Saint Anselm College

Date: Mar 06 2009
Major: Political Science (This Major's Salary over time)
It isn't easy to summarize four years of my life in a brief review. I spent I lifetime at Saint Anselm, yet it's all a distant memory now. Most people define college as the best four years of their lives. They remember how young they were, the good times they had, and all the friends they made. At the time of my graduation from St. A's, I was filled with mixed emotions about how the last four years of my life had played out. The truth is that I was just a boy in college. You may say I had an identity crisis. It took me a couple of years after college to truly grow up and find out who I was. I have now developed a much more objective view of my time at St. A's. I was inspired to write this review by another poster who wrote about St. A's. I hope that writing this review will be somewhat of a cathartic experience for me. I also hope that it will help some kids out there make the right decision when choosing where they spend the next four years of their lives.

I had never heard of St. Anselm until my senior year of high school. I had applied to Catholic schools throughout New England, and St. A's was just a name. I "chose" the college by default. They made me the most lucrative offer, and I was not a rich kid. At orientation I quickly learned that St. A's was a "REGIONAL SCHOOL." By regional, I mean that the vast majority of the student body comes from MASS. I was from a place not that far away, but I soon felt like I was. I had tremendous difficulty fitting in with people from MASS. I think that part of that was my fault, but a larger part of it wasn't.

As a freshmen, I viewed college as a new beginning. A chance to find a close-knit group of friends to go to hell and back with. Maybe even get a girlfriend along the way. But I never met so many immature, ignorant, narrow-minded, selfish, and bigoted people in my life. For the first time in my life I was ridiculed for my ethnic background. It's also important to understand that many kids at St. A's go home at will because they live so close. I didn't have that option. But there's more to it than that. I grew up with an open-minded, somewhat diverse group of friends. But the majority of the students at St. A's came from the same background, and were somewhat centric in their views of the world. And at the risk of sounding hypocritical, I'm normal. I was a varsity football player, wrestler, and baseball player in high school. I also wanted to party, get drunk, and pick up girls just like any other college kid. I did meet some great people at St. A's. But my goal of fitting in with a clique remained elusive.

My social life at St. A's was wrought with heartache, pain, embarrassment, frustration, and tears. There were some good people who kept me going. Two were a janitor and monk whose respect and kind words made me feel human. Some students whom I did manage to befriend also helped me through some tough times. Though they did not share many of my interests, they shared my feelings about life and people in general. But in the end I have myself to thank for my surviving of those years without losing my mind. There is a great book called "The Power of One." And I kind of feel like I got myself through St. A's by not giving in. I also managed to keep hope alive for at least the first three years. Hope of my dreams coming true the next year. They never did, but that's okay.

Now lets shift gears a little. I graduated from St. C's with a less than spectacular GPA. That's right "St. C's." It's a well known nickname of the school that doesn't practice grade inflation or curving. I know I would have done much better academically at a different school. But part of this is my fault. I probably could have done better if I had a different frame of mind. I spent a lot of hours, days, and nights being depressed, or trying to find a way to fit in. I could have read and studied more. There was also a great humanities professor there who taught a "study skills" class which helped me a lot.

But the education I received was TOP-NOTCH. I learned things about the humanities: philosophy, politics, history, theology, art that others may never know. And the intellectual demands of the professors helped me get through graduate school with a 4.0. I kid you not. I am now a teacher and coach. And I believe that the things I learned from those professors have made me better than most in the classroom.

St. Anselm has a beautiful, and safe campus. It is also extremely small. The food is also great. Unfortunately my frame of mind made want to throw up as I walked around looking at those buildings day after day. St. A's is also a school where you literally see the same people everyday. I went to a high school that was much larger, so I may have a different perspective.

I apologize for being negative and perhaps a little dramatic at some points in this review. But I have to tell it like I remember it. I did not intend to attack the actual institution in this review. Though I don't necessarily agree with the grading policy. I do hope that you gained some caveats from this review. When considering a school that is extremely "SMALL and REGIONAL" think of someone like me. I normal kid whose efforts to simply "fit in" over the years left him with a lot of heartache and pain. Regional schools are also less well known to potential employers and graduate schools who never heard of "St. C's." This presented some problems for me after graduating and returning to "my region," of New England.

Anyways, thanks for reading. And good luck. I wouldn't wish my four years of loneliness on anyone. St. A's is a great school. Maybe my experience was just a fluke. But remember what I said. ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE NOT FROM MASS;)