Professors at SCU will definitely notice if you miss their class. I have never had a class larger than 38 students and those are always CORE classes (classes that fill requirements for students). Professors care if you miss their class and will email you if you make a habit of doing it.
The load is heavier than most schools because we are on the quarter system - which means that rather than a 16 week semester, we have 10 week quarters (3 of them - most students take summer quarter off). Of course, the course load depends on the course (and also your strength in the subject - obviously, if you are a Math major an introductory math class may not require as much effort from you as an upper division English course). So far, all my courses have required a fair amount of work and has been very manageable. Professors are always good about offering extensions if necessary.
Santa Clara students often discuss their classwork outside of class because usually freshmen take 2 classes with members from their RLC (or Residential Learning Community). This helps you meet people in your RLC and also means you have papers due at the same time. So everyone is able to bounce ideas off each other.
The students are not competitive with each other. If you need help editing a paper - people will be glad to help you. Although, they are not competitive, SCU students take their work seriously.
One of the most interesting aspects of SCU academics is the core - this is a series of requirements that must be fulfilled in order to get a degree (in addition to the requirements of your desired major). Some students dislike the core, and because of it, you will probably be forced to take some class that you may not like to take (for example: my biggest weakness throughout high school was math, and I do have to take a math class for the core). However, there are several ways to do these requirements. It is not as though you are forced to take certain classes. You can pick which course you want to use to fulfill a requirement from a list of courses that fill that requirement. There are several options.
Also, if you are not sure what you want to major in or "undeclared", the core helps students find what they want as a major. A fair number of SCU students come to SCU and are undeclared. All of these students are firm believers in the core.
Although I was declared Classical Studies when I applied to SCU and I dislike math, I am a firm believer in the core as well. I think it is important to have a background in a wide variety of subjects as a college student. Plus, because of the core, I have discovered some subjects that I never would have looked into before and they were surprisingly interesting, such as Christian Traditions. Santa Clara Students are required to take 3 religious courses (not necessarily in Catholicism - there are several options). I -may- have taken a class on Christianity at this school, but I probably would not have if it was not a requirement. I ended up LOVING the course and loving the Professor. It was completely worthwhile. Several other students have had similar experiences because of the core.