Class sizes here are very small. All the professors who I have taken know my name within the first two weeks of classes. I very much like my philosophy classes (I am a biochemistry/philosophy major). Last semester, I took a seminar-based philosophy class with seven other students. We read texts from Aquinas, the professor would give a three or four minute synopsis of the reading, then we would spend the next hour and ten minutes of class discussing that texts (with the professor contributing to the discussion as a peer rather than as a lecturer). I thought that class allowed us to see the work from a very different and wonderfully interesting perspective compared to the usual lecture style class. My least favorite class was Spanish. I just don't have a mind for languages. I get tongue-tied and frustrated very easily when studying languages. It makes me a very reluctant participant in class, and I don't feel I got much out of my classroom style Spanish classes (but I think my personality and reluctance to work through some of the more difficult parts of the language contributed to that). Students do have intellectual conversations outside of class. Recently, we had "Food Justice Week" on campus and many of the conversations I heard over the course of that week were somehow related to that end. Although, I think the majority of conversations around campus will not be intellectual in nature (you'll hear mostly about the playoff woes of the Yankees or Phillies, about weekend plans or social stories), I still think many Scranton students engage in many intellectual conversations outside of the classroom. Scranton breeds an academic atmosphere of support. Students do not compete with each other for grades. The quality of your individual work will speak for itself, and beating another person does nothing for the quality of your grade in a class. Students help each other here, our focus is on success as a group rather than simply being the best individually. The most unique class I ever took here was "The Trivium," a wild public speaking and writing class taught by perhaps simultaneously the most brilliant and most eccentric professor I've met here, Dr. Stephen Whittaker. The class featured five high pressure speeches, all culminating in a recitation of Plato's "Phaedrus" from memory. We performed this recitation in the student center, at lunch time, while clad in Grecian-style togas. Speaking in such high pressure, nerve-wracking situations has made all later public speaking situations seem incredibly easy. I do research one-on-one in the microbiology department with Dr. Michael Sulzinski. Myself and several other biochemistry students have spent time with him outside of the classroom, even going to a barbecue at his home. The school requires a liberal arts background for all its students. I think this contributes to our character and our depth as a campus, and I think it is a good requirement. It really depends on your major whether the education here is focused on getting a job or learning for its own sake. I greatly value my education in philosophy, but I do not think that I will get a job based on it. I have read and tried to understand the classics for the sake of learning them. However, I think my background in science will greatly help me get a job. I believe I will be in medical school next year, hopefully on my way to eventually beginning a career as a doctor. I think all the material covered here is given a depth here due to the liberal arts focus of the school, but I also think this information (after being considered in and of itself) often times leads to opportunities for jobs after graduation.