Calvin
is really awesome. The profs are amazingly bright and well
educated; I would say the vast majority of the profs
I have had were very knowledgeable about current and related
issues in their fields. They were also very supportive and
encouraging, and always willing to help. The biggest complaint I
have about my education was the lack of econometrics work
in the econ dept, which is something that is seriously
needed for graduate school. So I was not as ready
for that aspect of my grad studies as I would
have liked to be. I think 04/05 will be the
first academic year that econometrics will be offered as a
course. In past years the course has been taught as
an independent study but with around 6-8 students each time
it is taught. I know the prof who teaches the
class personally and he is both brilliant and very very
nice.
He's a UMich PhD, and starting in summer of
2004 he heads Calvin's Center for Social Research. You can
look him up on calvin's website under CSR.
They
have top faculty there—folks with their doctorates from MIT, Princeton,
etc—and a number of them have extensive experience in international
business.
The thing about the econ dept is that it
is joined with the business dept, so if your interested
in doing more research and eventually going to grad school,
it would be wise to make up your mind about
what you'd like to do and speak up—they're very open
and supportive and there a few research opportunities each year
to work with the profs (including some research assistantships at
the CSR).
I'm also an international student, and the int'l
stu body (NOT including Canadians) has grown a lot in
the past few years. A LOT of Korean and Korean
American students (for a total of 4000 students Korean students
I think number around 70 or close to that). Students
from India and Africa, along with those from Korea, make
up most of the int'l stu body.
Socially, I really
don't see that much separation between int'l students and American
students anymore. As far as I know most people there
genuinely don't care about your race, religion, whatever, at least
not nearly as much as they do about other things.
Go to Calvin expecting an excellent and tough education and
a LOT of Christian 'discussion' (most of which is optional),
and take advantage of their excellent faculty. I don't know
any other school or community where the faculty, staff, and
people in general work so hard at what they do.
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