Chapman University

Date: Dec 03 2009
Major: Biology (This Major's Salary over time)
I am from Southern California and heard from Chapman from a friend who was attending who loved it. I never thought that the reason he loved it was because there are is almost a 2 to 1 female to male ratio. He is also involved in Greek life. I am not. I have made many great friends here and there are a lot of nice friends, "real" people. However, the majority of the students who you see around campus who enjoy it are those that you would expect to see on any stereotypical television show representing Orange County. When I started here, the first thing I said to describe this place is that it is like living in bad TV. The school does have prestigious graduate programs as well as great undergrad business, theater, dance, film, psych, and comm. programs, but if you are here for science, you might want to look into transferring because the science department is, from what I can see, the saddest department here. It is in the oldest, most trashy looking building, we are always short on equipment, and the "key departments" have top of the line everything. Also, many of the faculty are nice, however, I have encountered some of the most unhelpful, uninterested administrators and faculty. Every department is more worried about keeping it all about themselves and if you have interests that expand the major you chose into a different department, no one wants to help you. The departments seem to want everything precise and have no interest in non-majors moving into their building. Everything here is run too much like a business with the dollar figures being the biggest concern and the quality of a students education falls behind. I cannot wait to transfer and hope that I can because having to complete four years here would be misery. This is a nice school, it is very much a fancy cute little liberal arts school, and many people do like it. However, it is obvious that this school only wants a select kind of person here because if you are not European car driving, worriless child of wealth, it can make it hard to adapt here and fit in as that is the norm. And for those who say people who don't like Chapman are socially unadaptable or whatever, just remember that not everyone wants to be a carbon copy just to fit in, and the feeling u receive by not being one, isn't fun. If you play sports of are involved in Greek life as well as meeting people within your major helps.