The University of Houston

UH has the worst bursars office in the country! It's student have been plaqued by the unprofessional, unorganized staff since I first arrived in 2002 and nothing has changed. Save your efforts and apply somewhere else. I wasted 6 yrs!!

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

This school is a joke. They get away with charging more than the top quality public universities in the state because they know this is a last resort for most students. They never build new facilities. The only new buildings being put up are apartment buildings and parking garages (to get more of your money). The current facilities are crap (at least in all the science departments). None of the TAs speak good English or know how to handle a group of people. Don't even get me started on some of the chemistry labs here. This is one of the lowest ranked chemistry departments in the nation, yet they find it necessary to make their labs twice as hard and give us twice as much work as the top chemistry departments in the nation. We were doing things our first lab that most programs don't have their students do until halfway through (yet the quality of the education we receive is significantly less due to the teachers and facilities). It seems like they only care about graduate students here and the undergrads are just endless money pits to pay for new graduate facilities. I will be transferring to UHD because I figure if I am going to get a lousy degree from a lousy university, I might as well make it as quick and easy as I can for myself. I started at Texas A&M, and now I realize how good I had it when I was there and want to go back (although UH has pretty much ruined my chances).

2nd Year Male -- Class 2010

Surrounding City: A, Education Quality: F

Let me preface this by saying that the following isn't all inclusive about the entire UH campus; but rather the biology department. In my opinion the University of Houston has one of the worst biology programs out there. The professors really don't care too much about motivating and getting students involved. Instead most of them are more concerned about their own research.

After talking to friends who are pursuing or have obtained biology degrees from other schools, I feel that UH really did a poor job of educating the students. Those of my UH friends who got into or are planning on attending professional programs such as dental or medical school would often comment on how studying for the MCAT or DAT was like starting from scratch. This speaks volumes about the faculty and the lack of qualified instructors. This is extremely disappointing, considering Houston's standing within the medical community. In all seriousness the ONLY quality education I got out of UH was spending countless hours on OTHER university websites reading higher quality learning materials.

Now let's talk about the advisers. They are about as helpful as a box of bricks. When they give you advice MAKE SURE you verify it with your own eyes...in fact just skip the advisers all together and do your own advising. They provide you with ample misinformation and half truths about very important items such as course requirements and required paperwork. If an adviser does tell you something make sure you get it written in blood because their stories will change depending on who you talk to.

Finally, as bad as UH is in terms of quality, they REQUIRE that all biology majors go up to Calculus III. When I approached the head of advising about this, I was simply told that Cal. III is required because of the medical center. If anyone out there can find a everyday use for anything beyond Calculus II within a hospital setting (excluding fields like say, radiation dosimetry research), then I'd like to hear it.If you have the means, I highly recommend going outside of Houston for your biology undergrad. Save yourself the pain of ho hum professors, misinformed advising staff and outrageous tuition gouging.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000