Elmhurst College

Date: May 15 2012
Major: Art & Design Department (This Major's Salary over time)
I absolutely hated my freshman year here. It was one of the worst years of my life. It basically boils down to this: did you go to catholic high school and just think "Gee-whiz! I could sure go for four more years of that," or are you terrified of the thought of going to a big school? If you're not one of those two, you will be in an overwhelming minority. It's nearly equal parts super clique-y, snooty rich kids, or people who for X Y or Z are horrendously socially awkward, and are afraid of big schools. Not uncommonly, people will be both! One girl at a small "party" (the biggest "party" I went to was 5 dudes and 2 girls in an apartment) recalled being frightened by having to "walk through a sketchy neighborhood." her friend laughed and then told us that to get to the apartment, they had to walk through a Kohl's parking lot and cross the street into the Elmhurst Terrace Apartments. Anyone who has ever seen Elmhurst knows that you could basically go to sleep in the middle of the street with all of your money laid out on the ground next to you, and the worst that would happen would be the cops writing you a loitering ticket.

The social scene is abominable. Straight up, if you do not join one of the backstabby, lame (and EXPENSIVE) greek organizations, you better enjoy spending your Saturday nights watching Netflix. There is NO campus lifestyle for anyone who is not on a sports team or in a frat/sorority. People are generally put off by friendliness from strangers, and a good (estimated) 50% of the school are kids who basically go to class, and then hang out with their friends back home, and by back home I mean from 10 minutes away. On the weekends, it was VERY common to be one of 4 people left on my floor.

Now, let's talk about the facilities. These people TRICK you into thinking that it's all dandy here at orientation. They tell you stories about how people are always hanging out around the courtyard ("The Mall") or the entryway statue area, but guess what: no one does except during tours and orientations. It's like it's planned. The food they serve you at the tours is great, right? Well, they stop doing such a good job about 2 weeks into the year. Also, it's about $7 for a grilled PBJ/banana. Not exaggerating in the least.

They are obsessed with safety and tolerance. Guess what, there's NOTHING to be scared of here. The most that campus security/the RAs get people for is underage drinking or smoking pot, but usually just parking tickets. There is no crime to speak of. A former student made headlines for being jailed for a "hate crime," which was drunkenly scrawling "KKK" onto the inside of a bathroom stall. As for tolerance, remember those people who for X,Y or Z are terrified of going to a big, scary school? Well, a huge amount of those people are LGBT. I have nothing wrong with that, but on a real note, it gets old when the school focuses so much on gay rights that you begin to feel weird for being straight.

The education is a joke unless you're going into something science or music related. Every (and I mean EVERY) science class is extremely challenging, but so far none of my classes have been even as hard as freshman year of HIGH SCHOOL. Two of my classes have genuinely improved me as a student, but the rest have been EXTREMELY expensive wastes of time.

I am an art student, and the artwork that comes out of this school is about on the level of the high school I went to. Let that sink in: these people are supposed to be PROFESSIONAL level artists, but in the end, the entire graduating art class (this year, it was a "record" of 16 people) basically was marginally above high school level. Appalling. Oh, also, the tuition is getting raised, AGAIN.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, don't do what I did, and ignore this advice. I am not imagining it, and the people who warned me about things like the social situation were not imagining it. Unless you loved private high school, think that "public restrooms in dorms are an outrage" (real quote), and think that being in a tiny, infighting clique is fun, DON'T waste you're time. I am attending NIU next year and can't wait. It feels weird to interact with "normal" or just not horrible people, but it feels even weirder that dealing with these awkward creatures has BECOME normal life for me.