The University of South Carolina - Columbia

Date: May 31 2016
Major: Other (This Major's Salary over time)
I went to the University of South Carolina for my Master's degree and was a graduate assistant. The way I was treated by the faculty and staff was abhorrent. Repeatedly they were unable to complete basic actions such as have hiring paperwork in to offices in time for GAs to receive pay checks in a timely manner. The professors were unable to have grades in to the graduate school in a timely manner. Repeatedly, emails to the director of the program I was in were responded to in an unprofessional, and to be entirely honest, incredibly rude manner. With a program that harps on professionalism, I found this quite disheartening. The program director is overstretched with too many duties and only cares about her research and receiving grant funding for her projects instead of actually caring about her students. I felt many times as though any of my emails and meetings were just an inconvenience to the professors and that they did not care about me as a student. Assignments were never intellectually stimulating and felt more like busy work than anything else. As a Master's degree student, busy work is not appreciated especially when your graduate assistantship causes a busy schedule. Overall, I had a negative experience at the University of South Carolina and would strongly suggest someone choose a different institution for an advanced degree.