Austin Peay State University

Date: Aug 25 2010
Major: Communications (This Major's Salary over time)
GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!!! I am a non-traditional student. I transferred to APSU after receiving my AS at a community college. Initially my major was music but I quickly found out that ability was of little value until further into the semester. The first week of classes, I had horrid experiences with the faculty in the music department as well as the education department. If I asked a question I almost always was referred to 'my advisor' which I had not been given, so inevitably was 'referred to' so & so in such & such department who also was unable to answer questions. I was trying to juggle a full time job, performing with the group I sang with in the Nashville area, and a full load of classes; I'd been awarded a scholarship, but quickly realized I'd have to let it go. I was basically told that I had to choose between my job & school. Well, eating & keeping health insurance was important to me, so I chose to keep my job, let go of the scholarship, drop classes & still did not have an advisor. The department secretary was sooooo rude to me every time I went into the office with a question and I still to this day have no idea why. When I asked for a book listing of classes she pointed in the direction to where they were at and then said very sarcastically,'As a matter of fact, there's a whole box of them…you can take those too if you want.' As she smurked at me I took the one book & walked out. It would be a month and a half or so before receiving an advisor & she quickly encouraged me NOT to major in music due to my work schedule & prior commitments with the band. Although I worked hard, & accomplished everything she put before me (she was my private voice teacher as well), she mentioned one day that 'opera obviously wasn't' what I wanted to do. As a music student I wanted to know about all kinds of music…She was very wrong in her assumption. I'd even tried to open up to a choir director but he spoke out about & mocked the conversation we'd exchanged in front of the whole class one day. He didn't mention my name, but due to the content of what he was saying, I knew he was referring to me. SO UNPROFESSIONAL!

After this harrowing semester I changed my major to Mass Communications thinking that would solve the issues. From the beginning I felt that I was being TOLERATED & wasn't respected because I wasn't fresh out of high school. I was quickly bored, lost interest, & even had an online professor who never gave instructions to the assignments, then disappeared for about 3-4 weeks of an 8 week class. Regardless of the department, it was more of the same; hurry up and wait for nothing. I was corrected for asking questions for my online class in the "WRONG FORUM" & instructed to "NEVER DO THIS AGAIN". Why not just answer the question or send me an email?

In addition to all of this craziness, there were girls being raped, strange men walking the perimiter of the school during the day (one of which would talk to himself while riding his bike about how horrible the white folks are…geez. He had a habit of looking at you in a threatening manner…not sure if he'd ever do anything or not.) There were stories of study groups that were really parties that offered drugs & alcohol…after hearing of this I never attended a study group. The library personell always seemed to be bothered by any questions you had to ask, so I tried never to go in there unless absolutely necessary. LET ME STRESS that getting a question of any kind answered at this university is almost an impossibility. Also, the apartment complex I'd thought about looking into moving to was actually the scene of a couple who'd kidnapped a child, held her hostage in a room there, then when authorities found out the people burned the apartment with the child in it. Unfortunately alot goes on in a military town which Clarksville is…PLEASE THINK TWICE BEFORE DECIDING TO ATTEND APSU!!! LOOK INTO ANY & ALL OTHER OPTIONS FIRST!!!

When I transferred to APSU it was my hope that I'd finally finish a degree there. It took 2 semesters, but I came to my senses. All is not lost, the credits I received while at APSU transferred to the university I'm enrolled at now.

Again, unless you want to be belittled, embarrassed, laughed at, shunned & pushed aside, please LOOK ELSEWHERE for your scholastic needs.