Portland State University

Date: Oct 06 2008
Major: Business - Management and Administration (This Major's Salary over time)
I transferred to PSU this last Summer of '08 after taking about 90+ credits at Pacific University. The main reason I transferred is because my mom left her job at Pacific so I no longer got the privilege of getting free tuition there. So I transferred to PSU because it was close and cheaper than Pacific. But you really do get what you pay for. Classes at PSU are not nearly as challenging and thought provoking as classes at Pacific. I've had only about two good instructors at PSU out of the six classes I have taken there so far.

The instructors that I've had are not very professional and I think it's hard for them to deal with the over-population of students in their classes. It's like they come to class to tell you what you should learn. All of the instructors that I've had teach almost exactly according the textbook that is required. I feel that I could just go read the textbook on my own and learn the stuff without the need of the instructor.

PSU has about 20,000 undergraduate students which I believe the administration and teachers are not made to handle. Every class I have signed up for has been over filled by about 5-10 students. Some of the instructors that I've had have even told people to take the class from a different instructor or at a different time because the class was over filled. You have to sign up for classes as soon as you can otherwise you will be put on a waitlist and have to sit on the floor or off to the side because the classrooms are too old and small.

Another thing I wasn't very impressed with is how all of the instructors are obsessed with using WebCT. I think this is because their classes are so huge that they do not want to go through all of the work of grading, so they make their students use this WebCT program online to get assignments and turn them in. All of the instructors do not even grade the homework themselves, they have student "graders" to do that for them. Which says to me that it is mostly busy work that the instructors assign so the graders are able to grade it.

If you are looking to be challenged in college by real professors, I suggest you stay away from PSU. I now see the difference between just an instructor and professor. PSU has hardly any actual professors.

I am on my way to re-enrollment at Pacific University, and will hopefully be starting there again next Spring '09.