Kent State University Kent

Date: Dec 03 2007
Major: Other (This Major's Salary over time)
Some of the professors are really great with interesting and informative lectures that are enjoyable. However, I have had very bad experiences with the Honors College. The Honors College is very restrictive and high school-ish. They require you to take their version of an English class where they give a bunch of arrogant, self-absorbed professors complete freedom. This is bad for many reasons. One is that whenever there is a dispute between you and a professor over a grade or project, that professor will win. Second, the professor is basically encouraged to grade on opinion of the student rather than quality of work, thought, or progress. Third, most of the freshmen honors colloquiums have very little to do with English and/or improving writing and reading skills. Fourth, the class restricts your schedule. It is 4 credits which is an awkward number of credits and frequently prevents students from taking classes that are required for your major/minor. A lot of majors and minors have tight schedule where if you miss one class, you're behind a year. The "good" colloquiums go quickly due to Kent State's PASS program which registers and assigns housing to ALL accepted students. (A very bad program that causes problems for students who plan to attend but can't get into classes or dorms they want due to people not planning on attending, but have been given a spot.) When most universities begin scheduling their freshmen, Kent State is ending. That means if you are unaware of this based on the norm, you get stuck in the "crappy" colloquiums. You are stuck with this one for the year. You can't switch in between semesters. So, if you have a bad professor, simply don't like the class, or need to take a class for your major/minor at that time, you are stuck with the decision that you made before even entering the university. The Honors College touts its personal advising system and how great it is, yet I have been unable to get a response from my adviser for weeks. Then she e-mailed me an incorrect response and still has not fixed her error or replied to me. I can't get an appointment and her office hours are not posted, plus you have to have an appointment. Very unpleasant experience. The only reason I am still putting up with being treated like a child, is the money and benefits of early scheduling. I once had an appointment with the dean about switching honors colloquiums due to a time conflict. His response was that I would have to add another semester to my college career (4.5 years vs. 4), not study abroad, or drop out of the honors college thus losing my scholarship. For one class. It was beyond ridiculous. They also expect your high school English class to have been very poor. Where in fact my high school had a great program that far exceeded the honors colloquium ideology. There seem to be 2-3 very uptight women who run the honors college who thought up the idea and are so resistant to maybe even slightly admitting any flaws with it or admit that not all students want or benefit from it. But that is just the impression I got from my meetings with them. It is very high school. That much is true. The rest of the university, i have not had problems. Other than with PASS and the housing situations; feels like a scam. It is a very dead campus. And the school does nothing to promote activity. Very small town. Not much to do on weekends, so many people go home. Dining halls have weird hours that aren't suitable to college students and aren't even open on the weekends (a few are). Don't get the basic plus meal plan! It's way too much!!! It's enough for 2-3 hungry people for the entire semester. People from small schools think it's really large and active, but people from medium to large schools find it to be pretty small and boring in general. I'm still undecided about whether or not I like it here. This is just some of the stuff I don't like that I wish I had known beforehand. Every school has its problems and these are the ones I've found. Oh and you have to live on campus for 2 years which sucks! (But if you study abroad it's only 1.5!)