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Sort By: [Date] [Major] [Rating] Fine Arts - Painting/Sculpture/Photography/etc  Major Salary, Salary Trend, Satisfaction, Unemployment Quite Bright The concept of this school is sound, but the application is a daily lesson in patience. Too much time and energy is wasted on forfilling the administration and faculties dreams of what is needed in the world instead of giving the students nuanced training of the pitfalls of social activism. I would not suggest someone waste the money and time here. instead buy a plane ticket and dont come back for a year, you will get far more out of your experiance and it will cost you 50,000 dollars less. Innovation: A+, Education Quality: F Have a Question? Your Response/Question:     To be informed when someone replies to your comment. (private)  More →  Jul 09 2007 4th Year Male -- Class 2007    Forward  Blog it! Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account: Just copy and paste! <script src='http://www.studentsreview.com/active/shared/sr_comment.js?sckey=40138&uid=1849'></script> <a href='http://www.studentsreview.com' style='font-size:8pt;'>Data Source: StudentsReview!</a> Rate this comment: Useless (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Helpful       Save   English  Major Salary, Salary Trend, Satisfaction, Unemployment Average naropa is fun and engaging for the first semester then it's all downhill. i was one of the fools that rode it right into the ground. now i've gutted myself financially for a useless degree from a college that's laughable. and i'm worse off intellectually than when i started. at naropa you spend a lot of time looking at the floor, which is what they call meditation. do this enough, and all kinds of magic things start to happen: your money and your life both fly away, your friends all abandon you because you're a wacko, and simple problem solving and basic algebra become exceedingly difficult. naropa was a decision i made, all on my own, that i'll probably regret for the rest of my life. there was some excitement, and there are a few really gifted teachers there, but it's not worth jumping into that quagmire to get to them. i wish i had gone to a normal school with my friends and received a standard degree. if you're interested in what these teachers have to say, just get a list from the website and read their books. don't spend money and time in a school where half the student body has some kind of mental illness. maybe taking a couple of classes, or going to the summer program might be a way to get the naropa 'experience'. but going to naropa full-time to get a degree is like cutting your feet off right before you begin the (rat) race. be very careful and have an escape plan before you think about going here. this place has haunted me since i graduated and it's shadow stretches beyond the horizon. consider this caution my nod to 'compassion in action' (if you've been to naropa, you'll know what i mean). Preparedness: F, Reputation: F Have a Question? Your Response/Question:     To be informed when someone replies to your comment. (private) May 10 2006 Alumnus Male -- Class 2000   Forward  Blog it! Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account: Just copy and paste! <script src='http://www.studentsreview.com/active/shared/sr_comment.js?sckey=22354&uid=1849'></script> <a href='http://www.studentsreview.com' style='font-size:8pt;'>Data Source: StudentsReview!</a> Rate this comment: Useless (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Helpful       Save   Fine Arts - Painting/Sculpture/Photography/etc  Major Salary, Salary Trend, Satisfaction, Unemployment Quite Bright This is long, but I have a lot to say! I came to Naropa straight out of high school, originally intending to major in Psychology. I did not want to attend college, and hated the stress of school. I was interested in holistic health, yoga, and spirituality, and assumed Naropa would foster these things. I wanted to be around people like me and be in a supportive environment. My first semester at Naropa was fantastic. I met so many wonderful people, and my classes were engaging (except my yoga class). Everything and everyone was radiant to me. I had enough work but not too much. I felt I had really discovered an unknown gem. I easily got straight A's and had a good time. However, second semester my interest in the place started to wane. I was getting bored of the super nicey-nice attitude, which sometimes masked a lot of unpleasantness. I began to feel incredibly disconnected from everything that made me come here...my "spirituality" became meaningless to me, partly because everyone's always throwing around "spiritual" terms and advice. Sometimes I felt pushed into the group spiritual mentality, which is largely based on the teachings of the school's founder, Chogyam Trungpa. There seems to be a general lack of depth and rather a lot of catch phrases/practices that will alleviate your suffering and that of others (spirituality as antidepressant...). It's hip to be "compassionate." If you're not thinking about the dharma all the time or are not always "engaged" and "present," then you'll be asked "why are you here?" In general the students are friendly, helpful, and caring, liberal and mostly laid-back. I haven't met any really mean-spirited people here, but others have had different experiences. I have to say I loved my classes, for the most part. I learned a lot about holistic health, meditation, writing, and body psychology--all my classes were focused intensely on my "process." I'm approaching the end of my third semester here. I changed my major to Visual