learned about that profession in this particular biology class! I was not able to catch my professor outside of class because she was the head of the biology department which made her super busy! But, come my next biology classes I would like to build relationships with my future professors.

Morrissey

Rigorous, depends on major

Brenda

The academics at this school are very challenging if you want them to be or they can be pretty basic if that is what you desire. We have an excellent honors program, great dance program, great psych program... we have something for evryone.

Edith

For undergraduate students, there is a lot of variety. There are definitely people who work hard and care about their classes, but there are a lot of people who just want to socialize and party. It can be hard to find the best academic experience at Texas State but it's there.

Beth

Academics are important here and I feel challenged half the time. It really depends on the teacher. Education is geared towards getting a job and career services helps with that but more diversity in job fairs could be improved. The Alkek Library is a fantastic resource, I only wish there was a 24 hour printing area. Also wish there was better machines and facility for color printing, especially in the Art Building JCM.

Beth

Academics are important here and I feel challenged half the time. It really depends on the teacher. Education is geared towards getting a job and career services helps with that but more diversity in job fairs could be improved. The Alkek Library is a fantastic resource.

Jennifer

This is a big school (well over 30,000 students). So, don't be surprised when your freshman professors don't recognize you even half way into the semester. Some freshman classes have nearly 400 students in them each, but never fear. Upper level classes are much smaller in size. Some have even less than 20 students. Expect your lower level classes to have more generic busywork and your upper level classes to be much more thoughtful with an emphasis on the application of your discipline to your future field of work. My major is Family and Child Development and I have found my classes to be very career oriented and hands-on. I would not call the program competitive, but I would call it practical. And that's really a staple of a Texas State education.

Tiara

Texas State takes academics seriously. Teachers here really care about there students.

Katy

Once you declare your major and you hit junior/senior status, professors know your name and even more. My favorite class by FAR was the AAF Student competition course. It was a semester working with 20 students in my related field, doing hands on advertising/marketing campaign work for a national client...FUN! Least favorite is definitely Statistics, however, the professor was one of my favorites! I am an advertising major, which is rapidly growing. It is great. The professors in the Mass Comm department are amazing, and if you take the time to participate in class discussion and utilize the opportunites on campus, they become friends of yours. All of my professors know me on a first name basis, and we spend a lot of out-of-class time discussing my future. I wish that students' requirements were more strictly based on their major, and not irrelevent courses that take you over 2 years to complete.

Whitney

I am a Mass Communication Major, which means I study PR, advertising, journalism and media. I feel like my degree is so versitile, and that versatility has proven beneficial in interviews and other professional experiences. Some of my favorite and/or most beneficial classes in the Mass Comm program were Web Design and Campaigns. In Web Design, I was taught, litteraly, how to design a Web page from scratch and make it functional. With this knowlege, I feel like I'm a valuable asset to any company. I even created my own Resume Page... which is my resume in a cool visual layout and links to my work. I liked my PR campaigns class because I was assigned a real client and had to plan a real campaign, which was actually implemented. I can now use the results from this campaign to talk with real PR professionals about my professional experience. So, I feel like the best part about classes at TxState is that they feel more like real-world-training and not tedious busy work.

Carly

Excellent professors, high academic standards

Andy

We have some of the best artistic departments for a college. The photography department is outstanding, as well as journalism.

Alex

Some tachers are better than others. Nothing to write home about.

Sarah

Show some ethusiam or effort in classes. It goes a long way with professors in the long run. If you have a problem or a question don't put it off until the end of the semester. Professors like the people who come talk them and if you come sooner they will be willing to work with you later. Students in the business classes are competitive. It's probably the business mind frame. Consumer behavior was a pretty cool class. It required a lot of class participation but it was actually fun. You could talk about anything in that class as long as you could relate it to something relevant which wasn't hard. Those were probably the most interesting class discussions.

Alex

Class sizes vary. In your early years you will experince alot of large class sizes however once you are more speicfied in your major you will find the classes decrease in size alot. The best advice is to go and talk to you teachers in thier office hours, they really want you to succeed.

Cody

I can only speak for the Accounting department, for which I have found that I am now known by almost the entire staff. If you get involved and take an interest, the professors will also take an interest in you. Like most things in life, it will be what you make it. Texas State students are intelligent, but I have found to be very practical and pragmatic. The Baccalaureate education is geared towards professional development, as it should be. It is my understanding that in the graduate programs students focus less on the practical and more on the theoretical. I start my graduate work this summer... so I guess we will see!

