mreapoe- First I want to apologize. I did fully expect people to disagree with me on this forum. I misinterpreted what you last wrote as denying my experience, but I now understand that you simply want me to be able to support what I said and this is more than fair.
“Where are all these “many other students” who are extraordinarily unhappy? Why aren’t they posting comments? Are you their appointed spokesperson? I want to hear from them.”
Many other unhappy students are posting negative comments, they simply aren’t using this particular platform. What you must also bare in mind is that many people who had negative experiences would rather keep them in the past. (I can now anticipate you asking why I do not do the same thing. The answer is that I wish to prevent other students from falling into many of the same traps that I fell into myself, and to give a more comprehensive view of Wooster for prospective students). Below I have attached a couple of links that contain numerous other negative reviews from other extraordinarily unhappy students.
http://www.studentsreview.com/OH/CW_comments.html?type=negative
https://colleges.niche.com/college-of-wooster/ (for this link you can select to sort the comments by most negative)
“Did you reach out to the professors in your chosen department(s) and ask them if they had something for you to do?”
While in truth not every student receives a research position at a small college, the admissions team claims during visit programs that each and every student takes part in sophomore research just as every student completes an IS. They promise students opportunities that simply are not available to them once they attend. Also, one of Wooster’s main focuses is on research, so it especially misleading to untruthfully promise students research opportunities who came to the college due to the "ample research opportunities."And yes I did contact several professors in my department. I asked my personal chemistry professor, as well as several others (I believe I asked four additional professors) and all rejected my requests because their labs were full of upperclassmen.
“When you realized you were unhappy with your first adviser, did you ask for another one?”
I asked for a new advisor the very day I discovered that he was a music professor, however the school would not let me change. Wooster has very strict rules about advising and FYS, and you are prohibited from changing your FYS class thus your academic advisor. A friend of mine in my FYS (she was a biology major) was so unhappy she appealed to the Dean of Curriculum. She was denied.
“What did you do to be proactive, to assertively try and create a better academic situation for yourself?”
I did quite a lot to proactively create a better academic situation for myself. I attended the STEM Zone essentially everyday. If you don’t know, this was held in one during the dining halls during its off hours, and was a place for students in intro science courses to come together and study/ do homework with TAs available to help if it was needed. Outside of this I was also in a separate study group with two other classmates. I also went to the office hours for every professor I had. Some (such as my calc 2) professor were wonderfully beneficial, however others (again, chemistry) were not and it was more of me doing homework by myself while he literally played Words With Friends on his phone. All of this made my academic situation better, but that doesn’t change the fact I had to teach myself the material.
“Did you reach out to the head of the department to describe your experience with the visiting professor?”
I did not do this personally, but I do know for a fact that several students in his other classes did. The response they received was concerned but unhelpful. Wooster has problems keeping professors on staff (as I described earlier), so they aren’t exactly willing to fire current profs.
“It’s easy to complain and especially after the fact, but takes more character to advocate for yourself in the moment. There are many courses of action: meetings with professors and administrators as soon as you realize you’re not getting what you’re paying for, circulate a petition for change, post on forums like this one in mass. I assure you that even a small but vocal group with valid well thought out and expressed complaints will be listened to. The mission of colleges is to serve their students and society. But like all institutions, colleges are flawed and may be blind to specific issues. Sometimes you have to ‘get in their face in mass’ to be heard.”
I met/spoke with/ wrote to the Dean of Students, the Dean of Curriculum, and the President and Vice President of the College. I have taken to many online forums, not just this one, and I have spent hours on the phone (both during my time at Wooster and after) with academic departments, department heads, and other school representatives. I don’t know how much more ‘in their face’ I could’ve gotten. All of complaints were valid and well delivered. I am a four year speech and debate champion at the state level, so I know how to be very persuasive and articulate when I need to be. I still believe my voice was not heard. Wooster, like any other college, is more concerned with getting your money than anything else.
“All we have is your ‘subjective perception’ of Wooster. Let’s here (*hear) some facts: Exactly how many unhappy students are we talking about? What precisely are they dissatisfied with? Exactly how many professors and administrators have rejected students attempts to advocate a better academic situation for themselves? How many times have administrators rejected students efforts to get a new adviser or improve their situation in other ways? How many complains about professors are ignored?”
Statistically most of what you desire to know is near impossible to actually determine. There is no way of knowing how many students are unhappy at Wooster, even if the student population was surveyed issues of nonresponse and response bias would be causes for error. However, on Wooster’s website they refuse to post a transfer-out rate statistic, which is interesting. If the number was very low there would be nothing to hide. I have also asked several times for this information and they have refused to give it to me on the grounds that it is confidential information. Along the lines of advisors, all students during the first semester (sans those with extreme extenuating circumstances) are prohibited from changing academic advisors as this would be a change in FYS. Students can chose to declare early to receive an advisor within their major, but this largely frowned up by the administration. It also does nothing help students who are undeclared/exploratory. Most of your other questions fall into similar pit falls of simply being impossible to know factually.
mreapoe- Once again, I am not using this as forum to vent, nor am I doing this as my only course of action. I believe that you may have underestimated all of the proactive actions I took to improve my experience at Wooster. I 100% believe that there is nothing else I could’ve done to make my time there better. What I am doing now is using this as just one many forums on which I am trying to give prospective students a better insight to some of the more negative aspects of Wooster. I apologize if I have ever come off as combative or rude to you. I respect that you disagree with me, and your questions have given me a chance to make my claims more credible by forcing me to defend what I have said. As always, if I can answer any more questions from you, or from anybody else, I am still more than happy to do so.