Point Park University

Date: Nov 30 2011
Major: Communications (This Major's Salary over time)
Point Park is truly not an awful school. That being said, it is truly not a real university. Someone else mentioned the whole high school vibe that the school gives off—that was by far one of my biggest complaints. Obviously because of the small size of the school, drama is a given, but there is definitely an immature, clique-centered hierarchy. A lot of students that you will meet are extremely vain, self-centered and to be honest, downright mean; I have theorized (and actually wrote a paper for an ENGL course that I took there on this topic) that this is because Point Park is where all who were once outcasts in high school go to re-create their own version of how high school should have been…except now they are part of the "in-crowd" and therefore treat everyone like shit. This mostly applies to a large majority of COPA, but students from all the schools seem to have this attitude.

A lot of faculty seems to be adjunct as well, which isn't always a bad thing, but most of the adjunct profs that I got weren't too great.

Now, after saying all of that, I will give credit where credit is due—if you are considering studying performing arts of any sort, go here. The Conservatory's programs are some of the nation's best, and I really do believe that it is worth every penny, that is, if you think it's worth it to major in MT or Acting (which I came to the conclusion that I didn't). Also, PPU's school of Communications is pretty legit, particularly their journalism program. I took many journalism courses during my time there, and enjoyed the ones that I did, even though some of them were a tad bit challenging. Point Park also offers some interesting and unique degrees like Sports, Arts, & Entertainment Management and Intelligence and National Security.

But honestly, if you are looking to study anything else, please consider another school!

All around, PPU is not an awful university. I spent a couple years there and even worked as an orientation leader. It's a very unique university, I'll give it that, and if you are the type of person who doesn't want to go to a normal, or "real" university then I would say at least give the campus a visit. That was what appealed to me so much in the beginning, but I ended up choosing a different path. G'luck!