StudentsReview :: Pratt Institute - Extra Detail about the Comment
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Pratt Institute

How this student rated the school
Educational QualityA Faculty AccessibilityD-
Useful SchoolworkB- Excess CompetitionC+
Academic SuccessB+ Creativity/ InnovationC
Individual ValueF University Resource UseF
Campus Aesthetics/ BeautyF FriendlinessC-
Campus MaintenanceF Social LifeF
Surrounding CityA+ Extra CurricularsF
SafetyD+
Describes the student body as:
Arrogant, Approachable, Broken Spirit

Describes the faculty as:
Helpful, Arrogant, Self Absorbed

Male
SAT1250
Quite Bright
Lowest Rating
Individual Value
F
Highest Rating
Surrounding City
A+
He cares more about Campus Aesthetics/ Beauty than the average student.
Date: Feb 20 2003
Major: Design Arts - Industrial Design/Graphic Design/etc (This Major's Salary over time)
Pratt has many wonderful opportunities to offer its students-if they want to actively fight for them. The biggest problem with this school isn't so much its education (though, there are quite obviously some departments that excel in this area and others that fail miserably, with few in between) as its way of life. The ones that make it here are either completely ambivalent to everyone around them, or they fight them to get their own. Whether its dealing with a staff member at the Academic Computing help desk or maybe in a departmental office, or trying to get an unofficial copy of your transcript from the registrar, there is never a time when one can plan on simply walking into an office, making a request, and expecting results. Despite the fact that the Pratt administrative staff are paid to serve their students, most tend to be cynical, rude, and stubborn. They make it their job to be the thing that's impeding you from whatever it is that you need. And there is no one guilty party in all of this (except maybe our esteemed Institute President, Dr. Thomas Schutte). It is simply a way of life at Pratt. The system is designed to keep you from being productive, and therefore the people in support of the system do the same. And not every office is this way; only most of them. The worst offenders: The Bursar (an office that has long outlived its need, anyway), The Registrar (still stuck in the dark ages of record maintenance), The Academic Computing Help Desk (Get attitude, insults, and maybe on a lucky day, they might point you in the right direction, too), Admissions (Get your acceptance and registration paper work in early so they can loose it for you faster), Perkins Loan Office (get ready for the drama queens of financial aid!). We have a President, and he even has an office. Other than funneling the tuition money back to the new Manhattan campus (that might serve a whole 1/5 of the Pratt population), no one is exactly sure what it is that President Schutte does. We do know, however, that he's got a knack for talking to people (charisma is always a good thing for a leader…but when that's all you've got, it doesn't tend to be very helpful).

Now, as for a Pratt education? We have a lot (more than most schools, I think) of good faculty. Particularly the ComD majors. ComD has more than its fair share of good faculty (it just happens to be the single largest department in Art & Design). Many say that the struggle to do day-to-day things here contributes vast amounts to the educational experience. Some even venture to say that one comes out more prepared from Pratt for the "real world" than anywhere else. Truthfully, if the anyone pulled the stunts that this administration pulls out in the "real world", they'd be promptly fired. But no matter what, you can never graduate from Pratt and say that there's a situation you can't handle. If you graduate from here, you've handled every possible type of attitude from the spectacular bright perky smiles to the tretcherous cynical and manipulative assholes who stop at nothing to make everyone around them have a bad day with them.

So why am I still here? You learn to either eat the bitter with the sweet, or you leave. Many leave. Many can not justify the high price of the education for the difficulty of sustaining existance in such a hostile place. It's not unreasonable by any strech of the mind. The ones that stay do it because they appreciate the quality of the education, and willingly overlook the system. By not playing the game, you can't get caught up in it (even if you can only avoid the game so much of the time before you have to play—like when registering for class, or worse yet, paying for it). I believe it will serve me well in the end.

But that doesn't make it right.

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