Northern Kentucky University

Date: Dec 21 2011
Major: Undecided (This Major's Salary over time)
I am a older student who graduated from a 4-year university some time ago. I came to NKU to help with a difficult career change and my time there has not been fun.

As I said, I am an older student so I don't care that NKU has no campus life. Most of my professors have been pretty good and helpful but the Administration sucks really really bad.

First, some background. I spent two years working on my lower division at a junior college and then did my upper division at a 4-year university. Not once in all that time did I have to check my school email. When I transferred to the 4 year school to finish out my degree I saw my counselor twice - once when I came in and then once when I was about to graduate. The only two departments that I ever had to interface with (outside of my major) was admissions and financial aid.

NKU is a totally different animal. The administration forces me to see a counselor EVERY semester and they put holds on my records so I can't register for classes until I see them (remember now, I already have a BA degree so I know what I am doing). In any case, my counselor is so busy it takes me two weeks to get an appointment so it is very frustrating.

This past semester I did not fill out an online survey that was sent to my school email account and the administration put a hold on my records so that I could not see my grades for two weeks after they were posted (yes, this is a college not a high school).

Earlier in the year, I had a bunch of holds on my records because the admissions office screwed up on my transfer and I had to spend 6 hours, go to 5 different departments, AND IT IS STILL SCREWED UP.

My counselor has been trying talk me into becoming a nursing major even though there is not a nursing shortage in the Cincinnati region so jobs are very hard to get. Its like he just wants me stay longer so I can keep giving the school more money.

The school also forces students to do almost EVERYTHING online. Want your syllabus for a class? Go online. Want to do your homework? Go online. Want talk to a counselor? Go online. VERY important information will oftentimes ONLY be relayed to you via college email so… wait for it… GO ONLINE!

The university itself is ugly as hell. I have heard that it was modeled after a school in Florida and built for constant air flow through the campus. This may make since in Florida but in northern Kentucky it is really stupid. News Flash: It can get very cold up here in the winter. I am always hearing people complain about how cold it is on campus because of the wind. Then, to make matters worse, the campus is mostly made of concrete so it radiates heat in the hot season. So, there you go, A university in the northern part of country that is built to be cold in the winter and then hot in the summer… genius I tell you.

Outside of those things, NKU students are mostly made up of whiny teenagers who really don't want to be in school and are only there so their parents won't kick them out of the house. Many of them don't care about their grades and somehow think that they are going to get a good job studying Drama or Art History.

The only good sides to NKU is the professors, who I have generally liked. And the fact that NKU is a fairly cheap school to go to. However, If I had the money to go someplace else I would in a heartbeat. Do yourself a favor and stay away from NKU if you can help it.