Temple University

Date: May 08 2011
Major: Anthropology (This Major's Salary over time)
Over all Temple is a pretty great place. If I were not living in a dorm and didn't have a meal plan, I think I would have enjoyed it.

I'm shy, so I think I would have had trouble making friends anywhere, so I don't really blame Temple for that. I feel like my education is pretty decent; it's likely that I would have had a few crap professors at any university.

But like I said, the housing situation here is awful. My first semester here, I almost didn't get a dorm because of my transfer status. I eventually just took whatever room was available out of fear that I wouldn't get one at all. So I ended up in a 6 person suite. My roommates partied a lot. They kept me awake until 4-5 am every night, and I had 8 am classes. The girl I shared a room with used to get drunk and pee on things. My RA was completely useless. He told me to talk to the housing office about trying to move out if I didn't like it. Unfortunately, the housing office would not even allow me to put in a room change request until the next semester. It was literally the worst time of my life feeling so helpless and the RAs and housing pretty much ignoring me.

Also, don't get a meal plan. The food isn't so bad, really, but it's overpriced. Housing will lose your meal plan anyway. I am on of 5 people that I know that signed up for a meal plan, but somehow it never went on our bills and we were never able to actually get the food. This comes as a surprise when you get in line to pay during your first week.

Also, the security guards around the residence halls are disgusting. They call me "sweet meat" and I've had them follow me to the entrance of my building asking me for my phone number.

My experiences with the Temple housing and dining offices were more stressful than I can adequately express here. The employees are rude and unhelpful. In my entire life I have never felt that what I had to say was so irrelevant as I did the day I talked to my RA and RD about getting out of that room.

By all means, go to Temple. It's great being in the city, and the teachers are great. There are lots of clubs to get involved in and there are great people around. Do NOT live in the dorms though. Don't get a meal plan, and just don't get involved with the housing office. It's much cheaper to get a house in South Philly with roommates anyway.