OK, here we go... The first of my summer "behind-the-scenes" photo tours of PC. Each will have a different theme and show you some places you might not see during our hour-long campus tour (there's so much to see - we can't squeeze it all into one hour!!). Along with the pictures, I'll sprinkle in some PC facts and information about where the pictures were taken... with the hope that it helps you get to know our campus a little bit better.

Let's start with the places where you'll spend a great deal of time - our classrooms here at Providence College. Now, since it is summertime, we have a lot of empty classrooms on campus - so you're going to see some empty classrooms. What can you get out of that? Well, I think it gives you a great sense of our class sizes and also how our classes are taught. As you'll see from the photos, classes are small and discussion-oriented at PC, giving you the opportunity to truly be engaged in your learning by contributing to class discussions and having your questions answered. The average class size at PC is 22... the student to faculty ratio is 12:1. Let's take a look inside of some traditional classrooms:

Classrooms are constantly updated with new technology - so professors have the opportunity to use pictures, videos, information from the internet, and more as part of their classes:

Many upper-level courses within your major will be set in seminar-style classrooms, with 10-15 students per class sitting around a table, rather than in a traditional classroom with the professor up front. In these smaller, discussion-style classes, all students have a truly engaging classroom experience:

So, there you have it - some empty classrooms that hopefully have given you a sense of the size of our classes here at PC...

Of course, the educational experience on campus has a lot more to do with the faculty who will be teaching you and your peers that you'll be sharing the classrooms with than the actual rooms, but families always are interested in seeing classrooms (even if they're empty) when they tour campus... and sometimes (during the school year), it can be difficult to bring tours in to see classrooms because of the sizes of some tours and because there are classes going on! Out of respect for our current students, tour guides sometimes will not bring large tours through academic buildings, so as not to disrupt classroom instruction. And so you have me - and my digital camera - to take you through our academic buildings... and on to some other campus destinations next week!