The University of Idaho

Date: Feb 25 2010
Major: Chemistry (This Major's Salary over time)
U of I is probably one of the more underrated schools academically that I've encountered. One of the main benefits of the relatively small student body is small class sizes for most classes, often under thirty people. It's also generally pretty easy to get face time with professors, I've even just casually chatted with most of my professors, which is often unheard of for Freshman and Sophomores at larger Universities. Academics, while often poorly rated amongst other schools in neighboring states, seem fine. I'm no less knowledgeable about my major than my friends at other schools are about the same material, but the classes are also what you make of them. Plenty of people fail to learn much of anything in many classes because they?re more interested in partying.

My biggest problem with UI is probably the town of Moscow. It seemed alright, if a bit small, at first, but coming from a moderate-sized city (Portland, in my case) I found that the lack of things to do gets maddening quickly. There?s very little in the way of entertainment in Moscow, which is surprising given the high captive population that is starved for it. While it is true that there are normally things going on every night, don?t expect it to ever be more than a bunch of people getting wasted, and if you?re not in the Greek system, don?t expect to go to them too often. Occasionally there are good parties are to be had, but they?re generally just pretenses to drunk off of shitty beer and try to forget where you are. I?ve also found people here to be somewhat standoffish. Most of them are polite and will be superficially friendly on the streets, but just as often people are easily offended and engage in miniature power struggles at the drop of a hat. If you keep your head down, most of the time it won?t affect you, but I did notice it a lot.

Overall, my advice on UI would be to know what you want from a school before attending, and don?t be too quick to forgive a lack of entertainment, because once you?ve done everything, it doesn?t really get better. I'm transferring after the end of the semester, but there are people who enjoy it here.