A Satisfactory Freshman Year

Colleges and Universities A-Z Christopher Newport University
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<p>Well, as we brew the new crop of college applicants, I thought I would put a few final thoughts together at the end of my son’s freshman year.</p>

<p>CNU’s greatest asset is its academic quality. This is both a product of its small size and its dynamic and enthusiastic faculty. I sent to Newport News a sometimes-sullen, disinterested and disengaged high school graduate. I got back a lifetime learner, full of engaging conversation about his chosen major, ready to apply a lot of what he learned to real-world situations. This is my third child, and I am amazed at the transformation. My hat goes off to CNU.</p>

<p>Now for my biggest worry. I think CNU has experienced runaway success. There’s a housing crisis. It’s caused, as best I can determine, because a huge number of people want to stay on campus. Also, where CNU lost a huge portion of its upper classes to other universities (or to dropouts), many more students have remained in place. Thus, the upper level classes are bursting at the seams. There isn’t a seat available in a biology class at any level at CNU. (I think there’s some space held for entering freshmen, of course). </p>

<p>So, the question is: will he be able to graduate in four years? If not, it will be because of his inability to get the classes he needs, and not because of grades. I’ll try to keep this thread up to date, and notify folks if the worry actually becomes a problem. They’ve done a lot of things right at CNU, and I’m willing to wait and see if they fix this issue as well.</p>

<p>As for the other stuff: residence halls, food, parties, politics, drinking, nightlife, etc., well, you have to ask yourself, what is the real reason you go to college?</p>

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<p>The bio classes are hard to get, but its not new, I had juniors and seniors in my biology classes that said they couldnt get bio when they were freshman and sophomores because they filled up. Its probably because everyone has to take a science course and biology is the most popular, and they only have one lecture hall for science classes so they can't offer too many sections. </p>

<p>As far as greatest asset, id disagree, I think the residence halls and the other buildings like the Ferguson Center are much better than the academics. As someone who took a good amount of AP Courses in high school, I didnt find the classes to be that engaging, not because of the professors but because of the students in the classes. I had good classes in English, history, and biology but if you are going to major in something like computer science, chemistry, physics, math or business, there are better schools in Virginia, but you can get a good education in fields like English, history and government at CNU, so id say those fields are its stronger points.</p>

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<p>i wonder what the retention rate is for this years freshman class
3 out of 4 kids in my suite are gone and a majority of my hall is not going back</p>

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<p>Princeton Review lists long-term freshman retention at 64%. I believe that's an average over several years. It's my impression that this is improving, so that 2006 retention is likely to be better than that. It's a pity the school doesn't publish the latest numbers. </p>

<p>My son's ballpark guess is about 25% said they would not return.</p>

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<p>interesting</p>