Robert Morris University Illinois

2nd Year Male -- Class 2013

Perceived Campus Safety: A, Education Quality: F

In the ten years since I graduated from RMC the only job I had that was remotely connected to my degree was that of Office Space Designer, not really as cool as it sounds and not only that but I got that one through a temp agency when RMC career services completely failed to find anything reasonable in my field (Computer Science/Drafting).

Most of my fellow students were basically just passing through and on daddy's dollar. Out of my class (admittedly a pilot program at the time, since canceled, that's a good sign right?) of 15 people only three of them (including me) gave a crap about the program, a few others seemed to be getting it and the rest were disruptive, ner'do'wells and probably need(ed) a good spanking or a stint in jail (dopers, liars, lazy-a$$es). The bulk of my fellow students would have rather looked at hotornot.com or checked their email instead of actually doing any work. The course itself was rather unimpressive. I had and still do have a love of drawing/drafting and had taught myself pretty well in high school, I actually created two semesters of Drafting (well, nobody had ever taken the advanced CAD courses and so the teacher didn't have any set curriculum. Mr. L. basically handed me the book and told me to do whatever I wanted and he would grade it accordingly. It was the easiest and most useful "A" I ever got in school, and I worked my but off for it just because I loved the material.) So I learned almost nothing from the actual RMC course work, the only real benefit was having decent machines with newer AutoCAD and a large plotter to work with (I sure used the hell out of that plotter to fill my portfolio). I was so good that the other students that cared quickly glommed on to me as a pseudo-professor and asked me all their questions. That leads to the next part of this critique.

The staff/faculty were basically a joke, all except one and even he was not in the right element. They brought in this ex-factory engineer. He had designed some really good systems in his time but he was not a teacher per se. He knew his stuff but had a hard time communicating it and taking charge of the class. I got along great with Mr. T. and learned a lot from just picking his brain and leading him to the topics I most wanted to learn (wait who was the student here, oh yeah me, dang). After the 2d/3d design class debacle he was let go which was really too bad for me and the other two. The lazy portion of the class didn't appreciate his criticism of their "art" and got a petition going to have him removed. You do the math, 3 vs 12, Mr. T. was let go. I even went directly to the Dean and told her that Mr. T. was a good man and knew his stuff and that the whole issue was over "art" (trust me some of that stuff was just bogus and not art at all). So they replaced him with this (no names changed to protect the guilty here) Mr. Mask doofus. This guy got along great with all the lazy ner'do'wells because he was them in five years. He relied too much on multimedia, didn't know the material (even some real basic stuff), and IF he was in the class room he was too busy checking his email or screwing around on the internet (looking for a better job)(notice I said IF he was in class, about half the time he was not, in fact he was usually at the financial aid office hitting on the secretary). And that was the drafting side. Ms. Vanmeeter in English Comp (why in the hell did I have to take that class anyway, I was way more literate than any ten of those other goof-balls including the prof.) was a liar, a cheater, and a sexist. I'm not even kidding here, she would give her female students higher marks just for being female and I proved it (the other alternative is she was a reverse racist but that doesn't really factor here). Quickly, I grew suspicious that I was getting weaker marks than I should have (having done great in this subject for the prior four years of it I took in high school) and one of my friends/fellow students had come to me for some help on a paper. This was a second pass grade system where you got to edit your material after an initial grade (nothing helps like a little teaching-to-the-test). I didn't rewrite it or anything but noticed that my friend had already gotten a better provisional grade than I had. When we turned in our papers, my friend got an "A" and I was still stuck with a "B-". Anyway, on the next assignment we swapped papers after writing them and had a couple of other friends witness this for when we went to the Dean. Sure enough I got a "B-" and she got an "A". (Note this is nowhere near a definitive clinical test but people don't miraculously get better or worse at writing in three days either.) This prof. still teaches at RMC last I checked. The Dean is also an idiot, as if that wasn't obvious.

I attended one of the satellite campuses (not going to say which one) and it was the smallest, lamest, most convoluted campus I have ever been on. The building was racked with problems, the parking lot was treacherous, the library was small and out-dated, the bookstore/career office was in another building (ACROSS A RIVER WITH NO PEDESTRIAN ACCESS EXCEPT ON A BUSY MAJOR STREET) and they rented out class space from a church on the other end of the parking lot. Talk about doing it wrong. At least I didn't have to use their housing system, I'm not even sure that campus has housing and if it did it's not even close enough to be practical.

However, the actually Chicago campus is relatively nice, it's no UIUC or UC but nice. Also the head of the program I was in works there too, a Dr. Gaste (hope I spelled that right), he was really nice when I met him once and he even told me that I should really be there as I had real talent. At the time I really wasn't sure what to make of that statement but it's sort of inconsequential now, thanks anyway Doc.

To add insult to injury (or the other way around), in the last week of school leading up to finals and then graduation some jerk stole my zip disk (wow that's old tech) with almost all of my files on it for the term INCLUDING MY FINAL PROJECT! (I did learn one valuable lesson I guess, always, always, always back up your work.) At the time I thought maybe I had lost it but in the last ten years and three moves I have not found it, I save everything BTW, I still have all my work from High School on firmys.

Overall I would give this school a "D" and this program an "F", they did too apparently since it only lasted two years. As a recap, the staff are undereducated and uninterested, the administration is a bunch of reactionary buffoons, the program is nearly worthless to somebody with ambition and drive, the facilities are horrible, and the student body is a brain-addled couch-potato with personality problems and low ethics.

The one line zinger? I would have been better off taking the twenty grand I spent on this fancy toilet-paper to buy a really good graphics workstation, programs I would need to learn and just done what I had always done and teach myself what I needed to know. If I had some money left after all that then I could have found a guy to whip me up a fake diploma to hang on my wall. Or just done that too since I could have afforded a legit copy of Photoshop.

My advice to prospective students, ask a lot of questions and if you don't like the answers keep asking and keep looking. As it specifically applies here, RMC = Real Morons College. (Or as we that gave a crap about the course and felt shafted liked to call it Bob's College of Knowledge.)What should I have done? First off, not go to this school. Second off, did a little more research. And third, I should have gotten out when I started to notice the ship sinking.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

The accounting program at this school is horrible and the CPA pass rates for this school reflect this. My advice to you if you are an accounting student at RMC is quit and go to a real 4-year university. Don't believe me, wait until you see the look on you future employer's face after you tell them you graduated from RMC. Thank God I transferred!

2nd Year Male -- Class 2004

Friendliness: D, Education Quality: F