The University of Houston

1)... UH is a MONEY hungry school. Many times (too many to count) I requested official transcripts to be sent out to my other school. It costs $10 per request. I requested about 7 of them one to just for ONEEE school, and the finally got one on the 7th attempt!! I had to call them almost everyday just to see if they sent it out... They recently updated their system so that they can send out transcripts electronically, and it STILL COSTS $10 per request and it's not even guaranteed to be sent!! And no, I did not get my money back.

Also, tuition continues to climb. You are going pay a high price for low quality education. I'm a biology major, math and health minor, and 95% of the professors just don't give a damn about you. You ask them a question and they respond, "i suggest you read the textbook." 80% of the professors can't even speak English correctly. This school is TRYING to compete with tier 1 schools like UT, A&M, and Rice... but they are no where close to being as good as them..

2)... SAFETY doesn't exist here. It's so dangerous here, there are crimes happening around campus or near campus like everyday. We get emails about rape, being gunned down, cars being stolen, etc... etc... Too much to list. If you want a safe campus, RUN AWAY NOW. I used to take the Metro Bus and one of the stops goes through the campus. THERE WAS A GUY SHOT and KILLED AT THE BUS STOP!! I'll never forget those white sheets over him... The parking lots are located in a 3rd ward area (very dangerous!!)

3)... TRAFFIC/PARKING. If you're not going to live on Campus, driving to school will suck. I started driving to school my 3rd year. I paid almost $200 for an annual parking pass. 95% of the time, it will take you 30+ minutes to find a parking spot (unless you go extremely early). And did I mention that many of those crimes of stealing happen in the parking lots? I finally purchased a garage parking for ~$175 per semester... and it takes me about 20 minutes to walk to my class...

On mapquest, google maps, etc... I live about 30 minutes away from school. HAH! I wish! With traffic, it takes me more than an hour just to get to school (not including finding parking). If I leave school around 4pm-6pm... I won't get home until an hour and a half later... And that's without those frequent crazy drivers who causes accidents...

4)... It's easy to get into. Not a good thing. I slacked off in high school, skipped a couple months of school during my high school years, had a few F's... was in the LOWER 25% of my class. I got a 22 on my ACT, because I didn't study and I just didn't care at the time. But you know what? I still got into UH. It makes you wonder...

5)... In my major, the classes are 100+ people per class. Enough said.I can list many others, but those are the five that pop into my head first.

I'm going to start out with the very few positives about UofH. I tried to grade fairly, and would have given all F's all around if it weren't for a couple of really nice things about the campus. First, the campus itself is beautiful. The damn place is covered with fountains and student artwork. It is also CLEAN! The campus overall is well maintained, and i can't think of i time i have been on campus where the trash cans were full, the bathrooms not clean, or even see a cigarette butt on the ground. It's clean people...I assumed they had robots doing the cleaning overnight, but I pulled a late night in MD Anderson and found out they have an impressive graveyard crew who gets the job done. They are easily the hardest working people on campus. So good on you Cleaning Crew! Another positive is CASA tutoring at Garrison building. It can totally save your ass in those upper level math courses. Be advised- VERY FEW TAs speak English as a first language. So while they are def. smart about the subject, you can easily get confused by their explanations. On occasion, you will spot a Math Prof in there... that is who you need to talk to. Professors at UH are HIGHLY elusive. Much like giant squids, or unicorns. I was told by a prof to just google how to do certain Calculus problems since they did not have time to explain further. Teaching fail.

The extracurricular activities here are so-so. The students try really hard to try and pull together events. It feels as though they only have half-assed support from the faculty and staff. Also, there is no way to notify the ENTIRE student body of an event. So many things happen and go unnoticed, unless of course you read the bathroom wall literature people hang up. The student body really isn't that bad, but I honestly wish the Greek side would get their act together. This is my 3rd college, and the only one where the Greeks aren't bout-it bout-it with their frattiness and sorority business.

UofH is obviously based in Houston, Tx. The city of Houston overall is a pretty nice place although it has the ghetto areas. One of these areas is the 3rd Ward....conveniently placed right next to University of Houston. Seriously, about 2 blocks away is the straight up ghetto. During the day time, campus is totally not scary, but once the sun goes down bring your pepper spray/taser/gun/whatever. People's cars get broken into and campus police really can't do anything about it...if they can, they are too lazy to actually do. While we are on the car subject. Parking is a total mess. For around $200, you get a parking pass which doesn't guarantee you a spot in the designated lot, nor does it provide you with any form of protection or security. Basically, if you don't get to school by 8am, good luck finding a spot.

Now, the meat and potatoes of why i HATE this college. UofH does this thing where if a student does bad on an exam, the prof can drop them from the course without notice. Not just bad on an exam...for any reason really. This is to fake the schools academic success rate.. i suspect the school also makes cash hand over fist with this since a W in a course still requires you to pay some money. I predict that if let alone, you would see a WAY higher failure rate coming out of this college.

The Professors here, for the most part, DO NOT GIVE A DAMN if you learn the material or not. They care about making a paycheck. Now, i'm sure that their are a few exceptions to this rule. I have consistently heard good things about 2 professors...The rest of 'em? All negative. Most of the course work is done online, or with a huge chuck of the material being dished out online. This is ridiculous, if i wanted to take online classes i would have taken online classes. The problem is, is that you are expected to show up to class when the lecture notes, homework, tests, quizzes are all found on the internet. It gets infuriating when you are forced to go to three different websites, login to each one, and try to figure out what class has an assignment due and when. This hand-fisted system makes it easy for assignments to get lost in the internet clutter. Yes, you are capable of organizing your tasks to get it all done, but its a huge pain.

I'm a non-trad student, meaning i am 26 and returning to school after being in the military. This is my 3rd college and until I went here, my grades were around 3.5 with a 3.8 in my major. Now, halfway through this semester i am looking at taking loans to retake these classes. I am passing sure, but i am not learning the material. I'm learning for the tests since they are weighed so heavy in most classes(one particular class 80% of grade). THe college loves busy work. I don't mind homework when i actually get something from the material. Its to the point where i go to class for attendance, and leave asap because I will be told to look online for help... instead of getting it in the classroom from someone who is paid to prepare me for my career. Like i mentioned earlier, the profs are rarely in their offices and will normally punt you to a TA. I like TAs, but sometimes they need to learn to make their own decisions. They are all baby grad students, so many know nothing except school.

UofH sucks pretty hard overall. I would have written more but i have to study some stuff my Profs only skimmed over, that apparently is a huge portion of a test. Wtf. DO NOT WASTE YOU TIME OF MONEY HERE!!! If you are stuck in Houston go to community college for your prereqs and transfer someplace else. There is nothing prestigious about this place. It is a lot of stress for a city college. UH is more worried about appearance than academia. DO NOT GO HERE! Even if its the only place you got accepted. Retake those SATs and try again.