We just got back from visiting Eckerd and absolutely loved it. Obviously a campus with it’s own beach and waterfront is a bonus to my water sport loving son, but what really won us over was the people. Both students and professors went out of their way to engage us in conversation, and give honest, open feedback. As one student said, “at Eckerd if you walk by someone and don’t smile and say hi, there is something wrong with you”. Teachers genuinely care about the student from an academic and personal perspective (we witnessed this first hand while waiting for the class my son was to sit in on to start). It started late, because the teacher was helping a student out, and giving him some extra time to understand a concept that she had gone over in class.