(UNH) I was very disappointed in almost all aspects of

How this student rated the school

Research Quality	F	Research Availability	C
Research Funding	F	Graduate Politics	F
Errand Runners	F	Degree Completion	F
Alternative pay [ta/gsi]	C	Sufficient Pay	F
Competitiveness	F	Education Quality	C
Faculty Accessibility	B+	Useful Research	B
Extracurriculars	-	Success-Understanding	D
Surrounding City	F	Social Life/Environment	F
"Individual" treatment	F	Friendliness	C
Safety	A	Campus Beauty	A-
Campus Maintenance	B+	University Resource/spending	B-

Describes the student body as: Broken Spirit, Snooty Describes the faculty as: Unhelpful, Self Absorbed

Male

Lowest Rating Research Quality	F

Highest Rating Safety	A

He cares more about "Individual" treatment than the average student.

Date: Dec 31 1969
Major: Chemistry (This Major's Salary over time)
I was very disappointed in almost all aspects of my graduate education here at UNH. There was just not a good culture in my department- most graduate students seemed depressed and uninterested in their work, which led to an unproductive environment. About two years into my degree here, I began to feel that the department just uses their graduate students for TA resources rather than actually caring about their development as scientists. Most graduate students (the vast majority) are on TA for the entirety of their Ph.D. Even the few that manage to make it off TA are then e-mailed and asked if they could TA (proving that the department is desperate for TAs). This is not good as you can not make reasonable progress on your thesis research if you are teaching/grading all of the time. If you are coming from a program that is not ranked high (such as this one), you need a lot of publications by the time you graduate or you will be job-less and the entire degree will be for nothing. Due to the high teaching demands, that is not always possible. To cite an example, nobody in my cohort has ANY publication after three years here. In my opinion, that is a problem worth investigating, yet nobody does anything. Most students seem to drop down to a masters after two years and the department makes it unreasonably difficult to leave with a masters (they told me that it takes three years to get a masters degree here). I do not understand how almost every other university in the nation can grant a masters degree in 2 years (sometimes 1) yet here it takes at least three. Something is wrong.

All in all, I do not think this is a very good environment and I urge anyone considered coming here for a graduate degree in chemistry to really investigate the department and its resources before committing. The professors are just not actively involved in their research, students are teaching more than in the lab, and it all adds up to an unproductive research atmosphere that will hurt your career more than help it.

Ask a Question or add a response!