<p>So my kid has been at UofA for almost three months now.</p>
<p>So far I am massively underwhelmed at what we have experienced so far.</p>
<p>My kid is at the so called “Honors” dorm (Arbol)…but lets look a little bit closer at that:
- Their first dorm event was Freaky Friday
Where they handed out free condoms and showed the usual how-to-use with a banana. That’s fantastic, except what if your kid doesn’t believe that their body should be treated as an amusement park? Yes, I know: don’t go. But if that is type of events that they have, how is the kid supposed to get to know the dorm mates?</p>
<p>2) this last weekend, they had a male beauty pageant</p>
<p>3) Pieces of poop are regularly found in the hallway</p>
<p>4) Few of any study rooms are ever used</p>
<p>5) “quiet” hours are routinely ignored</p>
<p>From what I have read about Barrett’s Honor College…this is about as orthogonal as one could get.</p>
<p>Granted, high SAT/ACT does not imply reasonable hygiene but I think there was an assumption made especially at $7,700/year that fundamental cleanliness could be guaranteed.</p>
<p>I hope someone can help me understand the “honors” part of all of this.
I know that my kid is desperately seeking this understanding.</p>
<p>Another question: my kid actually has fill-in-the-blank text books which is probably okay but when the teacher either doesn’t know how to fill-in-said-blanks or the class itself is cancelled the week before a test over a chapter that has blanks yet to be filled in, I again, struggle to see how this actually works.</p>
<p>Can someone again, please help me understand this concept of a text book (especially at the price we paid [hundreds…plural]).</p>
<p>There are countless others, but I don’t want to exceed my limit on this post.</p>
<p>I thank you.</p>
<p>Looks like you joined just to vent about the school, all I can say is unfortunately your child’s experience is not typical. Have they gone to the RA about the “accidents” in the hall, this is certainly not normal. One of my children (I have more than one in college) is a second year student in the Honors college and asked to stay in Arbol (rather than off campus) because of the great experience last year. He made friends with most everyone on his floor and most of the other kids on the floor returned as well. And yes, it is known as a “quiet” dorm, although it sounds like your child needs it quieter. Don’t forget this is the first time most of the kids have lived away from home and it may take the first round of grades to come in until some of the noisier ones settle down, but the dorm is about as quiet and serious as they come. </p>
<p>No, the study rooms are not always booked to capacity but they are there for the times when a roommate doesn’t want to be quiet and your child should be glad they can be used whenever needed. My student ended up doing most of his studying in the room, which I think was the norm for the floor, but there were floor/dorm study groups for many of the bigger freshman classes i.e. Bio, Chem, etc. </p>
<p>There are things to do every weekend, and yes we heard about the male pageant too, but we also heard that lots of kids went, including my student, and it was fun. However, that was not the only event this past weekend, with one pass through the lobby you can usually see posters for 2-3 events each weekend, (in addition to the ones run by RAs on the individual floors). That doesn’t include going to the football games if they are home or any of the events (intramurals) through the rec center (the huge three story glass building two blocks away!) </p>
<p>It may take more than 2 months (which while it may feel longer to your son/daughter is all that they have been there for) to make new friends. My suggestion is that you encourage them to interact with some of the other students and (as a parent) complain to the RA about the hygiene issue.</p>
<p>Wow, not trying to gang up on you ConcernedUA (rather, reassure you), but that is not my freshman D’s experience either. She is not in the Honors College but is in an Honors course, and she absolutely loves it. And I think your kiddo should speak with Res Life about the dorm situation, if he/she sees the RA as part of the problem. My D has had no problems in her dorm, and her RA has been great.</p>
<p>I will say that my D is astounded at the intolerance she has witnessed on campus, especially as compared to her extremely diverse and fairly liberal high school and home city. Perhaps that has not been your son or daughter’s experience thus far.</p>
<p>College4K can you elaborate on what type of intolerance you are talking about?</p>
<p>My daughter is a junior at UA and lived at Arbol when she was a freshman, and loved it. She’s a very hardworking serious student, but did enjoy the interaction with other honors students - so much so that even after she moved out her sophomore year, she spent quite a bit of her study time at Arbol.</p>
<p>I’m a little confused. I thought Barrett Honors College was at ASU?</p>
<p>NYMom, my D attended a large, public, inner city high school, and we live in neighborhood that is extremely diverse in every way. My D happens to like that diversity, but not everyone does. </p>
<p>Without getting into details, I’ll just say my D is always surprised that homophobia and racial bias still exist among young people. I would NOT suggest that is the prevailing mindset at UA, but rather that perhaps students are influenced by the prevailing mindset of that region of the country and the experiences they have had thus far.</p>
<p>I appreciate the replies from everyone on this thread!</p>
<p>However, I would appreciate some more actual <em>details</em> of everyone’s positive experience. Is it clubs, classes, dorms, classmates, dorm-mates, roommates, profs, activities, or exactly what is it that made the experience a positive one?</p>
<p>I asked my son what he liked the most from freshman year and he said floormates, activities overall (he signed up for an intramural sport via the rec center), and Honors classes more than regular classes.</p>
<p>My daughter doesn’t live in Arbol but lives in one of the dorms off Highland and absolutely loves it. Her hall-mates for the most part are respectful and quiet. She is involved on campus in a sorority and is loving that as well. She does complain about the communal bathrooms not being super clean all the time but is really loving her time at UofA. She has met and hangs with a lot of girls and boys in her hall too and seems to have an active social life.</p>
<p>Classes. My daughter complains that the General Education classes are harder then her major classes. She also hates the selection of General Education classes and finds them uninteresting at best. That is the only thing she has said about the classes and class work.</p>