Case Western Reserve University

Date: Nov 13 2014
Major: Other (This Major's Salary over time)
Going to CWRU has been the biggest waste of time and money imaginable. I came in as a BME major (as do 50% of freshman) and changed to biology the first day of classes. I endured classes with 300+ students for my entire first semester and learned absolutely nothing of use. The teachers all taught from the slides and did not care if you had class during their office hours. The professor for BIO 214 was openly dismissive of students because she is a dean and has better things to do. The two teachers for that class actually went under investigation and probation for failing too many students. Next semester I took all seminar style courses which still had, on average, 25 or more students, meaning that only the most boisterous students got to talk.

Humanities is an absolute joke at this school. If you are anything other than pre-med or engineering, you will be scorned, told that your major is useless, and generally ignored. Humanities professors are given the worst offices (four teachers jammed in an office that is half the size of a STEM professor's) and given no budget whatsoever. STEM professors don't care if their students pass or fail because they are too concerned with their own research to offer office hours. Students stay in their dorms and complain about how boring Cleveland is, but they have probably only gone into the city once for a mandatory class outing.

I do not feel as though I have learned anything of significance at this school despite the numerous departments I have taken classes in. Barring two courses this semester that I actually enjoy, it has been difficult to get out of bed for even a class at 11:30 because it seems to pointless to go. It was even worse when all my classes were 300 people because all the lectures are posted online and you can rewatch them at any time, so most students just don't go to class.

I haven't met a single person at Case who isn't a freshman who enjoys this place. I know more 5th year seniors than I do sophomores. By the time the end of sophomore year comes around, students begin to realize what a terrible mistake they have made but they feel like they need to stick it out because Case is a "great" school and the only reason they are miserable is because their grades aren't good enough. Students here only care about grades. Everyone wears sweatpants every day (which may not seem like a big deal, but it gets to be really depressing) and a lot of students do not even change out of their pajamas.

The administration is a joke. They don't care about students at all. The only office worth going to is the Study Abroad Office, but their best advisor left and it has been going downhill. The Office of Student Employment never pays you on time, if they even have it in their system that they're supposed to pay you. Be prepared to wait two months for a 60 dollar check. You are a number at this school and no one here will encourage you to get to know your classmates. You better have a pretty great roommate because that's your best ticket to making friends, otherwise it's nearly impossible because no one wants to talk after class or anywhere on campus.

I know this is long-winded, but I have had the worst experience here. Luckily, I am transferring this semester, but a lot of the friends I have made here say they are already in too deep to transfer. The most common phrase I hear around Case is, "I only have two and a half years left," followed by, "what did you get on that test?"

Do not come here unless you are a socially incapable genius who love rote memorization and teachers who require you to learn on your own. Don't expect to be happy here even if you are an optimistic person. This school will crush any passion you have for the subject you are studying and you will keep telling yourself, "I'll be out of here in three years…"