Seton Hall University

Date: Feb 09 2016
Major: Business - Management and Administration (This Major's Salary over time)
There's not many things harder than admitting you chose poorly in one of the biggest decisions of your life. But that's where I'm at, because Seton Hall truly sucks.

PEOPLE: A little background, I am from the Upper MidWest and had never been to the East Coast before. I'm from a very metropolitan area, but people here continuously look down on me for where I'm from and openly make comments about me being from somewhere "uneducated" or "bumblefuck" - then say something like "So why don't you have a southern accent?". The hypocrisy in this and other matters is insane. People here (meaning Seton Hall, as far as Jersey or East Coast in general, I'm not qualified to say) actually think they're the shit when a good 3/5 people are selfish and simple minded. I thought my family was exaggerating when they told me to beware the people here. Nobody here knows how to make a true connection with people. I see cliques (of which there are many. it feels like high school.) backstabbing one another and being bitchy and its totally accepted here. My freshman year my suitemate (falsely) accused a former lover of rape and I got pulled in to it when the guy told my boyfriend he was going to "get me expelled or worse". The local police said they couldnt do anything until he actually hurt me. the school did nothing.

SAFETY: The South Orange Police are complete and utter trash of human beings. They are rude, racist, unhelpful, and break the laws themselves. This place is unsafe and not worth the tuition. Campus security is a joke, there are open ends to all the pretty gates, and the security service that works here are from a jail rehabilitation program who get high all the time. My first year of school over a dozen people were robbed at gunpoint, and one freshman had been here less than a week before he was beaten with a handgun and mugged. They have a shuttle bus, the SHU Fly, but dont believe it. It is always late, and sometimes you'll wait 15 minutes in the cold just for the driver (who barely speaks English) to drive right past you. I called the Seton Hall operator to complain one time and ask for a Safe Ride (it was 11 at night, I had just finished work, and the area is bad), and he said that he "highly doubts I was waiting that long" and when I insisted he told me I was "outside their range" and to "go fuck myself".

PARTYING: There is a lot of weed and a lot of pills, but you have to be a real partier to commonly see much else. Party scene is ok, but very Greek heavy, and you have to be known around campus to go anywhere worth while.

NEIGHBORHOOD: I work two jobs in the surrounding area, and it is complete trash, the only nice part is mainstreet, and even that is filled with ghetto trash and plenty of homeless people, and there is also a mental handicap adult home nearby that lets its wards run free and bother everybody (sorry if you're sensitive about that, but that's how it is). The armpit of America indeed.

FOOD: Awful. Even people who love it here admit that.

ATHLETICS: We rock at basketball. If you want school spirit, this place is pretty good at it. All other sports besides bball and basketball, don't even bother, you dont get funding. But we do have a swim and dive team, a rugby team, and a few other smaller ones with great team dynamics.

SCHOLARSHIPS: Seton Hall is great about scholarships. In HS I had a 3.5 GPA, great community service background, some sport involvement, and a 30 ACT, and I got a 3/4 ride. That's not even that great of n accomplishment, and people who did a lot less still got some money.

PEANUT GALLERY: I will say to take my experience with a grain of salt - lots of people here seem to love it. But they are typically C students who are from in state and just wanted somewhere easy and close to home. Campus is dead on the weekends because everybody goes back home to mommy. That's the whole vibe of most people here - unmotivated and average. You'll like it more if you're involved in a sports team or the Greek life (which by the way is also obnoxious. it completely consumes people and makes them snobby and secluded from anything without a foreign alphabet attached to it. And hazing a very real thing for about half the frats/sororities. But hey, they love it).

ACADEMICS/PROFESSORS: this is not a place to be if you are of more than average intelligence. IF you are average or below, this may be the best name on a degree you can get for your troubles. Classes are of OK caliber, but not fantastic. Most profs have other jobs and arent truly connected to what they do here. But with that said, the older I get and the higher level courses I take, the better the profs are getting.

ADMINISTRATION: horrible. bad office hours and unruly to deal with. I've been bounced around between 4 different advisers who all were bad at their job and screwed up my course work - I cant graduate with my desired degree on time now. One dean even straight up laughed at me for telling her I wanted to earn a B.A. instead of a B.S. Rude.

STUDY ABROAD: could be worse, but if this is something you really love, know that the small selection of programs with poor financing options really sucks compared to most other schools.

HEALTH SERVICES: complete joke. never open. run by graduate students. all they care about is shoving an alcohol use survey in your face and then telling you you show signs of alcoholism for having 2 drinks a week. I had Mono for 2 months before they would dignify using their materials (which my tuition and mandated healthcare goes towards) to test me, at which point I was so sick I almost failed out my first semester.

CAMPUS/FACILITIES: For the most part the campus is small and close feeling and beautiful. They put a lot of upkeep into their campus. On campus I have never heard of any violence or disturbances.

Basically, the campaigning that this school does is so "smoke and mirrors" that it edges on unlawful. I've had friends whose recruiters straight up lied to them about having their program - it literally ruined their careers before they even got a chance. For now I am staying because of the nearby NYC internship opportunities but I plan on studying abroad or transferring next fall. Literally 3 in 4 of my friends here already have.