Oglethorpe University

Date: Jan 31 2014
Major: Communications (This Major's Salary over time)
Oglethorpe has a lot of good things and a lot of bad things. The experience is entirely what you make of it.

Don't expect campus to offer much of a social life, but with effort, there are plenty of brilliant and interesting people to meet. The "Greek Life" is a total joke and entirely irrelevant. I'm saying that as a member of a fraternity. Some people might see that as a huge benefit because it means fraternity/sorority life is not an overwhelming driver of campus culture.

The dorms rage from good to inhabitable depending on what building you're assigned. The freshman have it pretty rough because they are most likely to end up in Traer (hardly up to building code) or in the Alumni or Jacobs housing (don't worry, they got the asbestos out a while back). If you're not in one of those dorms, you can enjoy a pleasant, reclusive life on campus.

Big negative here: food and dining services. The food is awful. And not just "taste bad" awful, it is unhealthy… completely void of adequate nutrition. You cannot survive on the meal plan. Expect to spend a lot of money on groceries and eating out. I cannot stress enough how bad the food is here. They use the cheapest possible ingredients to start with, and can't even prepare it well. I've been served pizza still frozen in the middle. If they cannot cook a frozen pizza properly, how can they be expected to handle meat. The same food often appears from day to day in different forms. This constant reheating and cooling removes the essential nutrients that exist in the raw form of the protein or vegetable. I always wonder how great Oglethorpe could be if we were fed properly so that our brains and bodies could function on full capacity. Long blurb on food, but yeah, it's really really bad.

The staff here are very helpful except for a few departments. The IT department seems to never have a clue what to do. Internet and online services go down frequently with no reason. The technology is dangerously dated. I worry about the security of our personal data in the hands of such an inadequate IT department. Last semester there was an IT crisis DURING exam week where dozens of students and professors were unable to access their email or other accounts for school. Surprisingly, IT is not the worst department here. IT at least is friendly and always works to fix the many problems. Venture to financial aid and you'll find a room of people who are paid by your tuition to abuse you and humiliate you before they refuse to help you. No matter what I do to avoid it, I have never had a pleasant experience with financial aid. They will not help you. The secretary will be extremely rude to you. They will blame your lack of financial aid on you and not offer any solutions. I would love to have a real advisor look over what I'm paying because I'm pretty sure there is a cheaper way that Oglethorpe won't tell me about.

A few department shout outs though… Residence Life is extremely easy to work with and usually try to make the best out of everything for the students. I really wish Dean Hall were president and Dr. Glassman were dean because they could be the Oglethorpe dream team and save this retched school. I'm not sure what the business office does other than collect money, but my interactions with them are always extremely pleasant. The employees who work the registrar desk are some of the nicest people on campus.

Lastly, the academics at Oglethorpe are entirely up to chance. I have had professors who have changed my entire world view. I have had professors who have made me want to march into president's office and get a refund. I really recommend researching the professors in your department on RateMyProfessor because some departments have a lot of great professors then some majors hardly exist and are maintained by adjuncts. I've been very pleased with my major and the professors I've had. I hear a lot of complaining from people with other majors though.

My final note is something I have just now figured out three years into my Oglethorpe education. Coming here is a four-five year commitment. Once you start, you will not be able to transfer a lot of credits out. Oglethorpe is very much a trap in that way… once they reel you in and hold onto you for your first year, you really can't leave. I notice every year how many freshman leave after their first semester. That's really the only time you can leave. Stay any longer and you're stuck.

Stay stormy.