Palm Beach Atlantic

PBA is a private school of 3000 students. The average class size is 17, but the student to faculty ratio is 12 to 1. The classes at PBA are interactive with lots of connections being formed between students and with students and professors. It’s interesting to note that all of their professors have earned the highest degree in their field; so, every professor is referred to as “doctor” rather than “Mrs.” or “Mr.” Their most popular three majors are business, nursing, and pharmacy (they are one of only 7 pharmacy schools in the state).

Palm Beach Atlantic is a Christian school, which makes it a little different than the other schools I have toured. Their school motto is the three E’s: enlightening minds, enriching souls, and extending hands. The first E relates to what I mentioned above about the professors being top notch and very connected with their students. The second E refers to their chapel requirement. Chapel is held in the beautiful DeSantis Family Chapel (named after Carl DeSantis and his family) five days a week at 11AM. Students must attend chapel 12 days per semester, but the days do roll over, so you could complete the year’s requirement in about a month. The third E has to do with service hours and is something they call “workship.” PBA wants students to do whatever type of volunteer work they would like to do, but they want it to be an opportunity in the field they would like to go into.

PBA has eighteen intercollegiate sports teams that compete at the division two level. They also have 100 intramural sports and more than 40 clubs and organizations. Go, Sailfish!