<p>Unfortunately CCNY is out of control with unruly behavior in the libraries, class rooms, hallways etc. Instructors for the most part are intimidated by the "students" and it's not unusual for loud conversations while the instructor is teaching. Be prepared for people to walk in late or just get up to leave to get food during a 75 minute class. Students are disruptive in the class and are amazed when they receive a C or less. I am in my senior year and I've had enough. I loved CCNY when I started here but this is not a conducive environment for learning. In my title I eluded to CCNY being an extension of HS, well just think of your worst memory of overcrowded classrooms with dilapidated conditions, with Administrative staff that doesn't care, no support system for students unless you're "special" on either ends of the "special" spectrum then go to CCNY. Be forwarned!</p>
<p>Thanks for the update. Crossing that off my list</p>
<p>I’ve visited CCNY several times and I have not witnessed the kind of situations the OP describes. The facilities appear to be in adequate conditions and I would say look excellent despite the age of several of them. </p>
<p>I haven’t witnessed any “unruly” behavior by students during classes or around campus. It is worth mentioning that CCNY employs security officers on campus and these security officers are posted throughout most facilities. I have not seen any “intimidated” professors and for the most part, students behave appropriately. Shepard Hall in particular seems always deserted to me and the NAS is almost as quiet. Many students are actually helpful enough to give you good directions.</p>
<p>As far as administrative staff is concerned, I’ve only encountered one truly annoying individual that provided little help. Most others perform their duties as expected. </p>
<p>If anything, CCNY is kind of a boring place since many people just go home as soon as class is over.</p>
<p>Totally agree with the first poster. Students text in class, talk to each other, pass notes, leave the classroom to take phone calls, basically are just disrespectful to professors. Administrators are very hands off or even rude to students. Everything I’ve achieved at this school I’ve done for myself without anyone noticing or encouraging me with very few exceptions. I didn’t even know I made the Dean’s List until two semesters later when I checked my transcript. There are good professors but they tend to lower their teaching to the lowest common denominator.</p>
<p>Lowest common denominator is absolutely right! I have been here for two semesters so far and have yet to buy a textbook (and I’m in the top 15% of my class, on Dean’s List, etc.). Professors have good intentions but absolutely dumb themselves down. Transferring here from a top 50 university, I was appalled that these same Columbia-educated, esteemed and accomplished professor types were forced to stop themselves to explain high-school level vocabulary to the class. </p>
<p>There is a small population of kids who work hard to pay their own way through school, and who take classes and the opportunity of a higher education very seriously. Then there’s everyone else. Immature, poorly educated (I’m surprised most of these people got out of high school with a diploma), and with nothing to add to class discussions. </p>
<p>Administration is impossible, and dealing with the offices of Registrar, Admissions, and Bursar has been nothing short of hell. The bookkeeping is so poor that after my first semester as a full-time student, paying my tuition and earning a 3.7 GPA, I got a letter saying that my “application to the university hadn’t been processed yet” as if I weren’t already a student. On top of that, BECAUSE of this mistake, I wasn’t allowed to register for my second semester classes until I finally got the hold lifted, just in time for all of my required courses to be filled. </p>
<p>If you can find a person in any office that can answer a single question, you’re luckier than I have been in the last year. Please, save yourself, and do not apply to this school. Everyone I’ve spoken to has had the same problems, and come time to register for classes, it’s known that every office on campus will have a line out the door with confused, wronged, and irate students waiting for their chance to sit down with a useless employee who will do nothing to solve the problem.</p>
<p>For the amount I pay for tuition (as an out of state student) it is ridiculous that I’ve had to go through everything that I’ve gone through.</p>
<p>Believe me, anything is better than this excuse for a school. I’ve learned nothing and have just ended up surrounded by idiot classmates and incompetent administrators.</p>
<p>I am going to come to the defence of CCNY, I feel you must state what area of the school you are in. If you are in a joke major like communications or some other crap you will find plenty of less desirable people. But I would not lable the whole school as bad nor the students. In the lower level joke stuff the weeding out process has not been done so you still have fodder. There are motivated individuals just not in the concentrations like you would see at a top tier private insitution. I have not witnessed the behavior described above but then again I have only taken math and sciences there. I would say you have to see for yourself by visitng. Admin sucks no argument there. But don’t base it off the experience of a joke liberal arts class or something. Take a real class and then come back and report</p>
<p>So how’s a life as an Engineering student here?</p>
<p>Well I don’t know the purpose of coming to this forum and started his first thread and then never did anything else.</p>
<p>I don’t have any knowledge about the communication major out there. But I think the majority of the student body are very responsible and they are eager to get a good education.</p>
<p>The other day I was waiting on the line for printing, and I met this black dude. Yes. A black dude. No racist comment, but people have prejudices over the black people here, especially City is located at Harlems.
