Marymount University

Date: Dec 31 1969
Major: Interior Design (This Major's Salary over time)
A major plus for University is that the Interior Design faculty tries really hard to reach out to the students and help them whenever they possibly can. It's easy to find them and they are always willing to help (unless they are adjunct, then it's hard to find them). Even University staff are friendly and helpful. I have never seen such a friendly bunch in the Financial Aid, Student Accounts, and Registrar's office.

Also, another good thing is that the campus is very close knit. Even though it is small, there are tons of places where commuter students can hang out in between classes like the Lee Center… either Bernie's or the recreation area in the basement, the library, the lodge, or even in the open computer labs in St. Joe's Hall.

A major downside for the University is that even though everyone who works at Marymount are friendly and helpful, the administration is very unorganized. I had a horrible time getting ready for the first day of classes because of registration problems. My e-mail account wouldn't work so I had to call the Tech department for that. My financial aid was messed up so I had to call Financial aid about that. I couldn't register for classes because of weird stuff going on with the system—as a result I had to register for classes that I didn't need first.

Unfornately, the University has more downsides. Parking on campus is horrible and expensive. I don't even bother with it, I just use the shuttle bus… and the shuttle itself can be a pain sometimes. They added extra stops this year, so it takes a while for the shuttle to get from the metro station to main campus.

The graduate interior design student body isn't as diverse or exciting as I thought it would be. Almost every student is an older woman in her 30's and 40's with a professional career already… Some just looking for a career change. If you're fresh out of undergrad school, this can be very intimidating depending on how comfortable you are. Being a younger male, I didn't really make any friends nor was I inspired.

Also, I wish that I felt more "attached" to the campus through extracurricular activities… but I wasn't very successful in doing anything since commuter students are pretty much "shut out" from being in the loop of things. You'd have to look really hard to find out with what's going on. Since the majority of the student body commutes, extracurricular activities, I think, aren't very popular and even seem a little exclusive. If you reached out to a group that you wanted to join they rarely are receptive. I felt like every time I went to campus, all I did was go relax in the Lee center & read and then go to class… then go home after that… and that's just no fun.

Unfortanately I will be leaving my program and learning Interior Design elsewhere. Basically, if the administration were a little bit more organized and the on-campus community reached out to the commuters more, I'd feel more attached to the campus and less likely to leave it.