University Buffalo

Date: Nov 12 2007
Major: Accounting (This Major's Salary over time)
ACCOUNTING: The professors are hit or miss; either good and helpful, or bad and unwilling to help. A select few will teach you the material, while the majority just read off Powerpoint slides all day, and sometimes fudge up the examples. During my Intro to Finance course, the professor told the students to solve the problems with the calculator. When I asked the TA and professor about the formulas behind it all, they told me just learn the calculator and wouldn't help me. The major includes A LOT of group work, yet the students aren't interested in learning. They want the project done ASAP. One group member told me, while I wanted to learn the material, to "not worry, because the firms just have computers that do the work for you. You hit a few buttons." No one likes discussions about accounting topics; everyone just wants the class to go by. High "group think" where no one questions anything. As a result, busy work reigns supreme with endless group projects but no substance. You don't understand the accounting topics. Finally, the department will not get into detail about the amount of regulations regarding the CPA license until your senior year.

ACADEMICS IN GENERAL: There are two "levels" of college here: expensive high school for the majority of students here to party and coast through school, and college for the few that go beyond the Powerpoint slides and develops their studies on their own. UB caters towards the former group: easy to pass classes where the professors will just read you a Powerpoint slide, curve the exams once anyone starts complaining about their failing grades, and lack of discussion. You do not experience anything substantial in your degree. As for access to professors, they will have a decent number of office hours, but for 200+ students, this is too small—you get 10 minutes with the professor because there is a line. It becomes worse if you need recommendations for grad school because the professor doesn't know you. For example, I had one rare and great, assignment, but my group had to present to the TA, not the professor. I couldn't get that professor's recommendation about it because he wasn't there!

CAREER CENTERS AND JOBS—The school only attracts local jobs and due to the weak economy in Buffalo, these jobs are for Geico, Aldi, Target, etc as customer assistants and store managers. NYC or outside companies rarely show up. Now, for accounting students the CRC does get a lot of accounting firms, but that is the exception. The career advisers tend to only know local resources and did not have many connections. The "meet a mentor" program doesn't get updated much and has a large lack of connections outside the local area. It is also near impossible to get an internship since companies do not advertise here—I had to search outside the school's resources, then had to pay to get credit for the school's program. In a major that connections are everything, there wasn't many chances to network here.

ENVIRONMENT—The North Campus gets better treatment than South Campus. You need a car here to get to anything. The students leave garbage everywhere, then complain when the janitors want hirer salaries. The vast majority of bathrooms here are trashed with students leaving towels clogging sinks and toilets, bodily fluids left on toilets, etc. Of course it is all cleaned up for tours and open house. I have to say though, the school has begun to renovate areas bit by bit.

ADMINISTRATION—Does not listen to students or communicate policy changes. For example, they will suddenly make changes to academic majors without students knowing in advance. (Thought the School of Management did reinstate those students taking the minor already after complaints.) Without notice, the administration took away the second last meeting room for commuter students to add office space. The administration also wastes money on useless projects, and then wants to raise tuition. The buses had rolling paper signs replaced with a few thousand dollar electronic signs to say "Red Line," "Have a nice day." Another example was spending money on pillars around campus or having a stock market ticker board installed. There's corruption too in the student associations which goes unpunished:

There have been numerous examples and sometimes the student officials resign, but not punished.

STUDENT LIFE—A bright spot: the students here are amazingly friendly and welcoming. The student body as a whole though is apathetic about issues. Like I mentioned earlier, most want to coast through school though. Do not buy into the school's diversity learning hype though—while there is a diversity of students here and people are friendly towards each other, no one really is willing to get out of their comfort zone and learn from other diverse groups. Everyone sticks to their groups. You have a range of students here so I cannot generalize, but just say it includes the party all night groups, studious groups, extraverted and introverted, international students, all economic classes, etc.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES—I'm not qualified to make a judgment, just thought to provide some information. The school has an office for disabilities, sets up tutors and aides, and has a special bus bring students to locations during the winter because of the snow and ice. I do not know the quality of these programs though. Also, the school wasn't built with accessibility in mind and just has modifications made to it. There are elevators for the physically disabled in certain areas that you must travel to while other students can just walk up the steps right there. Example: my dorm had one elevator for the entire complex with 3 floors and 4 connected buildings. I noticed a student in a wheelchair had to go from the basement cafeteria through the hallways to the one building with the elevator and then upon reaching his floor, would have to travel through the hallways back to the building he started in. I could just walk up the steps. PLEASE VIEW THE SCHOOL FOR YOURSELF AND ASK ABOUT THESE THINGS.

DORMS—overcrowded, increasing restrictions placed on students to prevent lawsuits, and as for the types of students you'd get as hall mates, that is up to luck. I had two years of noisy annoyance and one year of amazing people. They are also overpriced. Get ready for the fire alarms.