Johnson & Wales University - Providence

Date: Apr 23 2011
Major: Business - Management and Administration (This Major's Salary over time)
Beware of the financial & academic advisers/services, they will always lose paperwork I had to turn in my tax returns 4 separate times for one term and they were lost each time. Holds will be placed on your account at random, In my case for not signing the Stafford loan, which I declined every time. I lost my schedule for that mishaps twice, once for not having my health records winter term sophomore year (seemed to have disappeared during the first trimester). It took them four attempts to finally get the health records back on track, I had to send them in certified mail at last. The list of lost paper work continues for four years.

On to the actual academics themselves, I am graduating with a 3.7 GPA and it was easy to do. So if an easy but extremely expensive degree is what someone is looking for this could be the place. Almost all of the tests for every class are basic memorize and regurgitate set-ups with little room to fail. An example of basic class work would be the

Advanced English Composition

where the course work involves reading 1984 (eighth grade material) and discussing Coca Cola print ads. Kinda of sad but it also explains why the credits from JWU wont really transfer to any other school. Once you've dropped the money for an associates there is no other place to go.

During my culinary years the classes were fun and there were a handful of good teachers. That being said there were a fair number of chefs that were clearly there for the easy pay and not to pass on knowledge to the students. The student body ranks among some of the lowest anyone would expect to find at a "university" due to the non-existent entry standards. All of those kids in high school that everyone knew couldn't pull through a higher degree ended up here at JWU. That isn't to say there aren't great students but they are harder to find than one would expect.

In the end I really wish I chose a real university to attend and I would be leaving college with a degree that actually holds a value in the future. The kicker is I could have done it for a third of the cost. I know of many people, a few of them close friends, that are entering the culinary field where the pay will be painfully low for many years with debt exceeding $50,000.00. That is considered in the mid-range of the JWU debt scale, some will graduate with close to $74,000.00 for a four year degree. A lot of money for degrees that are among some of the lowest initial earnings on file. Sure people are supposed to in culinary for love of the business but a financial hole like that takes many, many years to recover from.

As the motto goes "When all else fails, go Johnson & Wales"