I
don't know how to feel about UTSA sometimes because as
a whole the school is just mediocre. I'll try to
be as detailed as possible though to givve an idea
of how I came to this conclusion. Good
1.
The faculty in my department is wonderful. The music department
faculty make staying at least somewhat feasible. They are very
kind, approachable, and willing to help to students with just
about anything. There are some bad seeds here and there
but that's at any school.
2. The faculty outside my
department may not be as overwhelming amazing but they try.
I have taken many electives because I am a B.A.
in music and not a B.M. so from what i
have observed you should use ratemyprofessor.com like the holy bible.
Seriously it has saved me many times from really crappy
teachers.
3. The campus is all in one area. One
the things i hated about UT Austin was its split
campus. At UTSA everything nice and cozy.
4. It is
very easy to succeed here if youput your mind to
it. I mean really easy. Most of the student body
is lazy and apathetic. Very few students actually study and
go to class. This apathy makes it easy for more
motivated students to be big fish on campus.
5. The
housing is not nearly as bad as it seems. Many
UTSA students complain about their housing but unless they live
at chisolm, the only dorms, they really have no idea
what the college experience means. That's a good thing. I
hate dorms so i applied for the Oaks, on campus
apartments, and although they suck compared to real apartments at
least they aren't dorms.
6. The students here are nice
for the most part. There is a a decent amount
of minorities but it is still pretty small. It isn't
hard to make friends in class.
Bad
1. The
weather here sucks. In the morning it's cold so one
would think to wear a coat... for an hour. As
soon as ten o clock hits the weather rises like
20 degrees and it is hot until after dark. The
weather changes here way too much between the extremes.
2.
The insides of the buildings need maintenance quite badly. Seriously
they smell musty and the bathrooms have maintenance issues as
well. The classrooms are cramped in some departments and too
open in others which make for uneven classroom assignments. Every
building on campus has classrooms because there just aren't enough
buildings to facilitate new rooms
3. The students here are
lazy as hell. I hate it most in my department
cuase i spend so much time here. No one sounds
like they practice at all. I have never heard of
anyone going to a good grad school and I'm not
shocked at all about it. Our department is filled music
education majors mostly so if you are interested in performance
look elsewhere. The faculty tries hard but i don't anyone
really understands that practicing is important in music.
4. It's
not just music ,though. It's in all departments. I hate
that no one cares because it becomes a virus for
everyone on campus. No one goes to events but whenever
i say the school stinks all people can do is
say that the future will get better. I doubt that
if no one does anything to impact change on the
school.
5. It is way to hard to makes
friends here. The school is a commuter school so making
friends for on campus kids is diffiult ebough as is.
Most people hook up wiht high school friends thoguh and
never move out of their bubble. And the university is
not helping with this matter. I mean they try but
not really. There are some events on campus but due
to the high percentage of off campus commuters no one
goes. Also there are way too many CAP people. The
CAP program needs to be desttroyed because it is ruining
all of the other UT schools.
6. I feel underprepared
academically for grad school. I mean the faculty contains great
teachers but i can tell that because of the mediocre
student body that they make their curriculums more streamlined for
the less motivated students.
In conclusion...if you aren't interested
in art,music, or engineering and science then do not come
here. The Liberal arts here suck and they always lose
many of their upper division classes due to missing faculty
or classroom space. The only reason I am staying is
because of the Honors college and the music department. Otherwise
i would have left long ago.