The Paul Smiths College of Arts and Science

Date: Apr 02 2013
Major: Natural Resources (This Major's Salary over time)
The review that was written on PSC in September 2012 couldn't be more accurate. Before I begin bashing this place, I'll list the positives about this school:

1. One of PSC main selling points are it's strong backgrounds in Forestry, Fisheries and Wildlife, and recreation/outdoor leadership.

2. Most of the professors are good at teaching and you learn a lot. They seems really nice and want you to succeed. They are a few bad eggs , but that is the cases at most institutions.

3. The campus is beautiful. You are right on a lake and in the middle on the Adirondacks mountains.

And now for the bad:

This school is extremely boring. There's nothing ever going on. If you don't love to hunt and fish all day, especially in this winter DO NOT COME HERE. The nearest town is 12 miles away and impossible to walk to. If you don't have a car, you options on weekends in the winter(since it gets so cold you wont even want to stay outside for more than 10 minutes), sleep all day, study, or abuse drugs which is what many of the students resorts to because of the culture of this school.

Next this school is NOT cheap. It will cost between on average 30000-40000 a year to come here so many students when graduate/transfer/drop out are very deep in debt. Some students who did very well in HS or SATs will get a larger scholarship where the pay a lot less but that is a rarity. The will give you some scholarships and grants but it is still pricey.

The student body is a bit of a mis-mash of some nice people and arrogant, loud, close minded rednecks who despise anyone with differing opinions. There are SO many hicks at this who love guns, big trucks, burning diesel, killing deer, hating on Obama, smoking cigs/cigars, and just being loud and obnoxious. It gets really annoying/depressing after a while especially if you don't care for that group of people or just want a scenery because. Because there are so few students, you see the same people all the time and gets very repetitive. In a away it feels like HS all over again. There are NO girls at this school. Guys do not come to this school to get a girlfriend or even except to see the types of girls you would think you would see at a "normal college", you will be very disappointed I'm warning you now. Another problem that the guys will face is that, eventually, most girls go through a stage where they think they are gods gift to the guys because of all the attention they get(even the unattractive/fat women). That those few that were average in high school feel like models at PSC and due to the 70/30 guy girl ratio and only 1000 students there is a big competition for girls and if you want to start a relationship with a girl you will most likely have to compete with 3 to 4 other guys who want the same thing. In summary the whole school is a big Sausage fest that nurture to Girls getting big egos.

As far as the resident halls and dining center. The food really inst all that bad, but if you don't like what they are serving, you usually don't have any other options because there is only one DH on campus. One complaint I do have is the hours. They are only open until 430pm to 6pm on Fri/Sat/Sun for dinner and during the week they have similar hours (12-2 lunch, weekday dinner 430-7) and if you miss it oh well you better have food in your room otherwise you starve because they shoo you out of the area because they are "closed". For gods sake how about at least staying out until 8 every night? Is that really too much too ask? There are always very long line at the serving counter because lets see, they are the only dinning hall, and have horrible hours, some people just don't get it. The resident halls are pretty good actually they have two nice halls for upperclassmen. The freshmen dorms are okay what you would expect of course because the redneck invasion means social life for those who arnt goes down the tubes very quickly. Most spent most of their time in thier rooms studying/watching tv.

I was very disappointing with my time at PSC.I never felt so depressed in my life. I really felt like I was not partaking so-called "college-experience" and that I wasted a year of the most important time in my life. I mean f you're willing to waste about 36,000 a year at a school that's way out of town and if you are the "redneck" type of student and would enjoy the things I mentioned and already have a girlfriend or many connections from back in HS, then you many want to look into here, other wise stay away. Anyways I transferred out of Paul Smith's after a year and never looked back. I now go to a less career-oriented Community Coll and I'm exploring options. Good luck Paul Smith's students!