Georgia State University

Date: Apr 24 2012
Major: Art & Design Department (This Major's Salary over time)
If what you want out of your college experience is a less than mediocre education, partying at the club and paying a ridiculous amount of money to do anything, then you might enjoy GSU. However, if you are like me and are seeking a fulfilling and enriching environment for individual growth and to grow life-long connections, DON'T GO HERE! There are a few good professors here but they are so overburdened with students that the most they can do is give multiple choice tests, which, I'm sorry, doesn't really show you know anything. GSU doesn't really have a campus, they have just bought a bunch of random run-down buildings and converted them into classrooms. On the tour they only show you the nicer buildings, the ones you won't be spending very much time in.

Overall tuition and fees are too high for an ugly "campus", crappy dorms, an almost non-existent sports program and mediocre teachers/education. They use student teachers A LOT and most of them are horrible, you won't learn anything from them.

The administration at GSU is largely incompetent; I had to argue with them for two weeks that I didn't need to take classes that they had already given me credit for. They also lose paperwork constantly, their websites and systems are a nightmare to work with and most of the time they are completely incapable of answering questions or accomplishing anything.

Coming here I thought that since GSU is in the middle of Atlanta, their art program would be a flourishing environment of creative and inspiring minds. What a mistake I made, the art program here is a joke, the teachers don't do anything in class. They'll come in, tell you to do an assignment (ex:a wire sculpture), then go and sit in their office for the next two weeks of class until the next project. WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY! The other classes I have taken here (psychology/spanish/german/american government/global issues) were also a bit of a joke. As I mentioned previously even if the professors are good teachers, there are too many students to assign any challenging work so it's just 3-4 multiple-choice tests with the occasional essay. Doing this after coming out of the International Baccalaureate Organization (AP on steroids) I felt gypped. High school was WAY harder and enriching for me than college, and it was free!

The dorms are overpriced and not well furnished or insulated. You will be hearing rap music, random yelling and traffic noises at all hours of the day and night. The athletic center is actually pretty nice, albeit overcrowded. There are two dining halls: freshman hall is horrible and Piedmont North is decent, although as the year goes on the staff cares less and less. If you are a girl then I would recommend that you not go here, because it is not safe! Look up the crime stats, downtown Atlanta is a horrible place to live: crumbling sidewalks, homeless beggars, crazies, ghetto thugs cat calling every time you walk to class is NOT what I envisioned my college experience to be. While it is true that generally the only people that get stuff stolen were being careless by having their phone/ipad out, there are a lot of cases where students have had their phones STOLEN IN THE CLASSROOMS AND SCHOOL BUILDINGS! I don't know about you, but that's just not an environment I want to be in. There also isn't much to do around campus that doesn't cost an exorbitant amount of money to do, so you're going to be broke pretty soon if you aren't already from all the fees GSU tacks on.