Suffolk University

Date: Dec 10 2012
Major: Physics (This Major's Salary over time)
I went to Suffolk purely for financial reasons, namely the rather large scholarship I received through the school. I see now that this was a mistake. I had the opportunity to attend other schools, Northeastern, Umass, and a couple of others but the price was not quite right.

In hindsight i relise i never should have gone here. I had subtle hints given to me by family friends and some of my father's business clients( Most of these people had Ivy league education or very high quality non-ivy).

My first set of problems began at orientation, most notably when we registered for classes. I registered as a physics major; however, there was a problem with the math placement exam, that being that i could not access it and i brought this up with the staff involved in registering us for classes. They said they would rectify this issue and put me in the correct class. They did not. Instead i find out during the first week of classes that they put me in the second lowest math class offered at the university; far from adequate for University Physics.

This leads me into my next problem; good luck trying to change any of your classes, especially if you have to go through the department head to do so. It took me two weeks and multiple emails to get a response and by then it was too late to transfer without a penalty, discounting the fact that I would now be weeks behind. This left me suffering through Physics without the math requirement as i would not be able to pay the fee that would be incurred. This was quite problematic, and still is (I am typing this review for the school the day before my Physics final) considering that i now lack the math to do most of the higher tier problems without a page and a half of algebra. This also makes getting the homework (25% of final grade) done as i lack the math to do this homework in an efficient manner, resulting in that homework taking far longer than it should, making it interfere with other class assignments.

The teacher also said multiple times that he would post video lectures to get us up to speed on the material (he was out for over a week and we are behind five chapters), none have been posted and it is the day before the final exam.

The Lab requirement associated with the class is also a waste of time. This lab is so simple that the 9th graders at my old high school could probably do the class with little difficultly, hardly befitting of a UNIVERSITY level physics course.

I also had two other teachers that were very condescending and would reprimand students for something as simple as asking a question. One teacher in particular would border on verbal abuse at times.This particular teacher also had a very thick russian accent that make it difficult for the class to understand her and her hygiene or lack there of, was terrible. Fortunately for me, i (she teaches math) had covered everything she taught in sophomore year of high school so i never had to ask questions; however, unfortunately attendance is mandatory.

Overall I am very unhappy with what education i have received so far at Suffolk. I intend to transfer at the end of the spring semester. I currently am just going to take required classes to fill certain requirements (ethics and such) for next semeseter in order to try and fluff my GPA up a bit as Physics and incompetence on the staff's part resulted in it taking a beating. (Current GPA 3.2; High School with APs/Honors 3.8/4). Hopefully I will be able to salvage the situation; (Maybe if i can somehow pull high marks in the upcoming semester i could get my GPA to a 3.7 or 3.8)however, I am quite worried about my transfer options given how this semester went. I am currently looking into the schools i applied to previously along with possibly calling in some favors from some family friends with alumni status/donor status at other schools to better my chances. Do yourself a favor and think twice before making my mistake.

The list of complaints goes on; however, those are just the highlights.