Butler University

Date: May 03 2017
Major: Economics (This Major's Salary over time)
I write this review as a student who is happy with his first-year experience, yet has still decided to transfer schools. If you stick with me through this review, you will learn why.

Butler is an excellent school for some people. The faculty are very down to earth and friendly people. All of the professors I had were both brilliant and approachable. I made it a priority to get to know my professors through their office hours and was able to do this at Butler. However, I registered at Butler with 17 credit hours already from AP credits, plus honors and athletics priorities, so I generally had first pick when it came to selecting my classes. My advisor (S/O Professor Gjerde) was very knowledgable and helpful when it came to selecting classes. Butler will keep you on track to graduate, they will not let you get too far off course. The professors and administration made me feel like they genuinely cared about my academic and personal success. Class sizes are also super small. My average class numbered about 25 kids and all of my professors knew my name. The FBE and RBE programs in the Lacy School of Business are incredible and quite unlike anything offered at any other school. It is also quite easy to double major here.

Most of the student body is friendly if approached. However, most Butler students will not go out of their way to meet new people after a certain point in the school year, so the school gets to be quite cliquey. I understand that everyone finds their group within a school, but at Butler it felt like once people had that set group, they had no interest in meeting anyone else. Of course, this is just a generalization, there are people here that don't fit that mold. Although I imagine those people are more numerous at other schools. Butler is also dominated by Greek life. Despite the fact that Butler had only 4.5 fraternities (RIP Lambda) and 7 sororities last year, it feels like over 50% of the school is greek. I was fortunate enough to be on a varsity athletic team, so I managed to find a large, close-knit group of friends without going greek. However, I have many friends who are neither greek nor athletes, and many of them had a difficult time expanding their social circles. I cannot imagine going to school here if you are not an athlete and do not intend to participate in greek life. With all of that being said, I managed to make some great friends at Butler that I'll miss dearly in my next chapter.

In essence, Butler is a small school. Make sure you know that you want a small school before deciding to come here. That means eating at the same dining hall every day, seeing the same faces in the hallways, and always having a mutual friend with someone you just met. Someone shares you major? Best (try to) get to know them, because chances are, you'll have many classes with them. If this is what you want, Butler is probably a great place for you. In the end, I decided I'm just more of a big school kinda guy. I don't regret spending my freshman year at Butler because I've made some amazing friends here. But the school itself is just not what I wanted from my college experience. Although Butler wasn't the best fit for me and I have decided to transfer, I'll still cheer on the dawgs when March Madness rolls around.