<p>This is a warning to all parents who's children are considering Towson. University. My child was very excited to begin her college experience at Towson this year, but i have found that the Towson Administration just doesn't care. They don't return calls, and the few I have spoken to are rude and arrogant. My daughter was placed in West Hall which is full of mold and mildew. The 'so called' cleaning staff doesn't clean very well. There are no hand towels in the bathrooms to even dry your hands. For construction reasons, they shut off the water in her dorm, as well as Ward Hall and Residence Tower, for 24 hours and brought in porta potties for the students to use. Can you even imagine using porta potties let alone in the middle of the night, alone, and by yourself, in darkness. Not even a drop of water to wash your hands. Let's not even address the monthly female situation. All in all 500 plus students using a few porta potties. So far my experience with Towson University is absolute disappointment. I'm not happy with Towson , and the decision to allow my child to attend Towson was not a wise one. I can only be honest to other parents. i'm not the type of parent who complains. I usually assume that things will work themselves out. </p>
<pre><code>Towson University does not put the student first. Towson considers the student to be an afterthought. I get the feeling that Towson's administration is not top notch. Everyone seems to just settle in to their job and 'not rock the boat.' Status quo is the norm. Choose a private college for your child, one that puts the student first. It is worth the extra money to know you and your child have a voice and respected opinion.
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<p>Towson is also a ''bar college'' meaning that all students go out to bars so you need to have a fake i.d. or you're sitting in the room all the time with nothing to do. Somehow students come to Towson with their fake i.d.'s.</p>
<p>Sorry that your D is having to go through this. I can tell you that I know of 2 OOS students who attended and both transferred out. I have heard that others are happy. It seems to be a mixed bag. I don't think that public vs. private is the answer. I have heard bad experiences with private schools too. I can tell you that one student I know who transferred out transferred for social reasons, and reasons involving the dorms, although academics she found to be just okay. She was tripled in room designed for 2 students. There were only 2 closets and 2 sets of drawers, 3 beds and one shelf for 3 female students. It was very uncomfortable. Also, she found that most students would not eat off campus, would rarely go off campus. They did not find value in going there OOS and she went elsewhere. My son is in a triple at another school, but there are 3 closets, 3 desks, 3 sets of drawers, and the room is larger to accommodate 3 students. The school has designed it to be a proper triple, and he is happy with his living arrangements.</p>
<p>I will add one more thing. We toured a private college 2-3 years ago. The dorms were redone, but we saw how students were housed before the dorms were rebuilt. I can tell you that after we saw those arrangements, we all agreed to scratch that school from our list. We still would not send our children there. We feel that just the fact that they had students in such an environment spoke volumes about how much they cared about their students. I never saw dorm rooms so small in my life, and they looked like one was in a basement (pipes running on the outside of the ceilings/walls). One would need to use a car trunk to store clothes bc there was not enough space in the room! This was at a private school!</p>
<p>I'm sorry that your child is not having a good experience. My OOS daughter is a sophmore at Towson this year, dorming for the 2nd year in the Glen Towers. She was fortunate that both years she was not tripled. However she did know people that were tripled and by January all of the triples had been changed back to doubles (w/ the room of tripled students deciding amongst themselves on who would make the move to a new room). I think that this year may be the worst as far as housing goes ... but Towson is building a lot of new housing, w/ brand new housing expected to be up and running by fall 2008 specifically for the incoming freshman. The state of Maryland is putting a good deal of money into Towson to bring it to a "new" level of school, and unfortunately, living through the construction and disarray is not fun.</p>
<p>Socially my daughter has made good friends, but she did know a fellow HS classmate that was very unhappy there her freshman year and transferred out at the end of the 1st semester. I think it is unwise to make a blanket statement about any particular school -- as these type of situations can be found in many schools, students unhappy w/ dorms, socially, academically, etc. In fact my daughter met a new OOS student this year right next door to her that is very unhappy and may be transferring out ... but at the same time she knows plenty of people that are very satisfied.</p>