The College of New Rochelle Top Questions

What are the academics like at your school?

Bevan

The academic life in the Honors Program is fairly rigorous, but I have not found it overwhelmingly so. Professors recognize each student and are prone to talking to their students casually outside of class. There's a pretty good split at CNR between students who actually study and students who do not. Nursing students tend to study the hardest, as they have the most rigorous program. My friends and I have fun, interesting academic discussions outside of class, but I'm not sure too many other students do. The religion major is not very rigorous. There are two religion faculty members, and there is a huge difference in their teaching styles. One, a nun, covers exclusively Catholic topics and has fairly difficult classes. The other teaches the comparative religion classes, and his courses are fairly easy if you pay attention and read the instructions in his syllabus carefully. He can be rather particular about doing assignments correctly. My favorite class that I've taken at CNR was probably Feminist Imaginations with Dr. Nick Smart. I found it incredibly challenging to my beliefs and also posed an academic challenge. Our small class (6 people) had great discussions and did some very interesting research projects at the end of the semester. For example, I investigated the myth of matriarchal prehistory and whether or not such a myth was indeed helpful to the feminist movement. My least favorite class has probably been Divided Societies with Dr. McKenrnan. She is a really difficult teacher who can be very vague in her instructions but who has very particular ideas about how things ought to get done. If you ask questions in her classes, her response tends to be to read the syllabus. However, this is usually insufficient to all that she requires of students and it is very very difficult to get an A from her. CNR tends to prep students based on their major. Some majors prep towards Grad school, others to jobs. There isn't a whole lot of learning for learning's sake. Overall, CNR's academic requirements are fair and comprehensive. I loved taking my core classes and investigating the things I found most interesting that fell outside my major. I really took advantage of the opportunity to take electives, and I feel I will graduate this May as a well rounded and capable student.