Ohio State University

OSU is a great school. Whatever you want, you should be able to find it here. There are all kinds of people, all kinds of classes, at every level. Classes too easy? Do the Honors program, or take a bunch of 500+ level courses. Too hard? Take something a bit easier, and visit the TA or Prof a lot. Because the university is so big, they have to provide a great variety of stuff. While I haven't always had great experiences at OSU, in the end, I'm very glad I came here.

3rd Year Female -- Class 2004

Extracurricular Activities: A+, Individual Value: D+

I was accepted to the Honors Program at Ohio State when I went, and it was a pretty rude shock from high school because it was pretty difficult and forced me to study. The comments about most of the classes being taught by foreign grad students and are correct for classes in your first two years; this makes the weed-out classes like calculus and statistics very difficult because you may not understand the instructor. Ohio State does try to weed out students; what do you expect from a school that (when I went there) accepted just about anyone that wanted to go there, regardless of whether they could handle the coursework? Unless you were incredibly brilliant, have a photographic memory, or really dedicated to studying and forgo the incredible social life, there was a good chance your first two years were difficult. Once I got through the prerequisites and into my major, classes were taught by professors (some of them really good), and school became easier (my GPA went up).

I cannot imagine going anywhere else if you want a great social life in college. There are many people, many parties, many clubs/intramural sports/organizations, and a good level of general mayhem. Football Saturdays are electric; if you don't buy tickets as a student, you are missing out. Don't let the publicity from the riots scare you away. These are caused by mostly non-students looking for an excuse to get wasted and break stuff. The police are pretty bad (Columbus PD was under investigation by the Justice Department recently for corruption, brutality, and mismanagement), and I think they tend to be part of the problem instead of the solution. Also, someone had the bright idea to close the bars around campus, so people have house parties that sometimes get out of control because they are not supervised like the bars were (no bouncers, no people checking ID, local kids who are not students show up to pillage, etc.). Columbus is not a bad place to be, though, other than the fact that the weather sucks in the winter (cloudy, rainy, cold, ice, some snow). The city is pretty nice, and there is a lot to do. I would go here again if I had it to do over (although I would probably change the way I did some things). I learned as much or more about myself, other people, and how I wanted to live as I did about Microbiology. When I got a job, I found that I had actually learned something as well, and I was able to recall some useful things despite my attempts to kill as many brain cells as possible. So, I think it was a pretty good educational experience from both an academic and social standpoint. Oh, and one other thing - you WILL learn to hate Michigan, and it gets worse when you get out of school. They are evil! GO BUCKS!

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000