Salisbury University

Date: Mar 03 2011
Major: Biology (This Major's Salary over time)
This is the third college I have been to, and its worst. In fact, after considering all the other colleges I have visited, its the absolute worst college I have ever seen. What stands out the most to me is the terrible location. Salisbury has got to be the most dangerous area on the Eastern Shore, and in the one year I have been here I have heard about more crimes against students than in my three years combined elsewhere (also on the Shore). One of my friends had a knife pulled on him while walking to the store, another friend's neighbors came into his house and pulled a gun on him, and a few years back an entire gang of hoodlums crashed a party off campus and beat everyone in the house with brass knuckles. Everywhere you look, students are getting robbed and attacked. I wish I was making all this up, because its so damn ridiculous, but its all true, and the ENTIRE CITY is like this. If you go to this college and dont live on campus (which is the majority of students, as until recently, on-campus accommodations have been few) its only a matter of time until you are hit by one form of crime or another. SU tries to make it look like security is tight, with all the campus police running around everywhere, but all those cops do is drive around on their Segways issuing parking tickets and yelling at kids for riding skateboards and bikes in crowded places.

Everything else about this college is pretty average, if not a bit below average. The buildings on campus are just barely big enough to accommodate the number of students here, and some are showing their age. A lot of people rave about The Commons, SU's main dining facility, but let me assure you that there is nothing to get excited about. It seems cool at first because its so big, but after a few weeks you realize that the food is not that impressive at all, the same old college fare that you see anywhere. And Lobster Night is a total joke, they are the WORST lobsters I have ever tasted.

Social life is mediocre as well. If you love to get drunk every night, you will fit in well here. There are a few crappy bars just off campus that a lot of people go to, and there are fraternities and sororities, but the real social scene is with the sports teams (who tend to be assholes, and haze their freshmen WAAAAAAY more than any fraternity or sorority on campus does). However, this school HATES parties, and loves policing anyone that is not on a sports team that gets caught at them. While there are a ton of fraternities on campus, they make up an incredibly small proportion of the student population (something like 3% I think, divided over 7 or 8 fraternities), and the school is intent upon screwing them over every chance they get. Sororities seem to get off a little easier, or at least manage to avoid the myriad troubles that the fraternities constantly find themselves in, and in general are in a much better position and are more popular. There are a lot of other clubs on campus, and I personally have had no problem making tons of friends in them and elsewhere on my own. There are a lot of student-organized events, and there is always something going on if you look hard enough. For example, we had a comedian here just the other night, there are frequent movie showings, concerts, plays, etc.. All kinds of stuff, if thats what you are into.

The only real high point of this school is the academics. I have not yet met a lousy professor, with almost all of them exceeding my expectations. They are all super nice and extremely helpful. The classes are challenging, but not impossible. As far as this goes, I am pretty satisfied. However, I am sure that other colleges would but just as good, if not better, in this area.

All in all, the ONLY reason I can see to go to this college is the price. Its one of the cheapest 4-year colleges in the area, especially for in-state students. That is the sole reason I went here, after all. You get a lot of bang-for-your-buck at SU. In the end, though, you might be left wondering if it wasn't worth spending a little extra to go somewhere nicer.

BTW, transfer students beware. The transferring process for this school is a NIGHTMARE! Easily the WORST experience I have ever had at a college. The online-application system is archaic and awkward, they DONT ACCEPT VISA FOR TUITION PAYMENTS (seriously, WTF??), and you are guaranteed to get NONE of the classes you want or need, and a lot of your transfered credits will probably NOT be accepted or applicable to your course of study. The three years I spent at other universities set me WAY back, because a lot of my credits were worthless with SU's curriculum. Even though this is my fourth year of college, I will be here at SU for at least 2 more years before I get close to finishing my BA, thanks to their degree requirements. SU is also increasing the amount of credits that its classes are worth, so you might get screwed over by having your transfered credits coming up short despite the classes being equivalent.