Academics:
The strongest programs here are education and business. Besides
these majors, everything is weak. I took classes in
geology, English and Journalism. The geology professor, Dr. Shulik takes
every exam from the internet and never teaches on what
he will test. There was a professor in the Journalism
department who was challenging her students in their coursework and
because students here are lazy, they complained and although it
was never told to us what happened, there are rumors
that she was dismissed for challenging her students academically. Being
an English major is like being in one big book
club, only you pay $14,000 and up for a year
of membership. For example, in a 300-level writing class, we
had to review magazine articles, write three essays and discuss
easy (8th grade level) readings out of six books. Classes
here are very easy, however, if you miss three classes,
it is a letter grade from your final grade for
every absence beyond that.
The People:
The
students at Clarion are very open-minded and accepting of others.
Sure, you do have a person every now and then
who thinks they own the world, but for the most
part, you can find some of the most caring students
here.
Social Life:
There are alot of great
organizations to be involved in at Clarion. Whatever your interest
is, you can find it here. However, the sororities are
VERY selective and if you are not a spitting image
of them, you will not be extended a bid.
Campus living:
The campus is extremely safe with
call boxes spread across campus. Dorms vary. Givan is by
far the nicest dorm, both lookwise and atmosphere wise. There
are many events to be part of as a dorm
resident, and they can be fairly interesting. Never go to
Chandler Dining Hall. The food there is TERRIBLE. Gemmell food
is not as bad and can be fairly decent. The
gym is not bad, but depending on the hour that
you go, plan to be waiting awhile for a machine.
The campus buildings in general are also old. Clarion has
also begun to set up a new Science Hall to
replace Pierce, but has insufficient funds to complete the project,
so expect to be staring at construction work for awhile.
surrounding area:
If you are a big city
type of person, don't even try. The area around Clarion
University is set as a very small town. There is
a bus that goes to the mall (which contains maybe
10 shops) and to Wal-Mart but goes no where else.
So be prepared to drive anywhere that you think you
might like to go. Besides being small (the whole downtown
is a long street), Clarion is beautiful, especially with Autumn
Leaf Festival (their canival that happens every September) and in
the Winter (trust me... there is nothing like seeing downtown
Clarion in the winter with all the lights, it is
breathtaking)
Faculty:
Faculty is very accessible and will even
make appointments to see you if you cannot make it
to their office hours. However, if you have a problem
with any of the faculty, do not expect to have
it resolved or even listened to.