Alabama A & M University

Date: Oct 22 2005
Major: Finance (This Major's Salary over time)
I hate to be the bearer of bad news and bring negativity into the board, but this is a review website. You don't want to waste very precious time and money somewhere where you're not happy. At AAMU, the bad outweighs the good. The school was absolutely dreadful.

College is what you make it

True. But certain things are beyond your scope of control and have little to do with how much you put in either way.

I had my tuition lost and dropped out of the system back in 2000. That should not have happened. I didn't find not being able to eat a "college is what you make it" experience. Yes, it happens at other schools, but that's beside the point. It shouldn't have happened period. When I attended, it was common to stand in line for hours on end just to register for the upcoming semester classes. They had not figured out that we were no longer in the dark ages and online registration was common and more logical than standing in line for hours on end. Where are you going to stand in line for 4 hours again in life? Even the DMV is less of a hassle. Again, that has nothing to do with "college is what you make it".

I felt like students were friendly but a little self absorbed and too concerned with fashion. Most of the young women were dressed reminiscent of a former club outing with high stiletto heels, painted on skintight jeans and skimpy tops. I believe this was done to garner attention from the guys since there was a very unbalanced female to male ratio on campus.

I feel you could get the most out of your experience here if you live off campus and have your own car. Transportation is darn near nonexistent and you don't want to get called the N word by resident rednecks while you are walking to the nearby Walmart. The cab drivers are pretty much the same way. If you live in an apt, you won't have to deal with the horrible issues you are bound to have in the dorms like not having the maintenance respond to your requests at all or trying to wash clothes when only 3 of the washing machines work and they're all being used. That situation worsens during end of semester move out time. Again, it would be more logical to have to a washer and dryer on every floor versus having washer and dryers on one floor for both sides of the dorm. They would fix the washer and dryers periodically, but the students would break them by taping string to quarters and getting the coin slot jammed.

Academically, I felt like the biggest challenge was trying to interpret whatever it was that the foreign teachers were saying. There were a lot of foreign teachers and their accents made it ten times harder to understand what the material. Some teachers were very good, others were not. You pretty much just have to show up to get a passing grade, but most of the other people in class aren't there.

The school was great socially, though I felt like too many events were located off campus. The events for the most part should be on campus because that's where the school is. This is another reason why your own car is needed.

Make sure you eat during the times the cafeteria is open or you will be stuck blowing cash on a pizza from Domino's. No other restaurants deliver to the campus unfortunately because of racism. The cafeteria should stay open until it closes at night, but again certain things haven't caught on here. The cafeteria will be open for 2 1/2 hour intervals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and it will be closed after each interval. Breakfast-6 to 8:30 Lunch-11 to 1:30 dinner-4 to 7. If you don't eat during those times and you can only eat once, you're SOL. They did have a greasy spoon, but the lines were super long and food would be halfway cooked. This is another example of how having your own apartment comes in handy.

I probably wouldn't recommend going here. If you must go to an HBCU, please try some of the better ones like Howard and one of the ones in the AUC.