The Kutztown University of Pennsylvania

Date: Mar 01 2017
Major: Business - Management and Administration (This Major's Salary over time)
I had high hopes coming to KU. I graduated from high school as an AP Scholar, member of the National Honor Society, and a slew of extra-curricular activities. I was drawn to Kutztown when they offered me their highest level academic scholarship. When I talked to a counselor regarding it, she seemed very surprised that someone with my academic credentials intended to come to KU. This should have been the first red flag because a 3.5 GPA isn't all too great and she made me sound like a rocket scientist.

So let's start with the dorms. I live in one of the freshly-renovated dorms. It's nice and all, but the rooms are absolute ovens. Poor ventilation, no air conditioning. Required to live on-campus 1-2 years (3 years as part of my scholarship).

Food

South Dining Hall was recently renovated. First floor has two drink areas, a "pantry", coffee/baked goods area, pizzeria/hot subs/etc and a burger place. These are the ONLY dining options that are open 24/7. Upstairs closes at 8 and will often stop making food after a certain time. The upstairs food varies in two or three of the locations, otherwise there is another burger place that isn't as good and a sandwich station. Upstairs is the only place to get a salad/ice cream in South Dining Hall which, again, closes at 8pm. You're stuck with the greasy downstairs food after 8pm. The AF building has Chick Fil A and a few other places to eat. The international eatery/taco place is subpar from my experience. the Chick Fil A is ABSOLUTELY amazing. The staff there is extremely friendly and efficient; you usually get your HOT food in about 30 seconds or less. The Cub Cafe is another all-you-can-eat place at the Student union building on campus. Decent food there, also offers take-out.

Academics

The recommended freshman math courses are equivalent to your late middle school/early high school algebra courses. ABSOLUTE JOKE. I enrolled in statistics even though I took AP stat in high school. Still a joke. The overall mindset of so many students in class is something equivalent to that of an underachieving high school student (lol what a surprise considering the average GPA/scores here). Be prepared to be surrounded by a lot of kids you tried to avoid in high school in your classes.

Student Body

Oh boy. There are some nice kids on campus, let me say that first. Overall, the student body is very cliquey. Everyone sort of keeps to themselves. My next statement is not meant to be degrading in any sense. KU has tried remedying their lack of "diversity" by admitting a decent amount of minorities from the Philadelphia. The kids they've let in are NOT college material. They act ghetto and have no interest in academic work. I don't care if you're black, white, yellow, or purple, but a large portion of these kids meant to help the universities statistics are NOT college material. I don't want to hear about your "shootas getting shots off" and other garbage like that. So many kids complain about how difficult their EXTREMELY SIMPLE schoolwork is. It's blatantly annoying to anyone with a brain. Greek Life from my experience is meh. Was a PotentialNewMember at a frat, met some of the brothers and never went back. The frat guys here don't give off a classy vibe whatsoever. I'm not a huge party kid (I'm here for an education) but the party scene here is pretty dry. Everyone thinks of KU as a party school but it is seriously lame.

Miscellaneous gripes

I was told that kids in the Honors Program/higher end freshman (Which is an absolute joke, believe me) would get some sort of privileges on campus, starting with parking. This wasn't the case. I had to park my car at the fairgrounds which is a 10-15 minute walk from my dorm. When I stayed after hours at the Cub Cafe/Academic buildings to study/do work, I had to walk back to my dorm as the shuttle stops running at 4-4:30 ( mandatory $150 transportation fee for this shuttle every semester ;) I eventually got a parking pass for the dorm parking lot. I drove my car to the Northernmost parking lot to go to class and came out at the end of the day to see a ticket. I had parked in an EMPTY parking lot. Seriously, maybe 20 cars use it daily and there are over 50 empty spots. Went to Public Safety to see if they would give me a pass for that parking lot too. "No, otherwise we'd have to let everyone else park there too." No you f*cking morons, you set a limit and only give out X amount of dual lot passes. Not too hard. I'm one of your "top-tier" students and you'd at least think they'd give us some sort of privilege like that. Basically, during the academic day your car must remain at your dorm otherwise you will receive a ticket. Absolute crock of BS. The parking office employees are arrogant. The actual public safety officers themselves drive BRAND NEW Chevy trucks and small CUVs, and campus police drive brand new Police Interceptors. Rather than renovate the decrepit buildings on campus, they bought these two bodies new vehicles so they can go and hand out more unjust parking tickets and harass kids who are walking back from town at night/etc. Campus police will park on the quad and sit there for no reason whatsover.

If you want to go to a school filled with a mix of high-school rejects, underachievers, and ghetto Philly kids, come here. This place doesn't deserve your time or money. I can't wait to transfer to a more reputable university.

MY FINAL TIP FOR COLLEGE SENIORS/JUNIORS:

Apply to whatever college you LOVE! Many schools offer annual grants/scholarships that aren't factored in to the price that comes up on Google. Just apply and see what your financial aid package is! IT will save you from ending up at a garbage institution like KU.