Old Dominion University

Date: Sep 27 2009
Major: Political Science (This Major's Salary over time)
The thing about ODU is that it is a very simple-minded place filled mostly with simple-minded students who love their simple-mindedness. There is no sophistication, no social integration (even with the many people of many races and places, etc.), and nothing stimulating at all.

And ODU will always be like this, no matter how many new dorms or sports complexes they build, no matter how much they tout their permanently broken Maglev train or their losing-streak football team, and no matter how much they cover up the reports of on-campus violent crime from prospective students and parents. Why?

Because ODU and Norfolk/Hampton Roads are overall undesirable places to be for most people. Norfolk is a military installation and a port that also happens to have a university (ODU) that is designed more around convenience than around meaningful life experience. That defeats the point of going to college.

Having been a resident of the Richmond area since my sophomore year in high school, I've also found that the atmosphere of Norfolk/ODU is significantly more hostile than really any place in Va. that I've been to. People here generally hate their lives (this isn't as true of the college students) and this becomes apparent when you deal with, for example, the bitter and rude administration. Whoever said on this site that

the administration is full of red tape

is not exaggerating one bit. The administration will make you wait forever and jump through all sorts of hoops for no reason other than that they are too incompetent to know how to do their jobs (which really aren't very difficult). Seriously, they need to fire everyone in Rollins Hall and hire people who can actually count, do their job properly, treat the customer with courtesy and respect, and get things done in a timely and efficient manner. But it probably won't happen.

Most of the minority of intelligent and/or deep people here are usually either very boring or needlessly cut-throat and hostile. It's really unfortunate. I've found a small handful who are intelligent, neither boring nor hostile, and are good friends of mine- but they are very much the exception rather than the rule. For the most part, the professors try to be as nice and as challenging as they can be, but then you get some who are mean (even to the diligent students) or incompetent or both.

ODU's academics are semi-challenging, but why go here when you can go to nearly any other university that has challenging academics, a good/safe community and high-quality student life (none of which ODU has and none of which it will never have) while paying basically the same price that you pay to go to ODU?