CA residents: DON'T GO HERE

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Arizona
1

<p>In 2007 I started my miserable 3 year stint in Tucson. Like many others I defaulted to UA as I lacked the grades to get into a UC, and I was desperate to leave home. UA is an extremely inferior place than pretty much every UC, and most CSU’s. Here are a few reasons why:</p>

<p>1) Lax admission standards: When you accept >75% you are automatically asking for trouble. The people I encountered in Tucson included some real scumbags. They were ‘collegiate’ types, and they approached academics and social activities (besides partying) was a distinctly ‘high school’ mindset: as something just to ‘get out of the way.’ </p>

<p>The only people I met there who seemed ‘happy’ were those in the large fraternities. They typically majored in Business, and they now work as bartenders or ‘corporate recruiters’ </p>

<p>2) Miserable in class, miserable out of class: UA gets a lot of money from NASA and the large defense contractors. As such, hard sciences and engineering are top notch programs. Likely these are not programs you are interested in: as such, I implore you to peruse the UA course catalogs for the departments you are interested in. You will find the offerings desperately lacking</p>

<p>The only things to do outside of class (if you are not Greek) are go to the Rec Center, which gets old QUICK, and drink in small cramped apartments. Forget about having ‘fun’ in Tucson; it is a sketchy, dangerous place, and without a car you will not be able to get out to the few places worth visiting (Desert Nature Park, Kitt’s Peak, Saguaro State Park) For a while I tried jogging in Tucson in the mornings: I stopped after a week, it was so depressing and the diesel exhaust caused me to cough incessantly.</p>

<p>3) Other people: I came with an open mind. I expected my mind to be opened to new paradigms of thought, to meet people who would kindle a hidden interest/passion inside of me. What I encountered were guys who painted their chests, drank Keystone, played video games, and idolized Entourage. The girls were “fake LA” hot: lots of makeup, fake tans, and an unwelcoming attitude.</p>

<p>I can keep going on, PM me if you want further info. No hesitation I can go ad infinitum</p>

<p>Do some heavy research before going to college. It’s a special time, but it’s treacherously easy to mismanage. I suggest going to a CA Community college. Remember that they offer almost all courses online: you could even travel abroad and have the exams proctored in a library or local college. Or You could move to another town and attend a CC there; our beautiful state is so vast you have definitely not thoroughly explored it as a recent HS grad. </p>

<p>Spare yourself the pain. Don’t come to UA</p>

2

<p>So sorry about your experience.
Do you have a sense about what the people in the Honors school are like?</p>

3

<p>Read the NY Times article “Declining By Degrees”; it will give you some insight into the economics of honors college scholarships</p>

<p>Honors College kids are a different breed. They are motivated and capable. They are not immune, however, to the general morose atmosphere which pervades “Detroit in the Desert”</p>

<p>The one CA kid I knew in the HC went there because the financial incentives were too good to pass up. By his own admission he was just clocking his time there (He now works in Calorado)</p>

<p>My $.02: Go to the HC if you enjoy the desert and are in an engineering discipline. If you are financially capable, attend a top-tier UC</p>

4

<p>Wow, I was thinking of transferring there from San Fran State U. Man, now I’m thinking twice. I don’t want to go to a CC, I want to go straight to another university in the west coast and now I have no idea. Transferring to other UC’s and CSU’s are hard regardless.</p>

5

<p>If you don’t like how Tucson sounds, ASU is in Tempe, directly adjacent to Phoenix. They are good in engineering and business (better than UA) and some of the social sciences, though if you think #1 is a problem at UA, don’t bother with ASU. But as a transfer student, unless you are in a easy major, most of the immature students should have washed out or switched to the easy majors anyway before the upper division classes. </p>

<p>Also, lots of people love Tucson, it depends on what you are looking for. UA was in the top 10 grad programs (when I checked last year) in subjects like evolutionary biology, analytical chemistry, and earth sciences, so some people are busting their tails to get to the city, it’s just a matter of perspective. There is great biking, hiking, intramural sports, football/bball games, tons of clubs, etc. there, so depending on your interests there could be plenty of things to do. Plus it’s just 60 miles from the border, though things have really gone downhill in Mexico over the past few years, so far less people go there. </p>

<p>One more good academic thing besides hard sciences (though possibly for similar reasons) is that there are lots of languages available, and if they don’t have it you can request it. The less common ones, from Chechen to Napali, are in the critical language center where you only have to pay a $360 course fee instead of tuition.</p>

6

<p>In typical UA/ASU/AZ fashion,The above poster either bolsters my points or refutes his own</p>

<p>ASU is even worse than UA, impressively. Think of all the good elements in a college, then take the opposite: that is ASU</p>

<p>Yes, their hard science programs, at both undergrad and PG level are high caliber. But most people on this board are not concerned with that. Ditto for obscure languages: no one cares.</p>

<p>Tucson is a great place to visit, but definitely NOT a nice place to live.</p>

7

<p>I wouldn’t normally reply, because I don’t go to UA, but I wanted to address you attack on ASU. I’m out of state (WI). And I didn’t come to ASU because I couldn’t get into my own state’s schools (got into University of Wisconsin-Madison). I’m in my senior year now, and while I think Phoenix is a blight on the face of the earth, I do like ASU. I will note that I am in the honors college, and that certainly makes a difference. But I just wanted to add this considering how down the poster was on a school they don’t even attend, perhaps their information on UA should be taken with a grain of salt. (I will also note I’m a history major. Not hard sciences. And I’ve loved my classes.)</p>

8

<p>Ha-ha. I wandered over to this forum because I’m helping a young woman with her college applications and she recently was inquiring about U of A and ASU.</p>

<p>I lived in Tucson for 19 years before moving to So. Cal. to go to school. Now that I’m 50, I can say I truly appreciate the beauty of Tucson. The four mountain ranges, the dry heat (yes, I much prefer a dry heat to humidity), the beauty of the desert-all of these things can be found in Tucson.</p>

<p>But I don’t have any desire to live there again and most certainly, I wanted out of Tucson when I lived there. I only went to community college there, so I have no personal experience with U of A, though my sister graduated from there many decades ago.</p>

<p>I appreciate the honest thoughts on both U of A and ASU and will share them with my young friend.</p>