Brittany

Academics at Texas State is very competitive. I think the students here are very intelligent. The professors are nice and most are very caring about their students. They are also very approachable and usually available during office hours. The biology department is extremely good at helping students and providing resources to help us succeed. Magic, Ritual, and Religion was a very unique class that I took here and is pretty interesting. Our geography department is No. 1 in the nation and our education department is No. 3 in the nation.

Irina

If you're a Music major at Texas State it is a wonderful experience. The staff is amazing, the people are awesome and the environment is great. I've learned so much as an undergrad I've considered staying for my Masters as soon as I graduate. The music faculty definitely knows us by name and will do anything to find us jobs after graduation. They prepare us to teach rather than to just know the information.

Toby

All of my professors know my name bc the Respiratory Therapy program is fairly small. The RC program is targeted at getting a job but still requires courses such as philosophy to develop critical thinking skills. I spend time with professors outside class because we participate in clinical rotations at various hosptials. Fencing was one of my favorite classes and microbiology was my least favorite. Study time depends on the course, major, and talent. TX State students do have intellectual conversations outside class wether it be concerning politics, legalization of substances, to the war in Iraq. Competition, I think depends on your major, but I think its natural to want to have the best grades and resume.

Courtney

Many of my professors know my name. My favorite class is business communications, with Dr. Beverly Chiodo! I look forward to attending her class and learning something new each time! My least favorite class was English Literature, just not my subject! I regularly attend the library and always see crowds of people studying there! Yes, people participate in class on a regular basis. YES, we do discuss class material outside of the classroom! We are EXTREMELY competitive, that is human nature! The most unique class I took was SCUBA DIVING! It was so much fun and I am now certified! I am a Marketing Major in the McCoy school of business! All of the professors for my major are extremely nice and good teachers! There are many extracurricular activities offered through my major! I spend time with professors of the university outside the classroom through extracurricular activities. Texas State has high expectations! Texas State will help prepare you for the job of your dreams!

Meggie

Every professor goes above and beyond to know who you are and what you are about, not just that you sit in a seat in their class. My favorite class was Professional Selling with Mrs. Vicki West. If you want a career in Sales, she will get you there. No matter how early or late you need her help she was there for you. She knows the business world and brings in recruiters, not the average ones you see at career fairs, because she knows we are the top talent. I learned more in that class than I cn even explain. In the business school, we are all very competitive and strive for the best. This competition is friendly and only helps us. At Texas State, you are learning a test; you are learning actual skills that will take you far once you hit the ground running. There is a lot of hands on work that will benefit you in the real world.

Angel

I study several hours a week and keep above a 3.0. But classes are harder than alot of people come into college thinking. There is no one to hold your hand and walk you through it. You have to study without being told to do so or given homework every night. I also suggest going to class you will definatly benefit from it. I think most of the professors here are very willing to help you out if you try, they aren't just going to flunk you if you really try. And we have resources on campus like SLAC to help you with tutoring for free as well as professors with office hours available for their students to answer any questions they may have.

Arielle

I have been very blessed with great teachers and opportunities for classes at Texas State. As a psychology major, I have also been lucky enough to have worked in the psychology department for the past couple years. Because of this I have gotten to know several of the professors in that department on a different level and been pleased to see how enthusiastic and passionate the majority are concerning what they do and their students. My favorite class by far is actually not a psychology course but Sociology of Popular Music. It not only was amazing to hear the music genres over the the last century but inspiring and interesting to hear the history and sociological impacts of American relayed through the songs.

matt!

My most interesting class that I took was definitely Magic, Rituals, & Religion. It is an Anthropology class, but I took it as a free-elective... I think that as you get into your major the teachers begin to know who you are. Classes are smaller and there is alot more interaction. In Marketing, we had alot of group projects and presentations. I wouldn't say that I studied much or even did that much work outside of class, but I also did not have the best grades (2.77 overall gpa). I think that with a little effort a 3+ gpa is definitely feasible... I think that we have a great career services center. They helped me write my resume and gave me all the resources I needed to find a job, the Job Fairs however did not impress me unless I wanted to sell insurance.

