<p>Kind of a long post but please hear me out if you’re considering coming to Barrett (or ASU in general).</p>
<p>I go to Barrett and honestly believe you should only accept admission here as a last choice. I went to school in Arizona so naturally we had a lot of college visits from other AZ schools, which included ASU. ASU advertised Barrett to our school as a “Harvard of the West”, which eventually proved to be a load of BS and miles from the truth. Unless you are planning to be a liberal arts major (gender studies, philosophy, ect.), Barrett is really a horrible choice. Really, the only Barret-honors classes worth taking at ASU are liberal arts ones, which do absolutely nothing for you if you’re a science major (I’m biology, hoping to go premed). Actual science classes at Barrett are ASU classes, and they’re really just terrible. Every one of my science classes felt like a joke, and many of the teachers had absolutely no idea how to teach. If you plan on being a science major at ASU or Barrett, you’re pretty much screwed. The classes are extremely disorganized and the Human Event takes up way too much time (ended up with a B first semester and an A second, however. ASU is also attempting to push additional “breakout” classes on all their science classes, which are essentially online-hybrid courses which are mandatory to attend, and only suck up your time.</p>
<p>90% of Barrett’s advertising to recruit high GPA students should be taken with a grain of salt. By not means is Barrett “The Harvard of the West”, and it should only be considered a decent option if you only got into other Arizona Universities. Sure you can argue that being a Barrett student looks good to grad schools (its considered a top honors college due to its liberal arts classes and the high GPAs of its undergrad students), but the truth is that no graduate schools outside of AZ really know what Barrett is and won’t take the effort to look into it. Being an honors student only matters when being compared to other non-honors students of the same college. For example, an honors status will only help you if a grad school or job is comparing your resume to someone who has a pretty much equal resume minus the “honors” title. If a good education is your first priority, please do not waste your time by coming to Barrett.</p>
<p>Socially, Barrett’s a nice college. The kids are friendly and there’s a somewhat decent party scene outside of campus. Most of the parties within a two mile radius of campus end up getting shut down, however. Our current president, Michael Crow, is extremely anti-fraternity/ sorority and has essentially made it his mission to remove ASU’s “party school” reputation. Basically, don’t come to ASU if you’re looking for a good “party” scene, or you’re probably going to get frisked by ASU’s god awful campus police squad on a regular basis. In the first two weekends of our fall semester, 857 students were arrested by ASU campus police on alcohol charges, as apparently the massive population of police here have nothing better to do but to harass new freshmen who aren’t entirely used to the college scene yet. Basically, be extremely careful at ASU if you’re going to try to attend any parties, as you will have a huge risk of having an MIC (Minor in consumption) on your record. I’ve never had one because I play it extremely safe, but be on your toes.</p>
<p><strong><em>As a side note, if you do ever end up being harassed by the police in tempe, remember to know your rights. You can respectfully refuse a breathalyzer, and it is within your rights to not let a police officer search your house or vehicle. If a police officer has stopped you on the way back to your dorm with no probable cause, ask if you are being arrested. If not, you are 100% free to leave and are free to not answer any questions that could potentially incriminate you. Many times Tempe police will ignore these constitutional rights, but if they do you can argue against their actions in court when they try to slap you with an offense. Even if you have not had any alcohol PLEASE refuse a breathalyzer test anyway. I’ve heard many horror stories of students walking back to their dorms during their weekends without having a drop of alcohol, only to end up getting stopped by police and agreeing to take a faulty breathalyzer. Breathalyzers are never 100%, and are often known to give faulty readings even when you’ve had no alcohol. If you end up getting a faulty reading, it is near impossible to try to fight it off in court. Remember that Tempe is within Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jurisdiction (Considered America’s toughest and most controversial sheriff), and the police here do not always consider you’re constitutional rights during interactions. Be on your toes here and please do not let campus police ruin your chance at a career.</em></strong></p>