St John's University New York

Date: May 20 2009
Major: Other (This Major's Salary over time)
Although I was somewhat unhappy with my experience here, I will try to keep my review as a simple piece of not-too-harsh constructive criticism.

My major: actuarial science (not listed here)

If you haven't heard of it, it's for the nerds (mathematical minds) of the business department.

I considered myself "super brilliant" in comparison to the population of people at St. John's, maybe not to the general population. The only reason I spent my last two years here was because I was offered a scholarship that covered 100% of tuition plus a good subsidy for room and board

First the potential positives:

You get Catholic holidays off?

Free for up to 4 years for me, but YMMV

Dr. Forman, the head of the honors program will fight for whatever you need at this university that somebody else is refusing to give to you. Without the honors program, everything would have been hell, even more so than I am about to describe.

Now for the many negatives:

My most recent complaint would be to the transcripts office. They failed to properly send my transcript to some of the schools I was applying to transfer to, and I had to practically harass them to get the job done. It's almost as if once you enroll, they don't let you leave.

There's a good number of bad professors here. Of course, I have had a few that I really liked too, but overall, good professors are difficult to come across at St. John's University. The majority of my classes were not beneficial in anyway to attend because the professors were so hard to understand and didn't even test us on the material taught in class, but I always went out of courtesy (brownie points).

It's a Catholic school, so they make you take three philosophy and three Theology classes, which equals 18 whole credits. One of each I would be able to understand, but 18 credits of useless classes is just ridiculous.

The visitation policies, if you live on campus, are a little too strict. If you want to have visitors, then you have to sign them in. People who don't go to St. John's can only stay until midnight, and people who do can stay until 3 am. Overnight passes are limited to two nights for two weeks, and you can only sign somebody of the same gender in.

The meal plan is a huge ripoff. Not only is the food bad, they charge you more per meal on the meal plan than you would pay if you just went in and paid cash every time (Yes, I did the number crunching). This is not to mention that you're most likely not going to use every single meal on your meal plan. Ridiculous.

The classes here are jokes. I've practically forgotten how to open a textbook, let alone study, since I've enrolled in this university. Even my high school was significantly more difficult. But then again, most of the classes I took in high school were honors or AP. Still, if you were a good student in high school, the coursework here will be an insult to your intelligence. Ridiculous.

The freshman advisors don't know anything about anything, to say the least. From a few minutes of exploring the bulletin, I was more familiar with the courses and requirements than they were. Again, ridiculous.

The business curriculum is ridiculously inflexible leaving virtually no option for any choices. As an actuarial science major, you get ZERO electives, so you have to take exactly what they tell you to take, PERIOD. NO EXCEPTIONS. Other business majors get a few business electives and a couple liberal arts courses.

The business deans are some of the rudest people I've ever met in my life. They are known for insulting students, and every time I go in with a question, they are completely unhelpful and do nothing but treat me like an idiot.

If you want to take a class, you have to have it put on your advisement sheet, or you'll get in trouble for signing up for it without "permission" even if you know exactly what you're doing.

If you argue with one of them and are actually right, he becomes even more angry at you and will even farther refuse to help you. For example, I wanted a required class that has been offered fairly infrequently put on my advisement sheet, so I went in to ask for it. The asshole dean said no, because he thought there was a prerequisite for it when there wasn't. Since I knew I was right and that I needed the class, I argued with him. I came back and presented irrefutable evidence that the class had no prerequisites, and he just yelled at me more and still wouldn't give it to me. Seriously, some of these deans need to be fired.

The business department also refuses to put in credits that don't directly help fulfill your degree, such as many of my AP credits. Why not? They're MY CREDITS, DAMMIT! I didn't study for those tests for no reason.

All in all, I can't imagine why anyone would pay for this place. I could get two more years for free, but even I'm tired of putting up with everything here and am most likely transferring.