As
a lifelong resident of West Tennessee, the idea of coming
to a beautiful city like Chattanooga was a key reason
why I ended up transferring to UTC. I should have
done more research looking back on it. To give
everyone a brief background, I had transfered here from UT-Martin
looking for a school that offered more of a city
life that I had been use to coming from Memphis.
Martin was a great school academically, but the small town
politics and lack of anything to do on the weekends
prompted me to look for another college to finish my
undergrad at. MTSU is an ok for some people
and UT Knox is the place were people party and
bomb out of college for the most part(GO VOLS though).
I was serious about my education and was looking for
a happy medium. I thought Chattanooga would be that medium
I was looking for.
To be completely honest before I
start, UTC is a slightly mediocre college surrounded by great
scenery. I am a 3.6 student about to graduate Magna
so I am not a bitter dropout trying to badmouth
the college and I hope to be objective and fair
in my review.
The degree program's offered at UTC are
confusing and take a magnifying glass to understand. The department
websites aren't very clear either. The college uses complex and
confusing tables that leaves you scratching your head at times
wondering what on earth you need to take just to
complete your undergrad here. UT Martin doesn't have this problem
as they upgraded to the Banner system years ago making
thing clear and to the point and much easier to
understand. CAPP at Martin owns the MOC system.
The curriculum
at UTC is also way too drawn out. Their requirements
just to get your Gen Ed's out of the way
is ridiculous compared to what is needed at Martin or
even the University of Memphis.You take alot of extra classes
that are worthless outside of UTC so be wise on
what you take here,especially if you are going to transfer
later.
The staff at UTC isn't up to par compared
to Martin. The professors here are ok/good for the most
part, but nothing award winning or memorable. Martin professors strive
to bring the best out of you while Chattanooga professors
seem to love giving C's for solid work which would
be an A at Martin or Memphis. They grade more
to annoy you than improve you candidly speaking. The student-professor
relationship is hard to develop,your just a number here.
There
are many positives at Chattanooga though. The city is
more safe than Memphis and the downtown area is really
developed and fun to explore. Chattanooga blows Martin out of
the water on things to do in and outside of
school by a large margin. The administration at the college
is more open minded than Martin and appears to listen
to their students more and are actually more helpful in
certain ways.
Overall Chattanooga looks better on paper than
it actually is and harder than it really should be
for a liberal arts college and compared to it's sister
institutions.There is no perfect college so take out of this
what is the most important to you in choosing a
college.