Emerson College

I'm sad to see that Emerson has continued the downward slide that began while I was there.
There were many positive aspects to my education experience. I made several friends, I had many wonderful and highly qualified teachers who taught me a lot, my classmates were motivated and involved in class discussions (I learned almost as much from talking to them as I did from my professors), and there was a variety of social and extracurricular activities (including literary magazines, comedy troupes, and student-produced plays). My academic advisor was a renowned poet, and very helpful in the class selection process. My other professors were frequently available for, and highly accommodating of, questions and discussion after class. Among my classmates, I saw very few of the wealthy, arrogant hipsters who now seem to populate the school. I never felt unaccepted due to my clothes, possessions or income. Maybe that was just because of the program I was in.

On the negative side, there were some not-so-great teachers, including one who used classroom time as a personal political platform and one writing instructor who openly played favorites and refused to hear differing opinions. And a few of those arrogant hipsters turned up (there was one particularly insufferable one in two of my classes), but you can find those at any college. The biggest problem with the school was, and apparently still is, the administration. The wonderful faculty was not paid adequately for the hard work they did. The classroom buildings, dining facilities and dorms were not in the best state of repair. The "copy/print credit" system was abysmal. Considering the cost of tuition, this didn't seem right. I heard stories of misconduct and outright corruption among the senior administrative staff. One of my friends produced a very clever play (a parody of Pere Ubu) on the subject.I had some great times at Emerson, learned a lot and made good friends. So it's sad to see that current students are so unsatisfied, due to continued administrative ignorance and misconduct. The declining academic standards and climbing tuition ensures that the arrogant, entitled and wealthy hipster population will climb while the school's reputation plummets.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000