I
graduated from Augie in ’07. Overall I had a good
experience, and if I had to do undergrad all over
again I wouldn’t mind gong to Augie. If you live
in the region and you want a good undergrad education
and don’t mind having $120,000 in student loan debt then
Augie isn’t a bad choice. It’s a small college in
a small (boring) town, and unfortunately the campus is located
in the ghetto so it’s not the safest of areas.
You won't get the full college experience that you would
if you went to a state university in a college
town, but you will also leave with something more than
a McCollege degree. Honesty, the lack of entertainment can often
be a good thing. Being free of distractions will leave
you plenty of time to work hard and get the
good grades you will need to get into grad school.
But back to not getting the full college experience. For
example: *No real parties. The so-called “frat parties†are
over by 11PM and the partygoers are mostly nervous freshman,
because all the 21+ students are downtown at the bars.
But that won’t stop the fraternities from designating one member
to stay at the house serving cheap beer to a
bunch of dumb kids who don’t know any better. It’s
all about making a $ in exchange for a false
sense of belonging.
*No real fraternities / sororities. They aren’t
nationally recognized. Post-grad they will do NOTHING for you as
far as networking in the professional world (making them in
my mind completely pointless / useless), so pretty much you
are just renting friends. The Greek life at Augie is
kind of the joke you don’t mention while you are
there, because if you do you can say goodbye to
having friends for the next four years (members take their
status very seriously, making it even more comical). The social
life *mirrors* that of high school (nothing but cliques). I
would say that generally there is a “join a sorority
/ fraternity or be an outcast†mentality among students. But
if you are an outgoing person you will be able
to make more than enough friends.
*Athletics. Lol,
I couldn’t even type the word without laughing a little.
Let’s just say that if you are into NCAA football
and basketball then go to a Div-1 school. Augie isn’t
about sports (only someone forgot to tell the jocks).
Bottom line: Regionally, Augie is a well respected college.
I’m from Illinois, and I have yet to run into
a person in my profession that hasn’t at least heard
of Augie, and people have a positive perception of it.
My B.A. helped gain me an entry-level position in IL
State Government, as well as admittance into grad school. Outside
of the region, having a degree from Augie will do
nothing for you as far as name recognition goes. It
will be just another undergraduate degree from an accredited university.
If you have plans to work professionally or attend graduate
school out of the region, save yourself a lot of
$ and go to a state university. If you want
to work in Chicago, or get into a good grad
school like Northwestern, U of Chicago, Loyola, etc., having a
degree from Augie can be a useful tool. The lack
of distractions forces you to study (what else are you
going to do with your time?), and the student –
teacher ratio assures you will be in class (or have
your absence noticed). No 400 seat lecture halls to skip
out on, sorry. My biggest complaint = the system they
have in place for signing up for classes, which is
so inadequate it is unforgiveable. I can only hope they
have gone electronic by now…
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