<p>I transferred from a west coast CC to an east coast university, but I kind of hate it here. Everyone warned me the weather would be bad, but that's not even it. The people are so dower and discourteous. The streets are filthy. I can't leave my apartment without someone asking me for money. Everything is expensive. People can't seem to have real conversations. Every time I try to talk to someone it just ends up with them unloading all this depressing crap on me. </p>
<p>The school itself is fine. It has a good reputation and is academically challenging. My grades are excellent. It's a medium-sized school where the classes are taught by professors who seem to really care about the success of their students. My only real complaint about the school is the class size. One of the main things I was looking for was small classes and the school totally oversold on that aspect. They claimed most classes had 20 or fewer students, but most of my classes are pushing 40 students. That's huge compared to my community college classes, and I don't like it. </p>
<p>My parents are in AZ and I thought maybe I could take a year off, get residency in AZ, and finish school there. But I only want to do that if the schools are good. Does anyone have any perspective on the schools in AZ?</p>
<p>I'm a math major, fwiw.</p>
<p>If you’re parents live in AZ, then you already will get in state tuition. AZ is one of the few states that gives in state tuition as long as you can show proof that you bought the house, there is no rule that you have to live there for a year like in CA.
On another note, I would look at the University of AZ (not Arizona State). It has a great reputation and is big on the innovative research. Great weather too!! haha.</p>
<p>I’m a University of Arizona student. First, the people are alright, it’s a big state university so you’ll probably find some sort of a niche. There are a lot of different ways to get involved so you’ll easily meet people.</p>
<p>As for Tucson itself, its pretty ghetto. We have a lot of homeless people, some very poor neighborhoods very close to campus, and the rundown apartments surrounding campus are overpriced.</p>
<p>Academics are hit or miss. Although most of my instructrors have been intelligent and caring, I have had some who should not be teaching college courses. Every class outside of my major has had more than 40 people. I have even had a class with 600 people. Also, for some gen eds they use the 1200 seat Centennial Hall.</p>
<p>Honestly, I’‘m not too familiar with the math department besides my math course; however’ people complain about it a lot. I don’t know if this bothers you but people claim that the average failure rate for a Math class is 60%. I do not know if that figure is accurate nor do I know if it also applies to upper division courses nor do I know if that is a standard figure for any math department.</p>
<p>Oh, I’m an independent student, so my parent’s residency won’t help me.</p>
<p>You might also want to post your thread on the Search & Selection and the UA and ASU individual college forums as your question is really about the schools and not transferring per se.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure ASU requires 1 year residency. I was a weird situaltion where I bought a pre-forclosure in Phoenix before turning 19, and asked if owning it for 1+ years (accruing property taxes in AZ) would allow me in-state, and they said no. even for me, I would have to present receipts and tax returns from AZ for 12 mos. btw, I live in CA. </p>
<p>also, you will love ASU. weather is hot, but beautiful, the people are enerally nice, and most of the area is young. if I could have achieved residency, I may have picked ASU>UCLA.</p>
<p>Fwiw, girls at both UA and ASU are GORGEOUS. Both are also ranked to be really big party schools. Although I’m not really qualified to speak on behalf of either, I can’t imagine for there to small classes or rigorous academics at either UA or ASU. I could be wrong though.</p>
<p>actually the thing about asu being a party school is kind of a misnomer. for the most part it’s a dry campus now…something about a new dean or whatnot. but yes, beautiful girls :)</p>
<p>AZ is getting hit pretty hard with higher ed budget cuts will will affect class sizes and tuition. Take that into consideration when investigating AZ schools.</p>
<p>^that’s what I’m most concerned about. I transferred from a CC in Nevada. The only reason I didn’t stay in Nevada was because of horrible budget cuts that have basically destroyed higher education there.</p>
<p>I’m a straight girl, so beautiful girls don’t really appeal to me, lol.</p>
<p>I’ll probably end up staying where I am and suffering for a couple of years. I just wish I had realized that the attitude here was so poor. Everyone kept talking about weather but no one mentioned that the people are so unhappy.</p>
<p>@90PercentGravity - which cc? I used to be student pres of csn and I’m transferring out of state for next fall. I’ve also been at the center of these anti-budget cut protests so I’m pretty up to speed on nv/az higher ed cuts.</p>
<p>AZ is getting hit just as hard as nv is though we’ve been successful here in lessening the cuts to where it is more spread out over the legislative sessions so we’ve avoided massive tuition hikes here where as AZ/CA had to raise tuition a ton.</p>
<p>I was at TMCC for two years. I really miss it, too. I suppose that is part of why I’m not happy here. I had a really good experience at TMCC and was sad to have to leave.</p>
<p>My biggest concern was that mid-term elections would tilt the power in the legislature and then there would be nothing stopping Gibbons from destroying everything.</p>
<p>BTW, if you like the west coast, don’t go east lol.</p>
<p>I like both coasts but I will probably be going to a private to avoid dealing with budget cut issues next year. </p>
<p>FYI proposition 100 passed in AZ just now:</p>
<p>"In Arizona, voters backed Proposition 100, which will temporarily increase the sales tax by one cent on the dollar. Education …([including] higher education) will be the primary beneficiary of the additional funds. </p>
<p>The three universities governed by the Arizona Board of Regents would have had to cut $107 million from their budgets had voters rejected the sales tax…Arizona State University might have had to cut up to 650 positions and to impose enrollment caps on certain programs. The University of Arizona was looking at eliminating up to 500 positions and [increasing] class sizes. "</p>
<p>You would never see a sales tax increase like this in NV and I am amazed it would pass in AZ. </p>
<p>[Arizona</a> schools play important role in Prop 100 victory](<a href=“http://www.azcentral.com/community/surprise/articles/2010/05/20/20100520arizona-prop-100-schools.html]Arizona”>http://www.azcentral.com/community/surprise/articles/2010/05/20/20100520arizona-prop-100-schools.html)</p>
<p>I grew up in Arizona where almost everyone I knew went to ASU or UofA… Honestly, I think there are much better schools in much better locations.</p>
<p>UofA is actually a good school… but Tucson is not so great. Just an ugly city in the desert, really.</p>
<p>Have you considered NAU? It’s a good school and Flagstaff is actually a really cool location. A bit different from the rest of Arizona.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, what part of the East Coast is this? My cousin from Minnesota disliked Boston because when he tried to start conversations with people waiting for the train, they all just walked away… what do you expect, haha</p>