Grand Valley State University

Okay, so they are the second best public school in Michigan (I do not know where these rankings come from, but I have a hard time believing them), but after spending 2 years here, I feel as though I am at a community college. Classes are not very challenging and professors give a lot of breaks and leeway for slackers. I find it very hard to believe that some of my peers here even deserve to be in college with the stupid comments and bad attitudes I have experienced. Many are athletes or spoiled rich kids born with a silver spoon in their mouth that have not had to work hard for grades. The other majority are bible thumpers from the Grand Rapids area who are not very open minded. This place is very conservative and there are limited opportunities here. Ottawa county is very Dutch and parties are rare. The police are ridiculous and hunt for parties to bust on weekends. There is not a whole lot to do on the weekends, even though Grand Rapids is 30 minutes away, you need to be 21 to do 90% of the things there. Majority of the people who go here are from a town within a 30 mile radius of the school and go home EVERY WEEKEND, which is tough for an east sider like myself who couldn't afford to go home that often. With that being said, a lot of people know each other from high school and still seem to only want to associate with each other.

The school boasts about its clubs and activities, but honestly, probably half of them have 5 total members. The Greek life is not very strong, a few chapters and only 2 organizations have houses (both sororities), Greek life is actually frowned upon by the board. Another good quarter of clubs are religious (or should I say Christian, there really isn't a lot of acceptance of other religions here) organizations, and for being someone who is not at all religious, it was hard to get along with people without them pressuring me to go to bible study. Clubs are very cliquey and are difficult to get involved with if you are not that certain 'type' that they get along with. The social scene is difficult, especially if you are not athletic, rich, or religious.

Another thing that I have to mention to incoming freshmen, the dorms appear to be incredibly nice, and they are. I would agree that we have the Cadillac of dorm rooms within the state of Michigan. I lived in an apartment style room my freshman year, shared it with one roommate and we had our own kitchen and bathroom. While most freshmen would dream of that the social scene in the dorms is TERRIBLE. It was so quiet in my dorm that you could hear a pin drop on a Wednesday night. The doors are always closed and it was hard to meet people on the floor, many people resort to being cave dwellers and only leave their rooms to go to class or to go home. I did not meet many of my friends from my hall, but from my classes instead. My friends in the traditional dorms loved it, they made a ton of friends and people were forced to be outgoing. I cannot stress enough that being in a traditional dorm is so important on the social level, no matter how disgusting or small they are, its worth it! I am gladly able to say that I am finally leaving this hell hole in a week and a half, I am transferring to the University of Michigan. If you are someone that enjoys living in the middle of a corn field, watching a movie with 3 friends on a Saturday night, and taking classes that are not very challenging, then GV is for you. If you are someone who needs the fas pace of the city, a challenging academic experience, and a diverse and open minded population, go to U of M or MSU or out of state.