Hello all! My name is Rashmi and I’m a sophomore studying economics and politics! Navigating the college application process is complex and challenging so I hope this blog about the academic experience at Scripps College will be helpful in providing some clarity on your application journey.
Before we start, here are some quick facts about academics at Scripps!
- 10:1 student-faculty ratio
- Average class size of 16
- More than 65 majors at Scripps and The Claremont Colleges
- 102 full-time faculty
As you can tell from the stats above, Scripps is a small liberal arts college. We have a total of 1082 undergraduate students enrolled at Scripps meaning that our classes run much smaller than an average 400-person lecture hall. Although that may come off as intimidating at first, it is one of my favorite aspects of the Scripps experience. As one of sixteen students in a classroom, professors not only know my name and my major but also my favorite color, what dining hall is my favorite, and my go-to drink at the Motley Coffeehouse on campus. Professors at Scripps and across the 5Cs really care about you not only as a student, but also as a person.
Professors are also accessible outside of class hours if you have questions about assignments, need to ask for an extension/extra help with concepts, or to just chat about life. One great way to access professors outside of class is through office hours which is a set number of hours a week where students are able to drop into a professor’s office and get real-time help on whatever is bothering the student. For me, office hours have been a lifesaver since distinguishing between different economic graphs can be very confusing, and getting help directly from a professor has been invaluable to my economics experience. I also love going to office hours to chat with former and current professors about fun fall break trips and career advice for the future.
If office hours are not your thing, no problem at all since there are many different ways to connect with professors! Many academic departments at Scripps hold faulty mixers at the various gardens at Scripps and professors host talks during the semesters as well. In terms of economics, the economics society at Scripps works alongside the department to host a faculty mixer during the fall semester of the school year. There is also the ability to host your own events with professors through the creating community fund which provides students money to host events where student and professor bonds can be fostered.
One last thing I want to leave you all with is that professors love and want to connect with students here at Scripps, it is up to the individual to connect!
Hope that this blog helped you out on the college application journey! If you have any questions please feel free to email me at [email protected]! Good luck with the application process and as always, stay ScrippsStrong!