The University of Connecticut

Date: Nov 25 2010
Major: Mechanical Engineering (This Major's Salary over time)
Alright, so I am currently a junior at Uconn. I will try to write this review without any bias, but I should first start by saying I came from out of state, with no friends entering the school.

Academically,

Uconn is very fast-pace and a lot of studying needs to be done on your own. As in, most if not all of it. Especially in engineering, a lot of times a professor will stand at the board or in front of the lecture hall and mumble theoretical nonsense that does not correspond to the homework problems, quizzes, tests, etc. I'd say 30% of my professors have been good. The rest range from mediocre or terrible, but the point I'm getting at is that you need to do all your studying on your own while placing little emphasis on your lectures.

Socially,

I came here knowing no one. It was difficult the first few weeks as I was placed in Alumni and no one on my floor besides my room mate was a freshman. He spent most of his time with close friends from high school, so I had difficult finding my own niche. Eventually, I got pretty involved on campus and through networking with people in my activities, I now have a very good set of friends. Was it a lot of work? Yes. Was it worth it? yes.

In general, I have found people here to not want to go outside their "comfort zone". This means they will mostly stick to people they knew from high school, or friends of friends. It's difficult to make friends here out of the blue unless you join something, dorms are not social and around campus people don't seem to want to mingle. (It probably has to do with the fast-paced nature of the university).

Night Life,

If you're in a fraternity you will have fun going out. If you are not but have connections, you will find some good parties. If you are not in a frat with no connections, you will go to Carriage apartments every weekend until you realize you're standing in someone's front lawn drinking beers out of your backpack. Your best bet if you don't join a fraternity is to make a great group of friends (it's difficult but worth it in the end) and just making your own fun.

Overall, if you are the type of student who has excellent study skills, can function as an individual without needing help from anyone or needing to be around people all the time, you can succeed here.

If you are someone who needs a lot of individualized attention with your schoolwork and a really good nightlife/people around you who want to talk to you, try to look elsewhere. Perhaps smaller private schools.