Middle Tennessee State University

Date: Feb 16 2011
Major: Biology (This Major's Salary over time)
I made a comment here the very beginning of my second semester at MTSU. My overall outlook on the school as a whole has changed quite a bit, it certainly isn't so positive. I am attending a different university now for reasons completely unrelated to the growing safety concerns and educational quality at MTSU. Although marginally better than MTSU in terms of campus safety and educational quality, costs are a bit higher and despite campus feeling a tiny bit safer, the surrounding city feels more than a little less safe. Therefore I am giving MTSU average to slightly below average ratings, but not horrible as I have concluded most universities that are not in the international top 100 schools are going to have to deal with a sizable minority of scumbags and vagrants on campus and attending classes.

The classes at MTSU are tough and generally informative but the overall atmosphere is not very conducive to learning. Professor's friendliness and helpfulness is mixed, generally good, however some give a lot of very difficult but ultimately irrelevant work (or things that are learned in higher level courses), so it is really just needless suffering.

Staff is generally quite helpful and friendly with the exception of those at the financial aid office, who are beyond rude and more along the lines of outrightly mean, but this behavior seems isolated to only that one office.

Murfreesboro is one of, if not the fastest growing cities in the US and with such rapid expansion anywhere there are bound to be problems. Campus parking is pretty bad, although from what I have seen not any worse than other universities in Tennessee (which is saying very little, if anything at all).

Related to this, I have read a lot of what seem to be racist comments here. True there is both an increasing number of African Americans and of violence, but they correlation does not necessarily indicate causation. There are a lot of friendly and well educated black people just as there are some violent and disrespectful whites. That said, I did increasingly find a lot of African Americans walking me off the sidewalk, standing behind my car when I was trying to pull out of a parking space, staring me down in what I suppose was meant to be an intimidating manner,a and fussing when a cashier wouldn't let them abuse the meal system (it's too complicated to explain, but they were clearly trying to cheat the system).

Also I was beginning to notice a growing cocaine problem on campus (and if you don't know what someone on cocaine looks/acts like, trust me it isn't hard to tell), and the crack whores came along with it. But beyond the growing problems, the student body was growing in general, and things were just starting to seem so crowded. At the same time funding was being cut by a lot and tuition costs as well as student services costs were on the rise. Labs that were full of new equipment my first semester were reduced to a few shattered test tubes by the end of my last semester. A lot of extracurricular activities were cut, quite noticeably so, and there is basically no school spirit there. Also, finding a job in Murfreesboro is neigh impossible these days, at least for the general labor type of stuff that college students are interested in.

In short, it is an okay place to get an education for a relatively low cost, but it isn't all blue skies there either. I suggest living in a learning community and avoid campus or even most off campus apartments (unless you have a decent amount of money to spend on your housing) if you choose to attend. It isn't as fun and exciting as one might hope college to be (and probably a bit more 'ghetto'), but I think these days, unless you can afford to go to an Ivy League school, it's about what any other college. It's just a sign of the times, America's crumbling educational system and deteriorating social structure.