Howard University

Date: Dec 31 1969
Major: Philosophy (This Major's Salary over time)
The undergraduate experience other than the social life here is horrible. The school overall is bad and you can make no excuses for it. After one semester I transferred out, along with six acquaintances I met during my attendance. The school fails on all levels. Especially with the professors and you can see by the other comments on this site the how the Professors have failed. Students should have more to say about their school than “You might get joaned on”, “Or wear some fly gear.” These are good observations about the things that happen on campus and are also things that the professors fail to correct. I personal wanted to attend the “Mecca of Black Intelligence” to find what it was advertising. However all I found was a piss poor faculty, who are either wash-outs from other universities or haven’t published any material since grad school. Many of the professors failed to show up during the first week of classes, and took vacations during the middle of the semester. A lot their offices were unpleasant and unorganized with cobwebs everywhere. I’ve witness this from a handful of professors in the one semester I attended. I did meet and have a few good ones, but many of them are bad. A college professor has high moral obligations to the university, to their community, and to their students. This means the message to the students should you are here to learn and rise your level of education not just for a job, but as benefactor to society. The attitude of many of the students here is

I have a nice outfit on so I’ll be successful,

and this is not what academia is about. This goes for many of the students however there are a few students who are there for intellectual reasons and usually like me and my acquaintances end up transferring out because of the nonsense.

Howard needs to come up with a contingency plan to elevate the school out of its slumber neglect. It needs to restructure many of their departments and hire some new promising professors who plan to make change. If the spirit of the institution would change, the minor things on campus (like broken windows, doors and holes in the walls) would be tolerable and the students would not care about the worthless material on the backs and appreciate the material going into their heads. I’ve read all the comments here and no one said “Howard prepared me for Grad school.” Or something like,

the black experience at Howard was great not only because I partied but because it expanded my consciousness helping me to better thinker or whatever.

The school is also expensive and you’ll see your dollars go right into the funding for the medical, business and law school. I toured the campus a year before I transferred in and I notice a hole and the bathroom wall in the Arts and Sciences building, a year and a half later the hole is still there. In my courses most of the exams where fill in the blank and multiple choice. I did not take any exams that allowed me to demonstrate my ability to analyze and think critically. If you want to see Black Intelligence go to another university and involve yourself in their Black studies department. Take my advice if you plan to get any kind of intellectual stimulation in your college career DO NOT GO HERE!!!