Arts and I'm not sure what I'm doing right now. Naropa is a good place for psych, writing, and Buddhism, but not art, education, or environmental studies. I don't know much about the music department but I hear it's sort of a slacker program. The BFA in Performance is notorious here for being insanely difficult and pretentious--I know at least 2 people who have dropped out and been extremely bitter about the whole thing. The Visual Arts department is encouraging of personal expression and I love some of the professors to death (there are very few faculty, btw, and the same 3 professors teach most art classes), but it simply doesn't give ANY technical training, or at least not nearly to the degree at art school or liberal arts program would. If you are even looking at Naropa you know their classes are unconventional, but I really think they've helped me develop as a person and I wouldn't have gone anywhere else after high school. Right now I am deciding whether or not to transfer to an art school, but am leaning towards staying and working with the professors to get the most out of the next 2 1/2 years. I am worried about getting into a grad school and I'm also getting bored with Naropa's style of teaching, which is invariably the same no matter what class you take. A lot of the time I hear the same things repeated over and over. Also, you have to be careful what classes you take, since some are ridiculous with professors who are crazy and mean--you won't learn anything in these classes and most likely feel confused by why you're paying to take them. Sometimes Naropa feels like a cult, but if you look, there are some fantastic professors who are genuinely compassionate people with a passion for their work and lives. I have hugged a number of my professors and you will be on a first name basis with all of them from day one. In conclusion, do NOT come here if you're looking for an intense intellectual experience. Some people I know take the hard classes here and enjoy them, so this can be a hard school if you want it to be, but let's face it: there are few solid English/literature classes (but many writing classes), no languages except Sanskrit & Tibetan, no math or science classes...overall there is NO "real world" substance here. While Naropa pretends to be supportive of its students, this is often not the case. The administration is unbelievably disorganized and unfriendly. Make sure you find a helpful faculty member(s) who cares about you and doesn't just smile and nod, and push hard for what you want. Everyone I know is having a different Naropa experience and many are leaving for more rigorous schools in their area of study. But, practically no one I know regrets coming here, they just outgrow it. You will definitely change a lot if you come here. Be prepared to get to know yourself really, really well. Collaboration/Competitive: A+, University Resource Use: F Have a Question? Your Response/Question:     To be informed when someone replies to your comment. (private)  More →  Nov 26 2005 1st Year Female -- Class 2008    Forward  Blog it! Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account: Just copy and paste! <script src='http://www.studentsreview.com/active/shared/sr_comment.js?sckey=19739&uid=1849'></script> <a href='http://www.studentsreview.com' style='font-size:8pt;'>Data Source: StudentsReview!</a> Rate this comment: Useless (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Helpful       Save   Music - Performance  Major Salary, Salary Trend, Satisfaction, Unemployment Quite Bright Positive: Personal development and practicing awareness are part of everything that goes on at Naropa. These can be applied to all future endeavors. I wouldn't trade my experiences in that way for any other University experience. The faculty are sincere and responsive. Negative: I did not develop practical skills that would allow me to succeed in my chosen field (music), although I had a lot of leeway for creative exploration and growth. Also, at the end of the program, my advisor and I had different ideas about how I should go about creating my senior project, and therefore I never achieved a degree although I accomplished all required classes with a 3.8 gradepoint. That was years ago, but I still feel this was a bit unfair, as the point was that the students try to do what is most meaningful to them in their fields. Just make sure to be clear about expectations when you enter into the program--don't assume anything. Attend this school if you are interested in actively participating in your own development, particularly in the psychology programs. The Buddhist studies are practice oriented and offer a strong foundation in theory as well. If your idea is to get a career, Naropa may not be the place to go except for the programs that prepare you for licenses (MA's in Counseling, for example), or if you are planning on remaining in academia. All in all, it was one of the best educational experiences of my life. Scholastic Success: A+, Social Life: B- Have a Question? Your Response/Question:     To be informed when someone replies to your comment. (private)  More →  Jan 22 2004 2nd Year Female -- Class 1996    Forward  Blog it! Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account: Just copy and paste! <script src='http://www.studentsreview.com/active/shared/sr_comment.js?sckey=8125&uid=1849'></script> <a href='http://www.studentsreview.com' style='font-size:8pt;'>Data Source: StudentsReview!</a> Rate this comment: Useless (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Helpful       Save      Prev    Select Page:    Next

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