He told me he was a junior, a biology major. We had a great talk while waiting on the line. He then told me his experience as a college student, and I found out that he has internship with the Columbia Medical School. </p>
<p>He didn’t dress like a loser at all, but not the kind of dude you would expect attend college! </p>
<p>The problem is that we put a lot of prejudice. Yes, there are losers in City. I can tell you. Even I am a loser since I get lazy once in a while. The fact that there are dudes working their butts off and still maintain GPA and great ECs after school.</p>
<p>Average SAT and SAT II are fairly low, no doubt. It’s CCNY. Even some honors kids there are so “dumb” that I just want to slap their faces. I should count myself as one of those dumb honors kids. If you want to get good education then you work hard. </p>
<p>We have same lame professors and instructors, no doubt. Fairly speaking, the education there is just fine. This is why you need to get info from the upperclassmen and decide which professor or instructor to take. If you end up the lame one, too bad.</p>
<p>There are engineering students that started out with algebra, not calculus. There are definitely engineers that don’t speak English well. The student body is very diverse. We are not IVYs, and don’t expect people to carry SAT vocab.
:)</p>
<p>CCNY graduates some seriously high caliber kids and the education you get there is top notch… the biggest problem with the college is that they let in way too many people who shouldn’t be in university at all. </p>
<p>But I think CCNY weeds these people out pretty fast. My senior year was different from what the first post described. All of my lower level classes were filled with students not capable of making it in college but when I was nearing graduation my classes were more like seminars because half of the students I started with had dropped out or failed by then.</p>
<p>And I ended up getting an interviews with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and accepted a position with the Japanese government. So at least some companies thought my BA was worth more than a HS diploma. </p>
<p>Seriously though, CCNY could easily end up in the US top 30 if they cut their admissions by half.</p>
<p>Please note that most of these people who badmouth CCNY are new accounts and/or may be “one post” posters (by that I mean posted by competitors).</p>
<p>Well, it may be competitors or not, I still am interested in hearing more about this. I am only a high schooler, but Know several special ed kids getting into CUNY Honors program, and that’s basically where Macaulay kids are with. The Professors seem high quality though.</p>
<p>This is what I did not want to hear as an incoming freshman. What will probably frustrate me are the incoming regular honors freshmen, who probably acquired high GPAs in high school by brown-nosing or looking like they actually gave a damn, that don’t know crap but got admitted into the program because of their GPAs.</p>
<p>I am a Freshmen here and I’ll put this in the easiest way - If you are planning on going to class and going back home, don’t come here. Leave the seats open for students who actually want to enjoy college. City has so many activities, such as club hours every Thursday from 12-2 when no classes are in session. City has so many activities. But, if you do not take place in those activities, you will not have a fun time. I dorm and I have been to so many events already. It’s the only way to actually make your years at City worth it. Don;t just come and go, actually participate in things.</p>
<p>Im an engineering student with 1 credit left for the spring 2013 semester, and have attended the college for 4.5 years now. I have never had any problems with students being rowdy and disorderly in class. This may be because 95% of my courses were computer science and electrical engineering courses and people don’t **** around there. Even in my electives though such as art, music, speech, english, history, sociology; i never had a ‘high school’ level experience with students talking loudly, etc. When i got on the dean’s list, I found out pretty damn quick with a letter in the mail, so i didn’t have to wait 2 more semesters like that other guy, not that the list even means anything really…</p>
<p>Anyways, my only real complaint is that I’ve had too many crappy professors that made things difficult for me. This one guy who taught the basic electric circuit analysis course was absolutely terrible. The class was extremely easy to pass due to a curve, but I barely retained any knowledge and that cost me some grief in future electrical engineering courses because I had to play some catch up. I know it’s my fault too for not putting in my own time to learn the material, but honestly I’ve always needed a little push to actually get the ball rolling. When it’s that damn easy to pass a course with minimal studying, I barely did ****, especially because i was only a freshman/sophomore at the time. </p>
<p>Later on if you get a bad professor, things get much worse because it is no longer so easy to pass a course and you must truly want to pass in order to motivate yourself to study… Of course I’ve had a handful of good/great professors too, so it’s not a total waste, it’s just naturally easier to remember the bad parts… </p>
<p>Oh and the library being unruly is partially my fault, I have contributed my share over the years, with plenty of ***** drawings on the walls and nude desktop background LMAO!!! but only in the basement, and that was BEFORE they renovated the whole place and took the soul right out of it… now i hate being in the library, it feels too clinical…</p>
<p>I would also say that ccny has an excessive level of security and that this money could be spent elsewhere. I have been in NAC on the weekend and there are twenty security guards in the building but the carpets in the library are filthy and the elevators don’t work right. I have witnessed multiple times guards talking loudly, being disrespectful and/or officious to students. Sometimes it is impossible to escape from the constant, loud squelching of police radios (even though the radio is on their hip they will have it so loud that you can hear it across the library floor). Some security is good but at ccny it seems to be overkill and this often is detrimental to an atmosphere conducive to learning and contemplation. Say something about the radios (something perfectly within your rights as a paying customer) and you will inevitably get an attitude as if you are affronting them personally rather than just making a reasonable suggestion. I too have witnessed unruly behavior such as yelling across the dining hall and this seems to me to be something the guards could actually address from time to time but they don’t really seem to have been given any directives in this regard.</p>