Providence College Ri 2007 (Off the Record)

Introduction from the Author

A true story: while paying my bill for a diner, a heavily accented waiter approached the counter. Striking up a conversation, he inquired as to where I go to school. I confidently replied Providence College and smiled as I always do when I get to tell someone that I go to PC. The waiter nodded his approval, remarking, “Ah! A good, private institution,” in an amusing way. As I returned to the table of my friends, I couldn’t help smirking at the waiter’s astute evaluation. PC is precisely that—a good, private institution.

Providence College boasts of a close-knit community of faculty and students located on historic Smith Hill in the city of Providence. Somehow, the school manages to enroll the most outgoing, giving, and intelligent young adults, and the results are well worth it. Providence students are eager to be involved, and the school prepares them to enter the world as informed, conscientious citizens. The Catholic Dominican tradition of the college works to develop PC alumni into virtuous models of civility with active concern for their community—both on a local and global level.

Unfamiliar to many outside the Northeast, if Providence is noticed, it is usually because of the Division I men’s basketball team. PC offers much more than a fantastic sports program, and I hope that this guidebook assists you in discovering all PC has to extend to prospective students. Four years of your life will be spent at one college or another. The academics of all good schools basically averages out; you will get what you put in. Hopefully with this book, PC and its social atmosphere will come alive for you, making it that much easier to decide if Providence is what you’re looking for, or if Providence is looking for you. You begin this book with the apropos closing words of Milton’s Paradise Lost: “the world was all before them, where to choose their place of rest, and Providence their guide . . .”

Kathryn Treadway, Author
Providence College