So let’s get this straight: The UA is a large public university. General education classes tend to be ridiculously large, and the instructors can sometimes be unapproachable. Hope you're not looking forward to starting your major anytime soon, either, because for most students, it takes nearly four semesters to get through all of your general education courses. Yep. Two years. You’ll get both good and bad professors, but the same could be said of teaching assistants, employers, and other University personnel. You just have to deal with it. Unfortunately, over the last several years, the UA has been steadily dropping in academic rankings all over the world due to budget cuts, scattered departmental support for students, awful advisers, and misuse of funds. In short? Not much has been going right for the UA in this way lately.
For the most part, students at the UA like most of their teachers and find classes to be somewhat challenging, but this isn't always for the right reasons. Often teachers will require attendance because the course material itself isn't enough to keep students in class. While the UA used to be a full-blown university, over the past several years it reflects more of an accelerated high-school mindset. It really seems to be worth the effort to do some research about particular instructors and classes by asking around, since students will remember both their good and bad instructors and can tell you which of them to either pursue or avoid. A recent student-created website, www.whichclasses.com, compiles all relevant information for every department, professor, and class at the UA—with data taken directly from required surveys taken by the student body at the end of each semester. In the end, while the UA has been in an academic freefall, it's still a worthwhile university to attend for the time being. Let's just hope it stays that way.
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Academics at University of Arizona
C+
Academics at the U of a
The academics at the U of A are satisfactory. However, the registration process is a nightmare. It takes a long time, if you are from out of state it takes over 3 months to claim residency because they need so many annoying papers and things. The workload is definitely bearable and to help with it they offer study sessions in what they call the 'Think Tank' as well as tutoring. The worst part is that there is a large fee to use the library. I personally believe the library should be a free perk to any student.
May 23, 2012
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Academics at University of Arizona
A
Pre-Medicine Courses
The science professors are very knowledgeable and are sometimes hard to get ahold of but they are helpful when you do finally contact them. The only downside is that they will only meet with you for 20 minutes each time it seems like so it is important to write down all of the questions you have prior to the meeting.
May 23, 2012
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Academics at University of Arizona
A-
Online Assistance Unparalleled
With the exception of housing, there is nothing I would complain about at UA. They offer work study programs and have notify us on their website well in advance, as well as relevant laboratory assignments.
May 09, 2012
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User rating for University of Arizona - Academics is
4.6 out of 5
based on 84 user reviews.
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Most Recent Student Author View all
- Name
- Joe Dusbabek
- Hometown
- Scottsdale, Arizona
- Major
- French/Linguistics
- Grad Year
- 2012
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