Manhattan College

Date: Apr 12 2013
Major: Civil Engineering (This Major's Salary over time)
I chose to attend Manhattan College because it was a local private school that was around $27,000 per year (without room and board). This was a good price in 2009. The undergraduate civil engineering program is also well respected within the NYC area. It is focused heavily on structural engineering; however, an environmental concentration is also available. The environmental program is focused on wastewaster. Manhattan College is also well known for its environmental engineers. Transportation and geotechnical engineering are not heavily focused on. It is unfortunate, but the department doesn't have enough faculty.

In terms of my personal experience, I have had developed great relationships with my professors and my department. Without them, I don't think I would have stayed at Manhattan College. The school itself does not care about its current students. First- Commuting is a pain by car. They charge $230 for parking and there is virtually no parking. Second - The reason there is no parking is because they are building a $50million student building where the old parking was located. This building is completely useless. It adds nothing to the academic integrity of the school; only lounges for students and a weight room. Meanwhile, the engineering building (LEO) literally has no air conditioning or heating. Broken desks and chairs are in classrooms. Leaks are common in the middle of class…the remedy is putting a garbage under the leak. In terms of the labs, the equipment is cheap and outdated and the labs are not suitable for full classes. The faculty constantly complain about these things but the nothing is fixed. In all honesty, the engineering school carries Manhattan College. The engineering school could survive without MC, but MC cannot survive without it. Despite this fact, the engineering school is given no respect by the actual school. Third - the food is absolutely atrocious. With all honesty, this is an extremely good reason not to go to this school. The food is extremely unhealthy and there are really no options if are an engineer. Fourth - MC lies about itself. It is not 20 min from the mid town Manhattan. It is about 45 min by subway. In addition, if you don't know NYC too well, mid town Manhattan is not even where you want to be on the weekends. Downtown Manhattan is where all of the exciting bars and clubs and restaurants are. Downtown Manhattan is about 1 hr from MC by subway. Everything in the Riverdale area sucks. The bars are trashy. The restaurants and diners are unhealthy. The pizza sucks. Anyone who says Broadway Joes or Goodfellas is great pizza doesn't know anything about pizza. Don't waste your time eating that garbage. The area isn't as dangerous as people say. There are creepers everywhere, the Bronx isn't the only place. Five - the majority of students are really ignorant, superficial, and entitled. Everyone thinks they are cool and hipster because they drink PBR in their dorms. There is also no school spirit. Basketball games are a drag. Nobody likes the school either. And the people who constantly talk about their love of MC are brown noses. If you are a smart, diligent student, you will hate all of the lazy entitled students who complain about reading 10 pages of the Bible.

Anyone who reads this and thinks that this I'm a close minded, boring nerd who doesn't know how to have fun can be entitled to that opinion. But the reality is that I worked hard when need be and enjoyed myself off campus. I know where good places are to drink, to eat, and to listen to music, whatever. This college doesn't offer any of those things and the students are not capable of understanding them.

I would recommend this school to an engineer that is commuting and has a good set of friends around home. This is not the college to make life long friends or dorm on. The price is now $35,000. The school's idea is that if the tuition is higher, it would give the impression of a better school. Please be aware that this does not apply to Manhattan College. You get nothing out of that money.