I had a great experience at EC because I knew I would feel lost and overwhelmed attending a large university (especially as a freshman / sophmore). I was able to interact more with the professors (follow up with questions after class, via email, or at office hours) than I feel I would have at BU, Northeastern or other schools I was considering, where intro class sizes tend to be very large. The overnight quest policies can be a bit strict (EC is also a dry campus w/ no Greek Life), so this school would not be a good choice for kids looking for a very robust campus social life with many parties and social activities at all hours. It was great for me, however, b/c I wanted to be very focused on getting good grades and obtaining a good job very soon after graduation (which I did successfully). Overall I am hopeful EC will continue to expand and improve upon its academic reputation. I am proud of my career since graduating and found this small campus to be the right fit as I matured and grew as a young person.

I attended Emmanuel for my freshman year of college. I was initially sold on the idea of small classes where your professors really had a chance to connect with you and ensure that you had the tools needed for success. However, I found this to not be the case. Academic advising, in particular, was a mess. I was told to drop a class without being notified that this would drop me below half-time status (so I would lose all of my federal financial aid). I was never notified of this throughout the rest of the year and was ultimately why I decided not to return to Emmanuel. Courses themselves were not challenging. For example, the longest paper I had to write was 5 pages (as a student in the Communications department). I ended up placing out of two separate French classes and was in a class with juniors and seniors as a freshman. I did not at all feel supported by my RA. It felt like floor meetings were solely held for us to be yelled at about leaving the bathrooms messy or some other minor infraction. I did not know the names of many of the other residents of my floor. Courtesy hours were also constantly held over our heads so it felt like you couldn't speak above a whisper. My floor in particular actually had 2 RAs but it felt like I only ever saw one. When I lost my financial aid because of dropping a course, I was given the runaround by the financial aid department. For such a small school, I couldn't get the same person on the phone twice. I was made to feel like a burden, and was frequently told that I was pulling people out of meetings so I could ask them about any of my options for affording a second year. I was ultimately told that my only option was to take out $20,000 in loans for just the next year. I ultimately decided to leave Emmanuel because it felt like I just didn't matter to anyone-my RA, my professors, the financial aid office, etc. It felt like the school truly did not care whether I finished my degree there or not.