Marist College

I just graduated from Marist last spring. I am not sure if, given the choice, I would go back there again. I'm not saying I wouldn't, but I'm not saying I would either.

President Murray is anal compulsive about having a beautiful campus, so you'll know where your tuition is going. Constant lawnmowers, weed wackers, construction for a new building, etc. on campus. What people won't tell you is that the winters are much colder on the campus than in other parts of town, because there is nothing to block the wind coming off of the river. You'll fall in love with that river view in the warm months, but from December-March you'll hate walking there. Some parts of the campus smell like a dead animal because of these trees they insist on planting because they look nice. If there's no further proof that Marist is form over function, they completely redid the cafeteria (it's now called a "dining hall" because it sounds nicer) to make it look like a castle interior, except they somehow made the food WORSE and took away a lot of customization options that made the food good in the first place. The other food places on campus are all run by Sodexo and they jack the prices every year, without giving you any extra debit money on your meal plan. Total ripoff.

The area is a mixed bag. You'll need a car to get to almost all of the good stuff, and you can't have a car until you're a sophomore (the school does have two zipcars and Poughkeepsie has $3-4 cabs). By the way, there is not nearly enough parking on the campus. If you're into active stuff, Marist is a great place to go with a ~20 mile long rail trail/pedestrian bridge only a mile away from campus and the Mohonk preserve over past New Paltz. There's two national parks, Vanderbilt and FDR, a 15-20 minute drive north. There's a movie theater, a mall, a roller rink, and an ice rink in the area as well.

Poughkeepsie itself is a total dump. There's currently a heroin epidemic going on in the city, and you can't walk anywhere at night with less than 4 people or you could get assaulted (the campus itself is very safe). The usual practice is to pregame in your apartment/room/house and then go out to a club/bar, most of which you will need a fake ID to get into (fortunately, most aren't very strict). Again, the cabs take you directly there and back. If you're looking for a huge house party school, Marist isn't for you.

The student body is mostly homogenous. At first glance, you'll find the typical Marist student is a rich white kid from Long Island, New Jersey, or possibly Connecticut. Marist loves pocketing money, so they lowball kids on financial aid and basically dare them to come to the school. You do have to look hard, but you can find kids from different backgrounds.

Marist boasts at having nearly 100 clubs and activities, but many of them are just clubs for people in the different majors to join (an accounting club, teaching club, etc). Frat life is a joke here. The good sports teams are all non-spectator sports. Men's basketball has been bad for years and plays to an empty building. Football is bad, outside of one year. Women's basketball is great, but even they only get high attendance for their opener and one other game.

Finally, as for academics, I can only speak from my experience and not the other programs. The bottom line is out of over 40 classes I took at Marist, less than a quarter of them will actually help me in my career and I felt like I wasted my money. Communication classes all give you the exact same information, which is mostly common sense, just under different course titles. I also took computer programming classes, which were more difficult, and the professors there had a "if this is so easy for me it should be easy for you too" condescending attitude. Marist did absolutely nothing to help me get an internship or a job in my field - their career center I found to be useless and cookie cutter, they didn't bring in any companies in my field for info sessions or career fairs, and my faculty advisor gave me better advice.I generally enjoyed Marist, but for over $40k (and contrary to what they say, they are cheap with financial aid), I would advise you to look at your state schools first. You may be able to get the same or better experience for a lot cheaper. I don't look at my diploma proudly nor do I have one of their alumni license plate covers, put it that way.

4th Year Male -- Class 2014

Campus Aesthetics: A+, Education Quality: D+

First off I want to say I love Marist and the campus and location and everything. My main point I want to bring out is the way the school is run by the administration really sucks. There are some policies that just baffle me from my 4 years here. I just want to let people know what any time you intend to pick up the phone or go in person to Student Financial Services or Housing that those women (mostly women work in those depts.) are the rudest people you will ever meet. They do not care about you and will yell at you for being incompetent because you asked a question. I cannot tell you how many times i entered those offices with general queries and been told to my face I need to leave because I don't understand the "rules" These women are ruthless and really give Marist a bad name. This is mostly just a warning for parents or students who have to or about to deal with these women in Financial Services or Housing. Good Luck and just ignore them!

3rd Year Male -- Class 2014

Campus Aesthetics: A+, Friendliness: D

My main reason for coming to this school was its small size and its affiliation to the Marist Brothers (who also founded my high school). Although the school is not officially Catholic anymore, you'll still see hints of its Catholic past: both subtle (names of buildings) and not so subtle (i.e. chapel in the middle of campus).

Campus ministry here is interfaith though and there are groups for students of most faiths: Jewish, Catholic, other Christian denominations, and even a secular community service group which you're always welcome to join.

The teachers are generally nice and friendly, but keep in mind that you can't just clump all of them into one category. It really depends on the individual.

The student body isn't too diverse even if the school would like to think so. However, alot of the kids are really friendly so even if you are among the approx. 10% of minorities you really wouldn't feel left out at all.

Some people complain about the cliques being similar to high school...but that's not Marist, it's life. There will always be snotty people and jerks abounding the world and Marist is no exception. For the most part, my experience here has been great and you will find a group with which you fit in with.

The campus itself is beautiful (right by the Hudson river) but not without substance. The library is pretty huge and resourceful: it has a free writing center and career services for anyone who needs help with a paper or getting experience for their field. As for the surrounding town of Poughkeepsie, there's not much to do but shopping down strip malls or going to bars.

The food here is pretty good...for college food that is. I thought I would never in my life get tired of pizza but I did. You don't have to eat pizza every night if you don't want to. To be fair, they have a pretty big variety of food (international, pasta, grill, vegan, etc.) but don't expect anything to beat mom's cooking.

One of the bad things I heard from here is that the school's registration process is really annoying; i.e., you're lucky if you get all of the courses you requested. I'm a first semester freshman so I wouldn't know because the school makes up your freshman fall schedule for you just to ease the transition.

Security also feels unecessarily tight. They make you swipe your id card in front of officers in order to enter the dorms between 3pm and 6am and can easily bust you for underage drinking, possession, or being in the presence of (yes, the presence, as in there but not actually drinking) of alcohol; which you aren't supposed to be doing in the first place if you're underage.

For a small liberal arts school I can say you really are getting pretty good bang for the buck; so if you like a small yet challenging college environment, Marist is probably the way to go. Sure, there may be the occasional crazy drinking, the a-hole jock, hard grading professor or just general tough life circumstance; but college is the time and place for everything and again; Marist, "an *independent* liberal arts school with a Catholic tradition" is no exception.

1st Year Female -- Class 2007

Individual Value: A, Surrounding City: C