Prescott College

Date: Feb 17 2011
Major: Biology (This Major's Salary over time)
All right I will tell it you straight, this school has its major ups and major downs and it all depends on what department you are in. I don't have much experience outside the environmental studies department because honestly all the other departments are worthless and won't ever result in a decent job…unless you want to be part of adventure education and pay $35000 a year to go rock climbing instead of growing some balls and just doing that stuff on your own.

Now your class value is entirely dependent on which teacher you get, the majority of them are grossly under-qualified recent college graduates who have no business teaching a college level course. However if you choose wisely and pick classes with real instructors who actually know what they are talking about then there ya go that will be a worthwhile class with a professor who really does care for their students and will take the time to get to know you and make a connection with each of their students. Unfortunately those real professors are hard to come by as the school completely undervalues hiring and providing a decent salary to those qualified to actually teach and instead prefers taking the cheap way out and hiring nobodies with usually no more than a BA or maybe a masters if you get lucky.

As for the environmental studies department, like I said before it mostly depends on what teacher you get however it is worth mentioning how underfunded the department is. There are no real labs and only simple high school level lab equipment. Unfortunately it can be easy to just pass under the radar and copy and paste your way through a class as half the teachers are to stupid to tell the difference between a student who understands the material and a student who understands "the system".

Now if you are an aspiring marine studies/biology/science/conservation major you are in luck as this area is the hidden gem of this school. They somehow managed to open an amazing research center in mexico and offer many marine classes down there. That whole program is amazing, the teachers, the classes, the facility, the area, everything about it is worth far more than what your paying and will provide amazing experience.

Overall the school has its problems and on paper looks like a great school besides the one simple fact: they have no money, and when they do they don't know how to use it properly. You really do have to be self-motivated here, not to do well (you could be half retarded and still do well here as long as you know how to give teachers what they want), but to get a worthwhile education that has any value in it you really do have to go the extra mile but if you do you will enjoy it while doing so.

As for the social life I will say be prepared to lose at least half of the friends you make as people come and go here like an airport. There is a

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the seemingly everybody develops that is a mix of fake hippy-hippster-gay-environut-save the planet which is really annoying and pisses us normal people of. The majority of the student body is transfer between the ages of 22-25 with lots of outliers in the 28-30 range. Parties are lame and get old real fast but luckily there is loads to do outside of town in the national forest; amazing climbing, hiking, biking, swimming if you know where, camping, shooting, anything imaginable.

The town itself is terrible, the people are mean super conservative republicans that are the most intolerant people in the country. The bars, like the parties, get old real fast however booze are super cheap so that's a plus I guess. Housing is incredibly cheap as well which is nice as you will not be living on campus however be aware landlords/realty companies here are evil and will leech as much money from you as possible.

I'm sorry I would've been glad to give out my email address to answer questions however as I am still a student and this is a school of about 500 I would prefer if people didn't know who I am because yes this probably will piss off some people…yeah that happens a lot here, you've always got to be careful about what you say because your guaranteed it will piss of somebody.