Emmanuel College

Date: Sep 08 2014
Major: Journalism (This Major's Salary over time)
Do your research about this school, and that means more than just reading the somewhat bogus website. There are things that are kept very hush-hush until you get here, and by then it's way too late.

One of these things is the amount of religion. I knew that the school would be religious (It's called Emmanuel, for godsake) and that it was based on Catholicism. However, there are many times that there are mandatory/group prayers, which are typically before a large event such as convocation or the required freshman community service. Mission/Ministry really gets in your face about its ideas, and makes you feel guilty for not being a religious student. In fact, as I'm writing this now, my school just sent out its third email reminding me that there is A MASS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!! TODAY!!! MAKE SURE TO ATTEND!!! So yeah.

The administration at this school pretends to focus on community and religion, but I think they might just enjoy using it as a ploy in order to baby students. You have to "earn" your guest privileges here as a freshman by completing certain workshops, which really just force you to be involved with certain things whether you want to be or not. In order to get overnight guest privileges, you have to attend a building meeting, take a guest policy quiz, attend two welcome week events (which were random, so you had to go to all of them in order to hope for a stamp), a two-hour online seminar called Think About It, attend an RA program, and attend a How to be a Saint workshop. All of this takes about a month. They're very against sex and sex education here. They talk about consent a lot, and stress it very well (coming from a feminist), but they skate around consensual sex and just kind of hope that you understand the fact that they don't want you to do it on their campus. Another somewhat oppressive thing here is the dry campus policy, which would be fine considering that most people living on campus are underage anyway, but they take it too far. If you think you can go out and do your drinking off campus, you're wrong; if you come back in and they "suspect" (used very liberally to suit their own needs) you're drunk, you get written up. They also reserve the right to search your bag if you come home after 1 am. These two policies are in place even if you're of age. So let me repeat: if you are 21, and you drink off campus, and come back to the dorms drunk, you can get written up. No, I'm not joking.

The social scene here is honestly what you make of it. I'm anxiety-prone and somewhat asocial, so I've had difficulty making any friends. The kids here are all from private catholic high schools and formed cliques within the first few days of moving in with little wiggle room. If you have friends at other universities in the area, go hang out with them. It's refreshing to get off the tiny, gated campus and go out into a true, city campus. Students here are for the most part friendly if you engage with them, but it's a degree of civility that you can't really expect again after the first interaction is over. By now, everyone has their friends, and that's pretty much how it's going to stay unless you are very, very friendly, outgoing and willing to make it work.

The classes here are not horrible. They're small and intimate, which I dislike less than I thought I would. So if you hate small classes in which you'll be randomly called on for answers, beware: my biggest class is about 20 people. All the professors do seem to care about students, with the exception of a few arrogant ones (but you can expect to find that anywhere you go). The classes aren't that rigorous, although I can't speak for kids who are in the honors program. My roommate is, and she doesn't seem to be too overwhelmed yet. I think my classes are engaging and somewhat interesting, although it was hard to catch on at first, as three of my four professors all have very strong accents. It's not terrible, but it takes some getting used to. It's probably about as hard as high school, coming from someone who was mostly in AP classes.

Ultimately, I think I'm going to try transferring out of this school because it is personally not a good fit. I don't think it's a bad school, but it's not my style. I don't want to be babied by earning my guest privileges as an 18 year old college student. I don't want to get in trouble by going off campus to drink responsibly, or get written up for having sex with my boyfriend in my closed dorm room. I don't want RAs doing literal rounds on each floor every few hours once it's night time, and I don't want a small campus that pushes religion much more than it claimed it would. If you are coming from a small high school, religious or not, and you're looking for an easy way to get through a college that does have a lot of resources to help you succeed, decent classes, and an amazing city right outside the gate, Emmanuel is for you. But, if you want a feeling of independence and the sense that you're a trustworthy person, you want classes that are rigorous and challenging, and you don't want religion constantly shoved in your face, then apply to Northeastern or BU and actually get in, since this school is mostly rejects from those few places anyway. I don't recommend this college unless you're not ready to grow up, honestly.