The food at the school is disgusting and overpriced. We have seen leftovers used for many days after - the life cycle is such that the soup contains the oldest of the leftovers. My roommate once had a $20 burger because of their pricing scheme yet the quality is that of fast food. The food workers are also negligent/incompetent and have told students that certain items are nut free when they were not, causing expensive hospital visits due to anaphylactic shock; the school did not offer to pay the medical bills. The school has created a vicious cycle where they include a ~$300 fee in tuition as the calculated average stolen by students; the students then flagrantly steal from the school to recoup on the fee. Tuition is higher than some Ivy, little Ivy, and new Ivy schools but the reputation is only well known within the circles of military contractors and large research/distribution corporations and rural Northern New York where the economies are struggling to attract young people who don't mind the soul-killing lifestyle.The dorms are terrible and overpriced. The administration is actively fighting the students on the issue of coed rooms and bathrooms which the students consistently vote in favor of. The school is running out of available housing so they are more permissive of students living off campus. Off campus housing can be much cheaper but the landlords tend to be university faculty and staff with no idea of landlord etiquette, or locals who hold a Towny vs Gowny grudge against students and frequently rip them off.
A car is a must in the rural setting; 4wd is also needed for the large amounts of snow and long cold winter. You must be prepared for endless snow, cold, and nighttime in order to survive without going mad. The joke is that there are two seasons - construction and winter. The school is about2hrs from the nearest cities ? Ottawa and Montreal. About 3-4hrs away is Syracuse, Utica, Plattsburgh, and Burlington (Vt). There is no easy access to Amtrak and the busses are unreliable.
The professors in the computer science department are terrible teachers and the students are pretty much left to teach themselves. The school mostly ignores non engineering and business majors when it comes to job placement assistance. The business professors openly ignore ethics in teaching controversial practices, such as data mining. It is common for the large freshman required math and science courses to be taught by inexperienced and biased TAs, visiting professors with poor English, or cheap-labor adjuncts.
The area around the school is rural and the social sentiment is anti-city and anti 21st century. There is no social scene outside of dive bars, fraternities and sports teams known for date/gang rape and drug distribution. Several members of the hockey team were arrested for sexual assault of a minor; pledges to a fraternity were accused of assault with a weapon of a local resident who walked through their backyard; another fraternity and sorority were investigated for the repeated rape of one of the sorority girls; a senior member of the hockey team once appeared in the local news twice in the same day, once for his stellar performance at the recent swim meet and again for assaulting his girlfriend the next night; etc. The school has tried to dispel the image of danger by barring students from referring to one of the pathways as ?the rape trail? instead of addressing the previously listed sources of the problems. Campus security and residence life spends a lot of time harassing students over alcohol and drugs but are known to not respond to late night phone calls for help. The blue light system was recently found to be faulty and non functioning, requiring an overhaul.
The school is so close to the border that Federal Border Patrol agents have been known to pull over and arrest students for minor infractions that become unjustly elevated to the Federal level. Some RAs have been let go due to allegations of sexual harassment of their students and nepotism. The school's Wellness Coordinator resigned in shame when he was arrested for a DUI, was released on bail, stole keys for another vehicle, drank more, and was arrested again for an Aggravated DUI (3x the legal limit)... all in the same night.
The school often requires students submit their work to services such as Turnitin.com which exploit students' copyright without due compensation while treating them as guilty-until-proven-innocent criminals. The IT office has invasive policies, including the ability to perform a full factory wipe of students' cell phones if they receive email via their Exchange service. The school has no respect for students' Fair Use and suppresses discontent expressed over social media, such as the takedown of a Twitter account critical of the university.
There is open animosity among students according to major. The engineers leer at the business majors for slacking all day and having an easy major which requires little work (the axiom "we're not engineers with a drinking problem, we're drinkers with an engineering problem" is frequently heard). The business majors ignore the nerdy engineers and enjoy their leisure time with what few potential mates there are. The other majors are mocked by both the engineers and business majors for choosing a non-greedy lifestyle. Some students are openly racist and xenophobic toward international students and often exclude them from group projects or sabotage their work. The entire school hates the nearby liberal arts students for their "Jack of all trades, Master of none" choice in schools and the state school students for being sub-par. The male/female ratio is about 70/30; both sexes complain about the lack of attractive potential mates. The unbalanced ratio has led to some of the female students to party too hard and drop out, exacerbating the situation.Only choose this school if you are interested in self directed study in a specific scientific/engineering/business area, are not susceptible to seasonal affective disorder, like heavy drinking and drug experimentation, but do not like healthy sex or social interaction with other students that transcends playing xbox over the lan.
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