Seton Hall University

Date: Dec 08 2017
Major: Communications (This Major's Salary over time)
Seton Hall University looks like a great school online and on paper. The attendees of open houses and campus tours are met with friendly and helpful students/faculty, only to have it all disappear within the first week of class.

Many people think that those who do not enjoy it here are the low-lifes, however, I had a 4.25 GPA in high school, was third in my class, and had a scholarship for SHU that covered more than half of the tuition.

SCHOLARSHIPS: With that being said, if you do not get a scholarship, do NOT come here. It is not worth $58,000 -and that is for NJ residents. Even with the scholarship, it is still much more expensive than public schools. I have also learned more in high school than I will ever learn here and I am glad to say that I am transferring after just my first semester.

MY BACKGROUND:I went to a technical high school and had a three-year communication arts program, and it taught me more than this place ever could.

RESOURCES: I have watched videos made by students here, and they do not even have the proper equipment or knowledge to make the videos. I am in a film class this semester, and for our end of the semester project we had the choice of making a short film or writing about a film. However, the Department of Communications flat-out denied the use of cameras for our class. I find it even funnier that the professor actually had to make a request to ask permission for camera use in A FILM class. I also do Pirate TV, and no one there knows what they are doing. The students are constantly yelling at each other. Pirate TV even has trouble getting camera access to tape sports events. It is so sad to have come to college for great opportunity, only to find out it's a lie.

I also participate in Pirate Radio, and it is completely unorganized. We had to take a 6-week training class and the sessions were usually 20 minutes each. Although the radio station does have prestige, once going inside I have never seen such outdated equipment still in use in my entire life.

I have also attended Communication Marketing Forums, which is completely run by Seton Hall Alumni. While it is nice to see the alumni trying to give back, most of them were extremely rude at the event and stopped talking to me once I told them I was a freshman (they asked my year).

ATMOSPHERE: This school is worse than high school. Everyone here is close-minded and they all have their own cliques. Most people here are from North Jersey (I am from South Jersey) or the New York City area and all went to high school together. They are very unfriendely to newcomers. I personally did not know anyone coming here, and I have still not met one genuine person. My roommates have stolen from me multiple times.

SOCIAL LIFE: Greek Life is HUGE here. Almost everyone joins Greek Life and it is constantly shoved in your face by your ULife Professor and your Peer Advisor. I am not interested in Greek Life, and therefore am left out of the social circle. They say they don't haze here but they do, there's even a house that kids call the "rape house."

The party scene is pretty big here, with kids partying Wednesday and Thursday nights because they all go home for the weekends. If you don't like partying or Greek Life, you will have a hard time making friends.

I live in Boland Hall, where I have seen at LEAST 10 ambalances this semester because of alcohol poisoning. In my hallway a few weeks ago, a whole room down the hall got busted for smoking weed in their room (and it was far from the first time they did this), and they are still here and have had no reperrcussions.

The drug scene is huge here. Kids smoke in front of the Science Building and on the green every single night.

ADVISORS/RA/STAFF: Most Peer Advisors seem to friendly and I know most people are good friends with theirs, I guess I was just unlucky. Peer Advisors are required to be in your ULife class, and my PA stands in the front of the class and yells at us for not sharing what we wrote, even though they told us just seconds before it was private and would not be shared. I am constantly bombarded with emails from my PA and they are long, sarcastic, sassy, and plain rude.

My ULife Professor is not any better. She makes powerpoint presentations that a third grader could make, yells at us constantly, and then wonders why we are afraid to talk. She once screenshot emails from students and made fun of them in front of the whole class. Although she did change the names, it was still highly inappropriate and the class felt uncomfortable.

My RA is never around. If I have a problem she'll tell inaccurrate information or tell me not to worry about it, that she'll help me, and then she never does. I just end up solving the problem myself.

DORM LIFE: If you live close, don't waste your time dorming because everyone leaves Thursday night or Friday morning because most students don't have classes Friday. I live in a STORAGE ROOM (I did not know before moving in) in Boland Hall (it used to be a chapel, then a storage room, and now it is a room with furniture quite literally thrown into it.) Some of my outlets are behind heavy dressers and furniture, leaving a lot of them unaccessible or VERY hard to reach. 3 out of the 4 wardrobes were broken, my desk was broken, there were no ladders for the bunk beds, outlets hanging off the wall, and exposed wires. They told me it would be fixed two days later. Fast forward one month, and the wires were fixed, and my desk was worked on, but it is still damaged. Everything else was left the way it is after at least 5 requests and calls to the University. We were left with no ladders for our bunk beds for half of the semester, and my parents were told to contact "someone else" when calling Housing services. The wifi was HORRIBLE for 2/3 of the semester. It's a little better now, but the cell phone reception is terrible and I have to go out in the freezing cold to make a 60 second phone call.

ACADEMICS: If you want to be challenged do NOT come here. Again, I learned more in high school. When asking for better guidance or some help, teachers will take your laptop and write your essay for you (happened to me with my English Professor). I have gotten A's on every assignment I have ever done, and yet I have learned nothing. Teachers don't feel like grading so they give you 100s on everything. I have only had two tests, and I was given all of the questions and answers beforehand by the Professor. I came here to get a challenging education, but there is no such thing here.

SURROUNDING NEIGHBORHOOD: The campus is gated for a reason. I once walked down South Orange Ave with five other girls at 1 in the afternoon to go to RiteAid. On the way there we were followed on two occasions by two separate men. When the South Orange Police came by we flagged them down, and they ignored us and floored it down a side street. It was so bad that we had to run into a pizza shop and ask a father with his family to walk us back to campus. And one men STILL lingered behind us. Also, be careful sometimes because people will wait outside of the gate and then walk in when students open it.

FOOD: The food makes my stomach hurt IMMEDIATELY after eating it. Seton Hall makes sure to make great food for open houses, campus tours, and orientations, but it will not stay like that. The students are always happy when there's a lot of campus tours going on because that means good food for a few days. Other than that, many people have found bugs in their pasta and salads (I have seen pictures). The icecream makes people sick because the scooper is kept in dark, filthy water. (you;ll understand if you see the scooper…) Lately, the chicken has bene completely raw, and one students even found a spine and organs in hers. There are barely any choices, and most of the time the same thing is served for a week straight with a different name to make it sound new. "Peppered Steak," "Beef Stew," and "Beef Stirfry" are all the same. The vegetables are complete mush and usually cold, so most students either eat fries, cook their own food, or eat nothing at all. Many students have lost weight because the food here is so hard to eat.

OVERALL: If you are a fan of Greek Life or a commuter who lives close-by you might like it here. Otherwise, good luck…I am very happy to be leaving and have been counting down the days (11 more)…