I am currently a college freshman looking to hopefully transfer for the fall semester. My current school has a really small student body (just over 1,000 students) and never has anything going on, so I want to transfer to a school with a better social life. I only submitted applications to 2 schools, and one was Stevens in Hoboken, NJ. I have a good friend who is a student there, and he previously liked it, despite there being a few negatives. Yesterday, however, he texted me and recommended me not to go there. He said that pretty much all of the students there are rude and arrogant, the professors don’t care about you and expect you to know everything before taking their class, and this happens in every department. I was so excited about applying here because I had heard it was excellent, and everybody here on CC said it was great as well. My neighbor goes there also and she loves it so much, she is almost never home. I’m very disappointed and discouraged after hearing this, and I don’t want to have to depend on one school if I want to transfer. And my odds of getting good financial aid from either school are very slim. So there is a lot of pressure on me now. I’m still going to visit Stevens and hopefully interview for there, but I am very discouraged after hearing this.
Maybe your friend isn’t the best or only possible source of information. Every school has some people who love it and some who hate it, and the reasons don’t always make sense. Talk to your neighbor about it to get a different perspective.
@ThankYouforHelp, this neighbor is really my uncle’s neighbor, but I don’t know her at all. I thought I said “uncle” in the original post.
Don’t listen to any one person any more than strangers on CC. Go see for yourself, talk to students there, try to find juniors and seniors with perspective, hopefully in your major. Good luck!
@CADREAMIN thanks! It has great academics and it’s in a great location, so hopefully all goes well.
It will be fine, there is always someone with something bad to say, don’t focus on that person (unless it is your mom or sibling that knows you and the pending situation very well). The worst college advice I ever got was right here on cc from an expert poster. If I wouldn’t have validated it with someone at the school D was applying to, she would have applied and got rejected, no question.
So believe in yourself, your feelings and do your own research. The internet and others influence people way too much these days.
I keep seeing a trend of kids who don’t apply to certain schools because they don’t feel worthy then come to realize later they actually would have had a shot and should have applied. I am convinced it is from reading things (and a lot of it is on here) that make people believe that everyone that gets into top schools has to have a 36 ACT to be a contender. Since only 1% of test takes, about 2,000 kids get a 36 and many many more thousands than that apply and get into top schools, so that can’t be true.
@CADREAMIN, thanks! I have a visit planned over spring break, so I’m just gonna go with an open mind and see what happens.
If your friend changed his mind so suddenly he may have been over-reacting to a recent issue he had on campus. Agree that you should go visit and decide for yourself.
@happy1, he thought these things in the past also, but only thought a select few students were rude and only some of the professors were unhelpful. Now he suddenly thinks that about all the students and professors and is looking to transfer to a school that can’t even compare to Stevens because he hates it there so much.
When someone thinks everyone else is the problem, 99.99% of the time they’ll find the true source the problem staring back at them when they take a good hard look in the mirror.
Glad you are still going to visit with an open mind. Good luck!
@1Dreamer yup, I’ve in general heard great things about Stevens, so it is certainly on my list. And their business program is supposed to be great.
@beachguy20 You’ve gotten plenty of feedback regarding doing your own further research on the Stevens culture as well as any other school you’re considering for transfer (definitely visit and don’t stay with the one person you know there!). However, this is the part of your post that worries me the most:
“And my odds of getting good financial aid from either school are very slim. So there is a lot of pressure on me now.”
Does this mean that these schools you’re considering will not be affordable for you? If that’s the case, why are you considering them? Have you identified some other schools that ARE affordable?
@mnparentof3 they are affordable, but it would be nice to get sufficient aid like I got for my current school.
@beachguy20 I have a brilliant friend who got into Carnegie Mellon but couldn’t afford it so he accepted Stevens instead. He spent 2 years there and he claims it was terrible as well as too expensive (for him). He then transferred to NJIT Honors College and got his MechEng and has been working in the field for a couple of years. One of the things which was prevalent at Stevens he claims, was that many of the teachers had language issues. They hire teachers with poor English proficiency. This was a trustworthy source which is the only reason I’d post this, otherwise what @1Dreamer said above about angry students claiming that everyone else is wrong is typically the case.
One thing I will correct you with though, when you said that someone claimed that teachers expected you to know the material before coming to class–I would hope so! This is college, this is normal, you are supposed to have read the material and the chapter before coming to class. If the person who told you that didn’t know this, it’s his fault. Most colleges teach this as one of their first classes to incoming freshmen. College orientation in every good college will explain that the lecture is a form of reiteration of the material. Lectures are used to clarify and regurgitate what you should have spent a couple of hours studying before hand.
I think that there is a mix of good/bad professors and nice/rude students at every college. Stevens is no different in that respect. Yes, some of the instructors have strong accents. I think you will find that everywhere.
The biggest issue I see is that Stevens is actively trying to increase their student body while their plans for additional classrooms/dorms have been delayed/put on hold. There are more and more students with no corresponding increase in school space. This is a problem.