Belmont University

Date: Nov 23 2014
Major: Business - Management and Administration (This Major's Salary over time)
Belmont. Belmont. BELMONT. First piece of advice: don't fall for their marketing.

Belmont University is a school trying to expand its student body by reeling in as many "bodies" as possible promising them an "amazing, faith-based experience." Belmont is one of the least religious-observing communities I have been a part of. By "religious," Belmont is referring to close-mindedness about race, diversity, Catholicism, just about any other religious group outside of the Christian denominations. The President, Robert Fisher, "affectionately" referred to as "Bob" (Who happens to be paid an salary over $1,000,000 - second only too top ivy league university president's salaries) remarked in an on-campus forum that he did not want to allow fraternities and sorties on campus that "segregated" their students. By this, he was referring to African American sororities and fraternities.

Belmont is an expensive school given that it does not maintain its facilities on the inside well and does not seem to care if its curriculum reflects academic standards and relevant real world material. The way the school presents itself is a good metaphor for how the school is. On the tour, the student will hear about how "amazing" the professors are and "caring" the on campus community is…they will see how beautiful the gardens are and how smiley the students are. In reality, there is fear behind that smile. There is wasted money pumped into those gardens. There are lies in those promises.

The truth is, no one at Belmont really gives a sh*t about you. They simply don't care… The professors, administration, and boards are all participating in a self-serving institution that exists mainly to expand itself by collecting tuition from students, slapping a degree on their name, and shooing them out. The students at Belmont operate on a fear-based paradigm. In my three years at this university, I feel that I have been unable to make any REAL connections with people on campus, no matter how involved I get. Everyone in the business school sees you as competition, not as a person. Most of the core curriculum is just busy work, not actually material you can develop intellectually from.

This school aims to become "University of Nashville" but it far from merits academically and integrally to do so. They teach you how to present yourself well at Belmont, but they do not teach you how to become a "well-rounded" student as they advertise heavily in their marketing.

The place is like Soviet Russia. You walk on campus, and it feels like a conspiracy, a cult. People smile at you. Then you realize, after a couple of months, they are just judging you… sizing you up and comparing you to the next piece of meat walking behind you.

I hardly remember the past three years I have been here, they have all been a useless, money burning blur. The classes. The material. The students. The suppressed voices and spirits of the student body. The didactic apathy of the administration and professors which manifests itself in a slew of unnecessary, controlling rules. The teachers put on the face of caring, but deep down they couldn't any less. Everything about this school is fake. "Friends" you make are fake, the athletics, math, science, english, art and law departments are all jokes. The business school is out of date. The music school is good, but overcapacity… and no one is doing anything about it except accepting more students. The administration puts on a fake front to look like a good school in the community. If you want to come here for music, fine, you will be challenged. Other than that, Belmont is not qualified to give 80% of the degrees it issues to its students since it is so focused on the money so and little on the students.