Ferrum College

Date: Dec 08 2017
Major: Computer Science (This Major's Salary over time)
I'm making this review in the hopes that I save future prospective students from making the same mistake I did by attending this college for my specific program. I went to Ferrum because they offered me a lot of money (which in retrospect, since their yearly tuition costs are just shy of ivy league schools, is not a very good investment), and that it was within commuting distance to where I was staying at the time. I was interested in computer science, but decided to settle for Ferrum and its Computer Information Systems program, thinking that the savings that I would be getting would warrant the major change. I was wrong. Never have I been more let down academically as a student and ripped off as a consumer.

As to why this is, I'll tell you. My major is headed by a single professor, which should already be a red flag to anyone going to a reputable, competent university. I expected to have access to a board of faculty that all taught different aspects and classes of the major, but that is not how it is at Ferrum. One single professor heads the entirety of the program, and teaches every single class. I got a little curious at this revelation, so after checking an updated spreadsheet of currently enrolled students in every class at Ferrum, I notice that there are only 3 freshman major courses being taught by this professor, and only 1 student is in an upper level 200 sophomore class, meaning that entire major at the university was simply made up of freshman or students in level 100 intro classes. Even bigger red flag. After asking around, and asking the professor specifically, he tells me that if anyone was to take upper level classes, they would most likely be 'independent study classes', seeing as how there weren't enough students in the major to warrant a full class. I don't know how most people who go to college feel, but I believe that a big, BIG factor of majoring in something is being surrounded by your peers that you can bounce ideas off of, grow together with, and enjoy the aspects of the same material while studying together. This isn't gonna happen at Ferrum, currently.

As for the academics of the classes taught by this specific professor, it was absolutely abysmal. By far and away the worst professor or teacher I have ever had in my academic career, including my previous 2 years of college at a COMMUNITY COLLEGE. The professor would make the class buy online textbooks and testing software, that were utilized for about the first two weeks, but for the remainder of the 13 weeks, were not brought up again or structured in such a way that the material was learned. He would often throw a slide up off of the textbook and talk about a single idea for the entirety of the class, yet expect the class to be test ready for multiple chapters when none of the content was covered in class. This means that this most of the learning was done on our own time, which isn't a bad thing, but then why am I in college in the first place when the professor serves no purpose and I could be learning this from home? The tests were absurdly hard, and none of the information would come from anything discussed in class, meaning you had to know the textbook front and back. No curves were given, and the class was often berated for how badly we did on tests when no instruction was given on what to study, except 'All of chapter x'. No specifics, just generalizations. When the class asked for test reviews, the professor refused saying that they would not do any good, and if there were test reviews, they were often emailed out at 11pm the night before the test early in the morning. Unacceptable. We would often miss weeks of class because the professor was taking a 'professional trip' to learn more content to teach in future classes (?). Not sure if this is a regular occurrence for a professor for miss an entire week in a row and for class to be cancelled, but I don't think it is. Would often cancel class with no explanation and no email, only for me to waste my time to commute to class to find out that there actually is no class. We stopped learning halfway through the semester, and projects would usually be pulled from thin air from a tangent or side story he would talk about in class, and then after working on the project, it would never be presented or turned in. Grades were often given for assignments with no feedback or rubric, so you're left wondering what you've done wrong when there was no guidelines to begin with.

Also, the student body at Ferrum is not bright, so be prepared to be in a class filled with thugs and delinquents, who enjoy bragging about how they failed a test or how much they hate a professor. This is the worst school I have ever attended, and if my program is allowed to exist and operate in the way that it does without the school knowing or perhaps not caring, then I believe that is a reflection on the entire school itself. I obviously cannot speak to the quality of every program that happens in this school, only my own. If you asked me if I could ever recommend this school to someone, I would answer no every single time. This professor and program was so poor and incompetent that I immediately transferred out of the college entirely to a more reputable (and cheaper!) school the following term. Think about that long and hard before you consider this school.