Longwood University

Date: Feb 16 2012
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
If you are a transfer student, do NOT pick Longwood. The transfer students receive a one day orientation that, to be honest, is quite useless. Those in charge of this "orientation" have poorly planned it out, and do not give the students useful information. They basically tell you how amazing Longwood is from 7am-4pm then abandon you to figure things out for yourself. At the end of this day you will be expected to sign up for classes, and will tell you to take things you will find out later you didn't actually need. People working in the school offices are incredibly rude when you go to them with questions, and make it obvious they could care less about the students. All in all, this university does not offer a good experience and displays a horrible lack of respect to the students who pay to go here.

As for the students, the vast majority are extremely snotty and cliquey. I attempted on numerous occasions my first year to be friendly and speak to people, since I was new and had no friends at the university. Everyone was incredibly rude, and half would just grunt or shoot me a dirty look when I simply tried to introduce myself. Even in the clubs I tried to join, people were very standoffish and did not seem to want you there unless you were already friends. Luckily, I happened to get two really great roommates my second semester here and met a few nice people through them. However, I do wish I had decided to transfer earlier, because the environment in classes and in the social aspect of the school is horrible. Longwood is full of individuals who are much too self absorbed, and ordinary people who believe themselves geniuses. Unless you arrive as a freshman and meet people through the extended freshman orientation, good luck meeting people.

As for the education aspect, the teachers have all been really friendly and accessible in my experience. There have been one or two exceptions, but for the most part the professors really want to see you succeed and are willing to help. The main problem I have is that the majority of students who go here are education majors, which leads to a lot of assumptions that we are ALL education majors from the teachers. This will lead to a lot of useless projects (for those who don't want to teach) due in class geared toward this assumption. It is also quite difficult to find an internship, which is required by the school. The department head recommended I do an internship with a certain instructor, then told him I could not do the internship only a few weeks before the semester ended, and I really did not have time to make alternate arrangements. Since the professors here really are great, he went above and beyond to help me find another professor to do the internship with. So, don't go to the higher ups. The professors here are where it's at.

If you want to spend your four years of college only focusing on your schoolwork, and leaving every weekend so you can do something other than go to Walmart or the movies, Longwood is for you. But, if you are not a typical thin, Caucasian, attractive sorority girl, or stereotypical frat boy, don't expect to find many friends. I feel I have gotten a decent education here, but I really do wish I had considered transferring after my first semester.