Truman State University

Date: Oct 17 2004
Major: Finance (This Major's Salary over time)
I love it here at Truman and I guess I just wanted to give a balanced view to life here on campus.

Academics: Truman is a top-notch school that is not bogged down in too much competition. Yes, students are competitive, but that does not mean they are not helpful or friendly. Although I am not a big group-worker, I have found that most of my group projects have been fair. Almost everyone seems to put in equal effort and time. The professors here are very open to helping, many of them providing generous office hours and quickly answering e-mail, even on nights and weekends. I have had a math professor that went out of his way to help me get into a class of his that was closed. I had another professor that was always willing to help students out with a complicated problem. I guess I always thought that college would be this really intimidating place, like you see in movies, but I would say that almost all of the professors are here to teach and so they want to do whatever they can to help you learn. The courses here are not based on curving, so that someone is forced to fail like at other universitites. Instead, professors measure you against what you should be learning, against the objectives of the course. If everyone didn't understand something, they are usually pretty fair about curving the test then. It is important to do your homework about your professors, but you can't rely completely on what one friend says. If you do, then you may be missing out on a really great professor, who's teaching style wasn't what your friend was into.

Residence Life: Coming here for a visit, I expected the dorms to be horrible. This is a state school after all. Although, it was hard to live in a cramped box for two years, I did it and came out better for it. I am an only child and living away from home at Truman taught me as much as many of my classes. I learned how to share a room with someone, share a bathroom with three people, stay neat and organized and create space for myself. While the dorms are not castles, they are in no way horrible. I visited ten other colleges before deciding on Truman and believe me when I say, I have seen much much worse. Also, the Student Advisors (SAs), who are like RAs, are friendly and helpful. Although I did come from a big surburban high school, I still got a random roommate and didn't have any close friends at Truman. The SAs on my floor helped my transition and become independent and make friends. They were caring and concerned, but also never crossed the line into acting like parents. They are not paid to be parents, they may have to enforce Residential Living rules, but they are not here to police you. I am sure this is the least favorite part of their job. The food is HORRIBLE, I am not going to try to make it better. I did lose, rather than gain, about ten to fifteen pounds my first semester here at school and lost more weight when I came back my sophomore year. The good news is you don't have to worry about the Freshman Fifteen.

Social Life: The hardest part for me was, and still is, the town that Truman is in. Kirksville is in the middle of nowhere, the next major towns (Columbia or Quincy, Ill.) are an hour and a half away. I come from St. Louis and I am still excited to go back home. I can't adjust to everything closing down at 5:00 downtown and the only things that stay open twenty-four hours are a local breakfast place, one of the two McDonalds and Wal-Mart. If you think shopping at Wal-Mart could never be fun, think again. It will get to be the highlight of shopping Kirksville. The students here are very conservative, action wise. And coming from a school that was 30-40% minority in high school, Truman is shockingly not diverse. I think that this is one of the major downfalls of the university. College should be about learning from people who are different than you, but sometimes all I see are people that look exactly like me. However, living conservatively and being a conservative are two different things. They are plenty of people here that range from left-leaning to extremely liberal. Although there are some students that are close-minded, there are also plenty of open-minded students here on campus. People here have different values and viewpoints, although it can cause heated debates.

As far as parties and social life, Truman students do know how to party, but school work will always come first. Everyone here is focused on getting good grades, but they do know how to party on the weekends and Wednesday night. Not to say that everything is exciting around here all the time and if you don't party at all there are plenty of people just like you, that aren't really into it either. If you don't drink at all, there are plenty of people who will respect that choice. Although a lot of people do come from KC or St. Louis, that does not mean that they only want to be friends with people from the same geographic area. Many are eager to make a fresh start from high school and all of the labels that that carries. Also, there is little to no judgement about which high school you came from, it seems to be a point of reference rather than a judgement.

Extracurriculars: Truman's medium size is perfect to get involved with things. Because it is not too small, there are tons of opportunities to get involved with on campus. On the other hand, it is not too large that you are left out of things if you are not the "right" major or too young (i.e. a freshman).

Truman is an academically challenging school with a great reputation. The people here are friendly and interesting. Truman does have some weak points, lack of diversity and location, but overall this is a great school.