Knox College

Date: Oct 17 2010
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
Just a note: If you look at most of the negative reviews, they were obviously by the same person or couple of people. Just saying.

As for me, I had one incredibly horrible experience on this campus that has ruined my time here thus far. It was rooted in a problem Knox will certainly not tell you in the promotional material: Knox has increased enrollment by about 150 in the last few years, but has not increased housing substantially. As a first-year student, you run a fair risk of not getting a permanent room your first year.

This affected me when I had a roommate that was borderline abusive toward me, and the campus life office had nowhere to put me. Not wanted to admit this, the campus life staff did everything in their power to twist the problem around and say it was my fault for not being able to handle having a roommate. I had to live with her for four months until the stress and exhaustion started to give me massive health problems. Eventually, I was put into a hotel when I threatened to drop out. The result is that the entire campus life office hates me for "bothering" them, and I do not really feel as though my well-being matters to anyone here.

That also brings me to the

everyone wants to be your friend

spiel in the promotional material—it's not really true. There are awesome professors, but there are also ones that will not answer e-mails and who will push away any attempts at friendliness on your part. My advisor, the head of the Environmental Studies department, is not the friendliest person and has disappointed me quite a bit by being generally unhelpful and acting annoyed by my existence. I will probably be switching advisors soon.

The other negative about the housing is the general dinginess, in my opinion, especially of the Quad area of the school. As you get higher up, I hear it gets nicer, but as a first-year and sophomore, you just have to stick it out. The other campus buildings are mostly in good shape (just ignore Alumni Hall), and many have historical value.

The only thing that alleviates my disappointment has to do with academics. I have yet to get a bad professor or take a bad class, though I was disappointed in the first-year Preceptorial, which seemed like a waste of time to me. Of the classes I've chosen, I only had one professor that struck me as a bit boring, and the rest have been almost unanimously excellent. There is no busy work here, and you never feel like your professor is unqualified for the job. I have been surprised a handful of times when professors take notice of me because of my writing, since I am a quiet "wallflower" who has been ignored by teachers most of my life. They always know your name.

The only BS about the classes is class size. The Precep might have 15 students, and so may a 300-level class, but 100- and 200-level classes average about 25 students, from what I've experienced. I am only a sophomore and am already taking my third class with 40 people (all three have been 200-levels). The professors try to give all of the students individual attention even with large class sizes, but it's still a disappointment.

As for the social life, I am probably not the person to ask, but I was a bit perturbed by the sheer amount of sorority girl-types bothering me my first year, and the attitude that everyone should want to party. I'm sure it's better than U of I Urbana or something, but I still would rather be somewhere less conformist.