The University of Dayton

Date: Oct 18 2017
Major: Computer Science (This Major's Salary over time)
Before anyone thinks anything about me being spoiled, I got into UD on scholarships and worked my ass off to get here. There?s absolutely no way I could afford the tuition otherwise.

Honestly, it's so hard to point out concretely what's good and what's bad here because there?s both good and bad in everything. Either way, because there are so many bad parts, it outweighs the good, ultimately leading to my decision to leave UD. I?ve been at the university for about a year, and I?m currently in my sophomore year. I?ll be transferring elsewhere for my junior and senior year.

First off, about half of the professors here are great, the other half absolutely terrible. It's really a hit or miss. I?ve either absolutely loved some of my professors, and hated others. There?s a very small middle ground of ?just okay? professors. I?d much rather prefer more great and middle ground professors over old guys that have seniority, suck at teaching, and can stay just because they?ve been at the university for so long.

As another comment has said on here, a lot of the people are focused on "community" but the community is indeed rather superficial. The people here are so focused on community that they fail to see when people are doing more harm than good, and deal with toxicity. For example, I was talking to the assistant dean of the college of arts and sciences on one occasion about a bad grade, and I mentioned to her that I didn't do all that well because the professor was self absorbed and told the class on the first day "I'm too educated to be teaching this course." He was not approachable at all, he only did proofs on the board that didn?t explain how to do the math problem, and his tests/quizzes had unexpected problems we had never seen. When I told the assistant dean that he didn't seem very willing to help, she absolutely blew up and lectured me and said that "faculty are a part of the community too" and even said to me ?How would you feel if someone told you things that you just told me?? as if she was my mom, and we had only met for the first time. She?s so concerned about the community aspect and that professor?s ?feelings? that she fails to see that a professor like that is toxic to a group of incoming freshmen.

As for the computer science program at UD? It sucks. It?s small. For some reason it?s in the college of arts and sciences, when it?s much more related to engineering and belonging to the school of engineering. They don?t seem to value computer science as much as their traditional engineering programs. For the environment, it?s not at all encouraging of innovation. You?re in the stereotypical ?programmers belong in basements? environment. Labs in my CS courses have literally been in a basement on the ground floor so far. Also, because the program is so small, you?re bound to get the same professor for at least two or more classes, and the professors aren?t all that great; mediocre at best. The professors are also middle-aged or old people that have been outside of the industry for such a long time that their programming practices/habits are bad, and they don?t teach what?s best as an actual developer. Go somewhere else if you want to do anything related to software engineering or computer science.

If you?re into a community that tolerates toxicity, go here. Otherwise, I?d absolutely choose a different school every time I could. My advice if you don?t like the university after the first year? Go somewhere else.