Toby

Surprisingly, I have several professors who know me by name. I think it all depends on the class you are in, some classes have only 25 people in them were as other classes have around 300. Obviously, the professor will most likely know the names of the 25 and not the 300. If you make it Texas State, I suggest you take Dr. Caldwell’s, social statics class, in one word it is amazing. I am not a math person by any means, but I LOVE this woman, she keeps you on your toes, and you never know what she is going to say. She keeps it straightforward and simple. I'm a Communication Studies major with a minor in Family & Child Development, both programs are AMAZING, the teachers are wonderful, I could go on and on about it. I believe the classes and organizations at Texas State are completely geared to getting a career when you graduate.

Brandi

The professors in your major will know your name; don't expect your general core professors to learn it. My favorite class thus far is Characterization with Laura Lane. I didn't really like any of my general core classes, but there required. Every student has different study habits. In smaller classes you are expected to participate, but not in the larger general core classes. Again, every student is different; you can pass some students having intellectual conversations and then hear how wasted another was last night. Humans by nature are competitive creatures. Characterization is the most unique class I've taken at Texas State. The Theatre Department is relatively small, so everyone knows everyone for the most part. There is a mentoring program for BFA Acting so you can have one-on-one meetings with professors. Most are more than happy to meet with you outside of class. I don't agree with the General Core requirements, but most public universities require it. I think it's both.

Riley

The professors in my major know my name, because there's only about 20 of us in the major our junior and senior years. My favorite class right now is probably immunology. I really like learning about the immune system and antigen/antibody reactions. My least favorite classes are ones with professor Falleur. He's a great teacher, dont get me wrong, but he only gives 2 lecture tests and a final, and his lecture tests are difficult because they usually cover like 20 chapters. So if you bomb one, you're kinda screwed for the rest of the semester. Students in MY major study a lot, because we have to, or otherwise we can't keep up. We have to know a lot of information. No doubt, our major is hard for an undergrad major. You'll feel like you're in grad school. Trust me. I have great intellectual conversations outside of class. My best friend is a grad student I made as a friend here through a student organization. Plus the friends I have in some of my student organizations, we have great political discussions about things like acceptance, and equality and ways to promote awareness and education to the world. Students are fairly competitive, but it depends on the context. I think some students in certain "core" classes are satisfied just to survive and pass a course, while in things like major's courses, you WANT to do well, and therefore tend to be more competitive because you're learning your craft, so you want to feel confident in what you're doing and learning. The most unique class I've taken here at Tx State was probably my anatomy course. Granted, yeah, it's anatomy and you know what to expect, and a lot of it I had done before, but looking at dissected cats that still had eyes, and fur and paws and stuff was interesting. As far as my major...my major is clinical laboratory science, otherwise known as medical technology. I LOVE my major. We are the people who extract things from blood, urine, feces, semen, ect..and analyze all of it and give doctors the test results. It requires a lot of critical thinking. The major is HARD, I'm not even going to lie. You have to know a LOT of stuff. You will learn more about red blood cells, white blood cells, immune response, urine, ect..than you ever wanted to know in your life. But..your job will potentially save lives, and that gives me great satisfaction. You get to apply what you learn in lecture directly to the lab. You get to work with your hands and you really use your brain in your line of work. It feels like you're doing an investigation of the human body and you're some kind of medical technology "detective" some times. The professors are really cool and will really do whatever it takes to help you learn the material. They're very helpful and love to help students learn about the CLS profession.

Kaitlin

Almost every major professor in my department knows my name. I hate my teacher for US-Latin American relations, but it happens. Students study all the time here. Class participation is common because of smaller classroom sizes. We have intellectualy conversations outside of class, just had one over dinner. I have spent time with professors outside of class (not ever in a creepy sort of way). It is great to see your professors outside of the classroom environment. It helps you remember that they are people too. Education requirements are pretty standard - they are pretty good in my department, Geography - which is one of the best in the nation. As with any education you are going to get out what you put in. You can just get a 'C' and get the degree and then a job. Or you can actually learn the information and put it to good use. It is up to you.

Jesse

Students really have to make an effort to get to know their professors. At least, within the bigger departments, they do. In upper-level courses, its easier for them to know your name rather than intro courses (usually have about 400 people in an auditorium setting). I can't speak for everyone, so I don't know if people have intellectual conversations outside of class. I try to as much as possible. It seems like half the school would rather party or talk about their never-ending Greek life drama, while others have more important things on mind. It really depends who you surround yourself with. The Journalism and Mass Communication department at my school is fantastic. The professors are extremely knowledgeable and always willing to help. I think any communications field will be geared toward getting a job, and my school does excellent at preparing us for the future.