Hendrix College

Date: Apr 22 2010
Major: Political Science (This Major's Salary over time)
Sadly, I had an awful experience at Hendrix. I made many friends there, however I could not keep most of them because if one is not a hard-core partier (drunk every other night, using crack, LSD, Mary Jane, etc., loud pounding music, and interested in getting laid ASAP) (I.e., moi) said person is not going to fit in. I may be exaggerating a bit, but there is not real social life for non-partiers aside from video-gaming and volunteering off campus.

Also, I did not feel safe on campus because A. the campus police force did diddly squat (I was mugged in October 2008 and it took two hours for an officer to come to my room where I had taken a beating), B. There is a large amount of unaccounted prejudice on campus (from atheists to Christians and Vice-a-versa, against students of African, Middle Eastern, Latin American and East Asian descent, and ESPECIALLY against LGBT students. The college puts up a valiant effort for LGBT folk, but it is still rural Arkansas, so one has to be very VERY careful with letting who know what), particularly from members of the sports team who are not charged for the crimes they don on campus, and C. the neighborhood made it quite clear that they were just waiting for the ground to open up so the college would fall down into hell.

The actual academic work was often hit and miss. I didn't really learn anything new during my year at Hendrix because I already learned most of that material in High School, but my high school is in the top 2% in the country, so it's a bit unfair for me to judge on that alone. Roughly half the professors knew what they were talking about, taught what they said they would in classes, and were reasonable or a little hard on the work load. The other half, however… Well, I took an Intro to Philosophy course that was stated to cover most of the major philosophical schools of thought since Socrates, but the teacher ignored all that and instead focused on minute details of Utilitarianism. In another class I had an absolutely brilliant teacher, but she spent most of the class time lost in a tangent and often flunked students because their citations did not follow exact MLA format.

I feel that most of the school's problems derive from it's location: a small commuter town outside of Little Rock, far from any shops beside Walmart and any cultural locations beside chapels. Relocate the college into a larger city and I believe it would be much better, but it is where it is, and that is not a great place.