Syracuse University

Date: Dec 31 1969
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
Do not come here.

Let me say that again: do not come here.

And I mean this for both undergraduates as well as for graduate students. I've been here in a grad program for two years, but I am familiar with the undergrad culture as well because I teach (yes, teach—not TA) courses that are required of all incoming freshmen and sophomores.

In other words, potential undergrads, expect to take courses from people who do not have even a Master's degree! I feel hypocritical pointing this out, because I really enjoy my teaching responsibilities, but I would have been appalled as an undergrad to be taking a course taught by someone with only a Bachelor's degree. So you should know what you're getting yourselves into.

It just seems so hypocritical for the administration to say

we value this course and think it is important enough to make it mandatory,

but simultaneously to say that it's not important enough to be taught by full-time faculty members with PhDs.

Apart from that, what it ultimately comes down to for me is that Syracuse offers public school resources at a private school price. Technology on this campus is laughable (we had more and better technology at my undergrad institution, which served only 2000 students). Expect to pay a premium for everything—from pintouts at the library, to copies, to tickets to sporting events. The library is getting rid of books to make way for more study and social spaces (and it conveniently neglects to subscribe to important digital journals). Faculty members are inaccessible and self-absorbed (even to me, as a graduate student, so I can't imagine how much their interactions must suck with undergrads). If you're planning to drive to campus, plan to still have to walk an additional 15-20 minutes from your parking lot to your classes (it ends up taking me longer to drive into campus than to just walk, which is so wrong—I live a mile away).

In short, I can't emphasize enough how much it sucks here. If you're an undergrad, I'd say to matriculate only if your proposed program of study is nationally recognized as a top-3 (architecture or IT). Otherwise, run like hell in another (any other) direction.

For grad students, your experience will probably be quite specific to your department, and I am not very familiar with any outside of my own (although my comments above regarding resources would be applicable to anyone).