Louisiana Tech University

I actually disagree about how this site asks you to rate the surrounding city. Ruston is a quintessential college town in the south, which is why it gets bad reviews as far as plenty of social life. The emphasis of the town is providing a hometown atmosphere for the students, with a few options for nightlife, and more a greater distance away. If you are used to city life and enjoy the variety, or imagine that going away to college means hitting a bar every night and the club every weekend, then this is certainly not the place for you. Know what you want out of your college experience before you commit yourself, otherwise you will be out of place.

While Ruston is located in the Bible belt, liberals and those outside of the norm are treated fairly well due to the pervasive friendly atmosphere. There are a huge number of organizations on campus for any interest: religious, professional societies, volunteer works, Eco-friendly movements, modeling, anime, free-thought, GLBT&Queer, ect. The dorms in general, especially the male dorms, are quite deteriorated, but the focus is on the university apartment style housing which can be nice. And there are numerous off campus housing options as very close to campus. In conclusion, you will get a quality education as long as you put forth effort. If you actually try and connect with faculty and take all the opportunities available to you, your education and experience can rival those of the first tier schools.

However, I am very glad I graduate this coming spring because of how the university has treated the music department. With the budget cuts and severe lack of support from the president, I fear that the program might be cut in the next decade. Every single problem with the music department stems from Reneau's ignorance of the importance of the arts, what is needed to fund arts programs, and his general stupidity. Seriously. He's retarded.

Also, the athletic department, which used to work really well with the band, has in recent years really caused some problems. Their new agenda is greatly conflicting with that of the band, meaning that the band wants to continue being the carriers of tradition and have some adequate funding to perform up to standards while the athletic department repays us by taking away our only practice field without reparations. If it wasn't for my church and my friends, I would wish I was at another university (out-of-state, because all LA schools are terrible, in general).