Monmouth University

Date: Sep 15 2014
Major: Communications (This Major's Salary over time)
I'm a senior at Monmouth and I have pretty mixed feelings about my time here overall. First off, if Monmouth didn't offer you a substantial financial aid package, do not go here. There's really nothing about the school that warrants the $30,000 price tag and I really regret choosing it, on that reason alone.

That being said, there are positive aspects to Monmouth, particularly if a small campus and "close-knit" feeling is something that is important to you. Unlike a large university like Rutgers, you feel like a person here and not a number. Everyone is genuinely helpful, from professors to advisors to pretty much any staff member. The faculty is overall impressive and approachable - they know their stuff and they are dedicated to helping you, rather than feeling like an enemy. Academically, I have been pretty happy with the school and feel that I've had plenty of interesting and challenging classes.

Where the school falters is social life and community. I'm a commuter student and I have found it exceedingly difficult to make friends here. Part of that is the student body strikes me as mostly pretty stuck-up (a lot of trust fund kids here), but a lot of it is because things like extracurriculars are clubs are almost exclusively offered either at night or on weekends, not exactly convenient for those of us who live at home and work when we're not in class. If you're okay with a school where you go to class and leave then it shouldn't be a problem, but if you're looking for a place to make lifelong friendships, Monmouth may not be that place. And it's not just limited to commuter students - I know plenty of people that lived here and then transferred because the social life and the clubs/fraternities here are all about who you know and whether you're with the "in" crowd. The small school focus is great for academics but it fosters a clique-y enviornment when it comes to social life that is really detrimental to what college should be about. There is no sense of school pride or community here. People barely even interact with anyone that's outside of their group of friends. It's all about making your designated group of friends, sticking to them and not letting anyone else in, which is just not the kind of environment I was looking for.

That said, I considered transferring several times and ultimately stuck it out and chose to stay. There are things that I like about the school and that keep me here, and if there were a state school that were $10,000 cheaper I would probably classify it as a good school that's totally worth the money. But even with overall strong academics, it's just not worth the high price because of what the school lacks in social life and community, and while I like my professors and my major, I don't doubt I could've found something equally as good somewhere cheaper and with a better community.