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Knox College

How this student rated the school
Survey is Blank
Describes the student body as:
Arrogant, Snooty, Closeminded

Describes the faculty as:
Arrogant, Self Absorbed

Male
Quite Bright
Lowest Rating
Educational Quality
F
Highest Rating
Individual Value
C+
He cares more about Friendliness than the average student.
Date: Sep 28 2010
Major: Undecided (This Major's Salary over time)
I transferred here from a community college as a non-traditional student. I was told the same thing as all prospective students; Knox is great, the small class size means you know your peers and the faculty on a first name basis, and Knox graduates go on to do great things. I have met successful Knox graduates, but that does not make up for the fact that the college is for the most part sub-par.

Knox College is situated in the beautiful backwoods of Galesburg, Illinois. Galesburg is the prime example of the rural ghetto. If you do decide to come here, do not leave campus. Academy Street, which makes one of the borders of the Knox campus is famous for being rife with crack dealers and other criminals. I have personally not been attacked yet, but I felt safer walking down the streets of Los Angeles in the dead of night than walking around Galesburg at any point during the day.

The facilities are practically falling apart. The college is so wrapped up in its historical importance of being one of the Lincoln-Douglas debate sites, but this is just an excuse to leave their aging buildings in severe disrepair. The Alumni Building, which has been in repair for years apparently, is the biggest eyesore on this campus. But don't expect the college to fix that any time soon, or really ever.

Classes are a joke. Smaller class sizes would be great if every class wasn't filled with self-important students full of unwarranted arrogance. Professors lecture haphazardly and make no attempt to teach the material that they expect that you've "learned." Discussion based classes have no structure. Prepare for your professors to talk down to you, dumb down the subject matter, or simply ignore topics that they don't feel are important.

The coursework is no more rigorous than the curriculum at a community college. True, you might have more writing assignments and less scantron tests, but that doesn't mean you learn more. You simply are given far more busy work than is justified. But as has been mentioned, professors will make any effort they can to "challenge" you. By the way, this is Knox code speak for justifying giving you a low grade so that they can return to their offices and blather to the other faculty about how hard they "push their students." Forget "Veritas"; pay your fees and get your Bs seems to be the real motto here.

Speaking of fees, the fees are exorbitantly high. The financial aid office will offer you an extremely generous financial aid package, but even for low-income students this will still come up a few thousand short of the total cost of attendance. If you are unable to pay these fees immediately, then you have to deal with the business office. They'll be sure to berate you thoroughly and shake you down for the money, threatening you with a business hold that can potentially end your dining privileges and other necessities of campus life. There is no equal opportunity in this. The payment plans they office are tantamount to highway robbery for a low-income full-time student working a ten hour a week work-study job.

Student life here is awful. Students here are the most obnoxious I've met in my entire life. They are cliquish, entitled, and worst of all, boring. If you have any political opinion other than suburbanite liberal, do not come here. Entitled children will parrot the latest liberal ideology they learned in class without any critical reflection. I say this as someone who is generally considered ultra-liberal.

After a week on campus you will start to have nightmares of high school part two. The entire atmosphere of the "Knox community" feels like an inbred family reunion. Knox graduates are almost incestuous in their post college relationships with alumni and current students. It's like attending a high school reunion, except everyone is even more obsessive in how they talk about their "Knox experience." If you are a student and you happen to run into an alum, it's akin to running into the high school football hero. A lot of talk about the glory days and how awesome Knox College is.

If you are considering applying here, please be sure that a liberal arts college experience is what you want. Not only that, but make sure you research other liberal arts colleges too. Do not, and I'm serious, do not ever ask a Knox graduate for their advice. They're so smug about choosing Knox over a "big box university" that they are blind to the obvious deficiencies of the college. If you live in Illinois, consider University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois at Chicago, DePaul University or Northwestern. Champaign and Chicago have more modern facilities, and are located in cities which are not the rural ghetto of Western Illinois. Part of the college experience should be enjoying life in and around your school, meeting tons of new people, and most of all having access to diverse faculty and resources to help you grow as an individual. Knox will not do this for you. Knox will stifle you. The smug student body will be too busy congratulating themselves on how unique and awesome they are for choosing Knox, and this attitude will not cease even when they leave the Knox bubble and continue on to pursue their post-college lives. The self-absorbed faculty will destroy your GPA for the sake of their reputation among their peers, unless you ingratiate yourself to them.

Bottom line is don't waste your time here. I'm getting out as soon as possible.

Responses
responseI loved Knox it's only what you make it! That's life! I'm in dental school now and I feel very prepared.
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