The University of Illinois - Chicago

Date: Mar 24 2007
Major: Education (This Major's Salary over time)
I did an MST degree (masters in math education). the degree included coursework in three areas: education, teaching mathematics, higher level mathematics courses.

the education classes were a complete joke. i learned nothing, not because i already knew the material, but because it was taught so poorly and assessment of knowledge was even worse (open book exams graded on huge curves with no D's or F's given, large chunks of a semester grade relied on a group project where effort clearly mattered more than substance, jackass professors who would let everyone go early just so we could beat rush hour traffic). summer school was even more insulting to my intelligence. classes would meet twice a week, 4 hours at a time, for 6 weeks. but because the professors don't like talking for 4 hours and because the lecture halls got insanely hot, the professor would only go for about 2.5 hours and let everyone go. so essentially, we were robbed of nearly 35% of potential learning time.

the Teaching Mathematics courses were so horribly unorganized. most of these classes had no organized structure to them. the professor would come into class with a couple of random xeroxed articles and hold a discussion about it for 20 minutes and then go off on a tangent to kill time. no tests, little homework, a couple of joke projects that we would be given a month to complete and yet would take me literally less than 90 minutes to complete with a final grade of an A. one of my professors was fired (deservedly so) the semester after i had her. her class that i took was supposed to be about how to teach algebra. 2/3rds of the semester was spent on every student in the class teaching a single lesson in front of the whole class. what is the point of this when our education classes required of us 120 hours outside of class observing schools and 60 hours of those spent actually teaching in high schools - this included observations by our professors. why did we waste almost an entire course practicing teaching a single lesson when we were already teaching in real classrooms? and how did giving a single lesson on some algebra topic teach me how to teach all of algebra??? the Teaching Mathematics classes are completely moronic and possibly worse than the education classes.

The mathematics classes are the only respectable classes i took at UIC. and this is the only time i truly felt like i learned something. I took linear algebra, number theory, abstract algebra, advanced calculus, and topology. these are the only classes in which i actually felt like my time and effort was well spent. and the professors were actually good people and good teachers.

more problems: my graduate program could be attended both part time and full time. unfortunately, you only discover it is geared towards part timers after 2 semesters or so. classes only have one section and any particular class usually alternates from being a daytime class (aimed for anyone) one semester and an evening class (anyone can take it but this is meant for part timers who work during the day) during the next semester. consequently, full time attendees will have classes at all hours of the day. if you commute this is a huge pain in the ass. there were days i had a class at 10 am and another class from 5-8 pm with nothing in between. very inconvenient to have nothing to do for 6 hours.

also, all services at UIC are horribly run. you won't be told how to do anything regarding any sort of student service until you've done it the wrong way 3 different times. at the financial aid department: have fun waiting 3 hours and then being told the WRONG information. and don't count on your refund or any sort of stipend being given until nearly halfway through the semester. i didn't recieve my refund (money to live off of) for summer school until the finals week of summer school!

i am so upset by the quality of education i recieved at UIC that the fact i will be paying off this degree for the next ten years or more is eating away at my soul. consequently, i am looking into Ph.D. programs at much more respectable universities. this way i can justify my current debt as the 'total expense' i needed to earn my doctorate - and simply pretend i never attended UIC.

as far as the student population goes, there is certainly some pompousness among graduate students, but this can be expected almost anywhere. the undergrad population is friendly enough. typical city college environment with an extremely ugly campus that looks like a sprawling prison.

UIC = garbage