The Catholic University of America

Date: May 15 2007
Major: Political Science (This Major's Salary over time)
The administration is very uptight and very incompetent. If you come to Catholic, a man called "Father" O'Connell will deliver a combative and offensive speech during orientation that will piss off anyone in the room who does not worship at the altar of Bill Donahue. This will set the tone for the next four years.

The students are mostly decent, outgoing people. However, if you aren't a Jesus freak and you don't have an alcohol problem, you'll have a hard time making real friends. The kids in the honors program are smarter and generally less obnoxious, but they are few and far between. The college Democrats are organized and well intentioned but very outnumbered, and the administration seems to have it in for them. Everyone is white and from New Jersey. It is possible to get laid if you like dressing nice and wasting money at a bar buying drinks for very vapid girls. It is technically against the rules to have a member of the opposite sex in your room after 2 AM. This infuriated me.

Don't live on southside, it is a shithole. Some of the other dorms are nicer, and the students don't treat them as badly. I lived on southside because after looking at a map I decided it would be cool to be close to the metro. All of the dorms are close enough to the metro. Most students complain about the food but I thought it was acceptable. If you get sick here they won't care and they won't excuse your absences, even if you have to spend time in the hospital. Students also claim CUA is in a bad neighborhood. It isn't. Brookland is a decent, lower middle class neighborhood, but most of the inhabitants are black so people say it is a bad neighborhood. CUA students should have to spend a day in Anacostia during orientation to see what a bad neighborhood actually looks like. There are some eyesores on campus but overall it is aesthetically pleasing. DC is a pretty interesting city especially if you’re in to politics. You wouldn’t know this at Catholic, as the student body limits its horizons to two or three bars.

I was a political science major. Most of my classes were absurdly easy. I had a 3.88 the first semester. The second semester I took an honors course and was pretty much incapacitated for three weeks due to a chronic illness, and I still got a 3.68. I'm not an idiot but I am not a genius either. Essentially if you're in the school of arts and sciences it will feel like you are repeating high school. For me, college has actually been easier than high school because I get to take easier language and math courses. My roommate was an architecture major and it looked like he actually had to do work sometimes. You’ll have to take two intro philosophy classes, the first of which contains a great deal of thinly veiled Catholic propaganda. If you're really in to Byzantium or Aquinas CUA is the place for you.

I'm transferring. I feel like the time I spent here has made me a bitter, socially awkward, less intelligent person. Don’t come here, but if you must, try to get in to the honors program. I blew that off and I regret it. If money is an issue go to a community college and transfer after two years.