CA residents: DON'T GO HERE

eklivans
Mon, 30 Jul 2012 21:06:16 +0000

In 2007 I started my miserable 3 year stint in Tucson. Like many others I defaulted to UA as I lacked the grades to get into a UC, and I was desperate to leave home. UA is an extremely inferior place than pretty much every UC, and most CSU’s. Here are a few reasons why:

1) Lax admission standards: When you accept >75% you are automatically asking for trouble. The people I encountered in Tucson included some real scumbags. They were ‘collegiate’ types, and they approached academics and social activities (besides partying) was a distinctly ‘high school’ mindset: as something just to ‘get out of the way.’

The only people I met there who seemed ‘happy’ were those in the large fraternities. They typically majored in Business, and they now work as bartenders or ‘corporate recruiters’

2) Miserable in class, miserable out of class: UA gets a lot of money from NASA and the large defense contractors. As such, hard sciences and engineering are top notch programs. Likely these are not programs you are interested in: as such, I implore you to peruse the UA course catalogs for the departments you are interested in. You will find the offerings desperately lacking

The only things to do outside of class (if you are not Greek) are go to the Rec Center, which gets old QUICK, and drink in small cramped apartments. Forget about having ‘fun’ in Tucson; it is a sketchy, dangerous place, and without a car you will not be able to get out to the few places worth visiting (Desert Nature Park, Kitt’s Peak, Saguaro State Park) For a while I tried jogging in Tucson in the mornings: I stopped after a week, it was so depressing and the diesel exhaust caused me to cough incessantly.

3) Other people: I came with an open mind. I expected my mind to be opened to new paradigms of thought, to meet people who would kindle a hidden interest/passion inside of me. What I encountered were guys who painted their chests, drank Keystone, played video games, and idolized Entourage. The girls were “fake LA” hot: lots of makeup, fake tans, and an unwelcoming attitude.

I can keep going on, PM me if you want further info. No hesitation I can go ad infinitum

Do some heavy research before going to college. It’s a special time, but it’s treacherously easy to mismanage. I suggest going to a CA Community college. Remember that they offer almost all courses online: you could even travel abroad and have the exams proctored in a library or local college. Or You could move to another town and attend a CC there; our beautiful state is so vast you have definitely not thoroughly explored it as a recent HS grad.

Spare yourself the pain. Don’t come to UA