The University of North Carolina - Charlotte

Date: Sep 19 2016
Major: Computer Science (This Major's Salary over time)
My Dad was transferred to NC, so I transferred to UNCC solely to be near my family. It was a huge mistake. I lost nearly 2/3 of my credits from my home university because UNCC did not recognize the courses as valid.(My former home university is actually a LOT better than UNCC). I was an above-average student in high school as well as in my freshman year before transferring to UNCC. I made good grades at UNCC, but I found my curriculum to be inadequate for competing in the real world. Worse, the university cranks out so many graduates with my degree that the pay is ridiculously low. One would think that with a degree in computer science that I'd have a much better paycheck than I do. $29,000 per year for doing data entry at a major bank was not what I envisioned for my life. I have applied for positions outside of Charlotte only to be ignored. I can't compete in the Charlotte market nor can I compete outside the Charlotte market because (I believe) my degree isn't valued too highly.

I live on-campus even though my family lives in Belmont. I transferred out of one dorm because it was an absolute nightmare with noise and bugs.

The campus isn't as safe the school would like you to believe. I read a UNCC report that there were 35 on-campus rapes last year.

The surrounding apartments are rife with crime. Car break-ins are frequent on-campus as well as off- campus. Though I have a bicycle, I do know that parking fees are astronomical ($450-500 per year or close to that)and parking spaces are difficult to find.

The surrounding area is ghetto-like, and though it is believed that the rail line will spare students the problem of dealing with the thugs on the bus, the thugs will ride the rail as well. I'm not sure how many students the rail line will serve. There's not much to do downtown. There are a lot of bars, but the drinking age is 21, so what's the point? There's no shopping to speak of either. Worse, there is almost nothing to do on campus on weekends because UNCC is a commuter college. The school continues to speak of the many dozens of clubs on campus, but when most members live with mommy and daddy, how many activities do you expect to find on campus on a Saturday night? Not many.

It isn't too difficult to guess that the faculty isn't too happy about teaching at UNCC. Many are graduate students who would rather be anywhere but in a class room teaching freshmen, and even more are part-time professors who are probably sweeping floors at night.

Crime in the surrounding area is bad. You can count on 50-70 crimes within walking distance of campus every day.

I am no genius, but I wondered how most of my class mates were allowed entry into college and WHY they attended college.

The campus is attractive and the class buildings are new, but there is nothing special about UNCC. It seems to be like a huge high school.