Portland State University

Date: Jun 06 2014
Major: Economics (This Major's Salary over time)
For a town that loves a good protest, the faculties of PSU are unusually at odds with everyone, not just the students or other faculty. There is a sense of bitterness in most of the professors, stemming from a different generation when having a higher degree meant being smarter or more respectable. This means professors are unwilling to relate to you or give you even a single chance to express what you are best at because "well, you only have a 2-year so I don't expect you to understand where I'm coming from." Simply put, education comes second to indoctrination. Rote memorization is rewarded while a firm understanding of a topic isn't required to stand out as a good student. The people who go to PSU are here for several reasons, chief amongst them either being saving the world or getting out of Portland, which immediately shines a light on the big difference between the people attending classes. However, my gripe is with the teachers. They take full advantage of these two kinds of students and pick and choose who will be their fans when they finally write their novel or take a stand against the college administrators for a raise. If you are not pals with your professor, your work will not be graded fairly. If you ARE, your work will not be graded fairly but you won't complain about it. PSU is a character on Portlandia, a campus that has zero crime but no one feels comfortable, a staff that always has better things to do than their own job, several buildings full of classrooms (including they share with the dorms) but barren of any regularly-attended clubs. At least Portlandia is billed as a comedy while attending the laughs die pretty fast when you attend PSU because you realize you're paying to be the butt of the joke. Wikipedia articles are not good sources for papers but it doesn't prevent the teachers from reading them to you in class. It's cheaper to watch youtubes and read wikipedia entries at home than to spend the amount of money on degrees here. And if that doesn't convince you, be sure to note "cluster" classes and capstones. You are required to take 3 upper-division classes not in your major that share a common theme. These classes are always a waste of money and time and the available themes are all the same with different names: morality, social change, gender studies, etc. You will be here for years if you consider it and if you are not a card-carrying Libertarian who bought Macklemore's album, PSU is not the place for you.