@ucbalumnus There are so many things I can share about my Temple U. nightmare! Where to begin…
For one, campus police/safety are a joke. The first week of classes, a girl was murdered and her body was put inside a storage bin. What’s unsettling was - according to news - campus police was in her murderer’s apartment and did not notice the blood on the walls, hence why it took so long for the murderer to be arrested. Be prepared to show your student ID in every building you walk into (and also get shouted at by rude workers if you forget to take it out) because the campus is surrounded by crime.
If you wander even one block off campus toward the subway, people will come bother you for money to buy heroin. The surrounding streets are dirty and off campus housing is expensive yet ridiculously rundown. On campus housing is also a joke - the apartments are overpriced holes and there’s a lot of weed and partying. It’s a well known fact that there’s a place called ‘Narnia’ (I wish I were joking) where students all smoke together on campus. Parking in garages isn’t cheap, but preferable to local lots and having your car keyed by hoodrats (me).
Main campus isn’t big enough for everyone. Before enrolling, I didn’t realize that walking to and from classes every day meant having to dodge people constantly and get bumped into. Think NYC, but inject more unorganized chaos since idiots constantly skateboard around and almost slam into people…many students complain of this. The library is constantly packed, the computer labs are overflowing, etc.
The big problem is academics, or lack thereof. For one, I can’t remember a single class where a student was actually excited to learn. More than a few students acted like they were half asleep, some texted, and some never talked - or if they did talk, it was whispering in the back of the room. It felt VERY ‘high school.’ By the final 4 weeks of the semester, three students disappeared in one of my electives. I guess they just didn’t care anymore? It doesn’t help that most of the professors at this school are ALL over the place. Some are acceptable while others are bored adjuncts or outdated and unfriendly (welcome to the science department).
There’s a reason that Temple gets a C/77 academic rating from the PR. It’s not a strong school academically and let’s face it, you get what you pay for. Their tours fool you into thinking the school is a strong knit school with great opportunities for all, but they neglect to tell you that half the students don’t take it seriously and it’s IMPOSSIBLE to schedule classes at normal times. Getting the right class feels like entering the drawing for the lotto and many core classes are only held at 8 a.m.
I’ll probably post this on another forum just to share my honest experience. Truth be told, this isn’t even everything I had an issue with. I went to another school prior to TU and never had anything like this happen.