Kalamazoo College

This school is not what I thought it would be at all. It is exactly like high school, and there are cliques for every sport. The kids that aren't in sports are either super liberal, super preppy, or extremely strange. There really isn'y any in between. Campus is DEAD pretty much all the time but even more so on weekends. There is absolutely nothing to do here. The first year forums are horrible, because they basically blast you with their liberal views.As someone who isn't extremely conservative, I still felt very uncomfortable and almost attacked during these forums. Also, the pre law society doesn't exist at all. If you actually want to be in a civic engagement club, you have to interview for it. But don't count on getting in because they take about 3 people, 2 of them being a minority.

1st Year Female -- Class 2019

Perceived Campus Safety: A+, Useful Schoolwork: F

Wow, I don't even know where to begin. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't consider what a bad decision it was to go to this school. If you are thinking about applying, be very apprehensive about what the K-Crew is telling you. Half the stuff they say is just a flat out lie. Such as, yeah we have lots of internship opportunites at the Career Development Center. Fact: I know quite a few people that went there constantly and ended up making cold calls by themselves. Myth: Yeah, all the class sizes here at K are small. Fact: Only the ones that need to be larger. The science classes are packed so that I have seen kids need to sit on the floor, meanwhile intro english that is needed for graduation is has a registration cap of 22. Myth: The K-Plan is an interesting and beneficial aspect of this college. Fact: It means jack @#$%, the quarter system makes it impossible to transfer to other colleges or apply to medical school. If you are even considering going into medicine, I beg of you, don't make the mistake I did and come to this school. When med schools say, we want one year of organic chemistry for example, anywhere else that would mean two semesters worth, or about 8 credit hours. Note, our classes cover the same amount of material in 10 weeks, that another university covers in 15 weeks. Thus, you would think that two classes of ours would satisfy this "year". Nope, not even. They make it so that each class is worth 3.3 credit hours, meaning two classes is 6.6. So, you have to take a third class and get 9,9 credit hours when you only need 8 to get into med school. This means that by the time you finish getting all your requirements in, you dont have time to really take any classes that interest you. Also, in other universities the science students get credit hours for taking labs. Not here! We take a lab with each science class that is four hours long once a week actually in the lab, not to mention the 6 hours it takes to write the report due each week. What do you get for all this work, nothing. Classes with no lab count for as much as those with a lab. While on the subject of the quarter system, lets just say that it makes life extremely hectic and stressed here. Just ask the professors, but make sure they don't know you are a prospect. Everything is so intense that the kids here look more like zombies than fun-filled college students. Now, here is where you may be saying, yeah this kid is stupid and just can't hack it. Actually, I have a 4.0, thats right, not one B! And you know what, I am probably the luckiest because I can keep up with the pace. You would be amazed how the kids start dropping like flies out of the science classes in the first year, just because the pace is so demanding. What else? Ohh yeah, the administration is the biggest money making machine I have ever seen. They care more about getting more money from either alumni or prospective students that once you get here, or teach here, they don't give a damn about you. For example, putting additions on a library that is empty all the time anyways, rather than investing in more important things like online full text articles that are needed. Even the professors don't get access. I don't want to even get into the price of going here. Let me just say this, what you pay for is not what you get. Finally, the social life here is absolutely horrible. If you are not holding onto some dream of playing "college sports" even though it is division III, or don't like to play dungeons and dragons for hours on end, this is not the place for you. I like to go and hang out with friends and go to parties, both of which are strange around here. Overall, my disatisfaction with this place is immense, and the problems with it are too numerous to list. Take my advice, go somewhere else.

1st Year Male -- Class 2004

Useful Schoolwork: A+, University Resource Use/ spending: F

Kalamazoo College was the school I was really hoping to get into when I did my college applications my senior year of high school. I really wanted to go there, due to all the great things I had heard about the school, the staff, the campus, the atmosphere, and everything about it. I applied to it early decision because I wanted to go there so badly, and found out in December from an letter that was hand delivered to me by members of the admissions department that I got in (and honestly, I was surprised I got in because it was supposedly a very competitive year.) But after being at school for a couple quarters, I realized that it was not at all what I thought it would be.

I knew that it was supposedly a slightly "dorky" school, where smart, but slightly odd went, where they could all fit in and strive to do well together, but the environment ended up being, to me, quite negative. The students were all incredibly competitive and closed-minded (it is a very liberal school) and even for someone like me who is quite moderate and empathetic to both sides, can end up being shot down by a student or professor for having an alternate view, no matter how small.

Kalamazoo also prides itself on the hundreds of different student-created groups that it has, but the groups end up having very few people in it (the largest groups being 15, the average being about 6 people), and having very little funding.

I also went to kalamazoo because it really promoted its music department, and said that it had several student orchestras that I could participate in. I had been an active violinist all throughout high school, and was really excited to continue with orchestra at the college level, but the orchestra was nothing like I had read about or been told by the college. The orchestra was 60% community members, so most students sat with older adults, ages 40+, and as a freshman, it was incredibly difficult to get to know other students when I was surrounded by adults (my standpartner was a fellow students grandmother). So the student atmosphere I had anticipated for the orchestra was non existent. And the new, young conductor it had tended to be very crabby, and would yell at students who were not playing up to snuff, verbally attacking them in front of the entire orchestra. And the lack of students in the orchestra was not due to the few students the school has, but due to the intensive cuts the conductor made so that the orchestra could be mostly community members, and few students so that it could be "at the level he thought it should be". So the musical environment I had looked forward to and expected was not there at all.

*********Finally, the GPA system was absolutely ridiculous. From what professors and admissions directors said, the average GPA at Kalamazoo college was around a 2.7, which one would expect to be a bit higher since the college is always talking about the "intellectual students" it has, and how brilliant all we students were. But it was virtually impossible to get an A in several classes. The college works on a GPA scale that says that an A and A- is a 4.0, a B+, B, and B- is a 3.0, a C+, C, and C- is a 2.0 and so on. And that sounds great if you got an A- and your GPA went down as a 4.0 for that class, but the problem was that many professors simply "did not give A's" as several of my professors had told me my freshman year. Due to the way the GPA system worked, many professors, in order to keep their class rigorous, and so that they would not reward students for what they did not think was "4.0 material" they would give students who deserved A-'s B+'s instead. It doesn't seem like a huge difference, and wasn't in high school, but with the way that GPA works, you would get a 3.0 GPA instead of a 3.5, which looks terrible on an application to grad school if they don't know the school (which most out of state schools don't). So the classes were made unfair, and made it incredibly difficult to get a good GPA, even with just one B range grade.

Not to mention, the social life was virtually non-existent, especially winter quarter, when the school seems to turn into a barren, VERY cold desert. It isn't uncommon to be walking around campus at midday on a week day and see no one outside, or a weekend evening, and to see NO ONE. The social life outside of a few parties at the FEW nearby houses on campus was incredibly weak, if that.thus, I was incredibly disappointed with kalamazoo college, I felt that all the hype I had heard and all the information it had given me about its reputation was untrue, so I transferred schools after my freshman year. I originally had no plans to do so, and tried as hard as I could to make the school more fun, but the abysmal social life, the lame student groups, and the ridiculous GPA system forced me to move elsewhere. I'm no partier, so I thought Kalamazoo would be a great place for me, but after a year, I knew it was time to move to a better, more lively school that didn't make me miserable.

1st Year Female -- Class 2011

Campus Maintenance: A-, Scholastic Success: F