SOUsucks

Not Applicable Here – no greek life to speak of. Not offered on this campus

Getting a Bit Better (Maybe...) – It seems that in the psychology department, despite layoffs, the academics will be improving. Currently, it's not very demanding, and other than a few great teachers, most of the work is personally oriented, and not really prep for graduate school, or even a career in your field. Other departments seem to be even worse. The philosophy department has some of the most brilliant professors on campus, and they dropped the program as a major.

Expensive, Sold for Tourists – The best place in town to go for food that can actually be afforded by students is Louie's. They have burgers and fries for $4 with a student ID. Other than that, you're looking at either fast food (Wendy's, Taco Bell or Burger King only), or places set up for tourists, with prices from $15-30. Even for a simple plate of pasta. It's not very convenient, either, to get to these expensive places, as parking is terrible in the whole town.

They try to take as much money as possible from you, without giving you any assistance. They offer the Western Undergraduate Exchange program (WUE) for 150% of in-state tuition. However, this really isn't helpful, as the dorms are REALLY expensive, even for their bad shape. If you don't stay there, rent in the area is even more expensive. The financial aid department, in my opinion, tries to screw you out of as much money as possible. For my personal experience, I had to take a medical withdrawal from the school due to a medical emergency. Despite the fact that I didn't take any of the Spring classes I registered for, and was officially withdrawn by the Dean of students, the financial aid said that it doesn't apply for cost. So, when coming back, I was informed that I owed the school $5000, because my medical withdrawal caused my financial aid to be pulled--but I was still charged for the classes. They are the primary reason that I would NEVER recommend this school to ANYONE--not even my worst enemy.

A Bit Cramped – Not really available during finals week. Hard to find outside of the library. Usually very crowded, and most don't care about being quiet, even in the library! Oh yeah, and don't go in on a time crunch it takes about 20 minutes to log in and load up after putting in your information. All classes require a computer, at least at home, as most assignments are kept online.

Dont' Go Here! The university is absolutely ridiculous. Despite the 2-3 administrators, the rest of administration is uncaring about students, and when they graduate. They (especially financial aid) will try and give you as many hoops to jump through as possible. Leading you in circles, over and over again, in order to charge you the most interest and late fees possible. They are increasing tuition, while not increasing the quality of the school, or the classes. Instead of worrying about academics and how poor of a shape they are in (including laying off 20% of teachers!!), they worry about spending $20+ million dollars on improving the sports areas, or even better, the building where the administrators' offices are (no classes in Britt, yet it's going to be the best building on campus). The school provides little education, while most classes are just busy work, or silly assignments that aren't academically motivated. The school talks about being open minded and helpful. But that's only for areas like the queer resource center, and gender neutral bathrooms. Rather than places such as allowing students to conduct their own research, or assisting students with career planning. While I was here, they removed the Career center, the job placement center, and the women's resource center. The school boasts of their small class sizes, yet all classes in the 100s-300s have over 30 students in them. Including how next fall, all the Psychology 201-203 classes will have 100+ students in them. Not at all a great school. Not only do I not recommend this school to people, but I actively advise against going to this school for a quality education where the administration cares more about their purse contents than the students.

Not the Best, but Not the Worst – Security on campus is okay. It's in a tiny town, where a lot of stuff rarely happens. Students come back to dorms and apartments extremely drunk, security doesn't care. Campus theft is rampant, and security does not care about it. I had $700 stolen from my on-campus housing through the school, I knew who did it...and neither the school nor the Ashland Police did anything about it. Always lock your stuff up, and/or don't bring anything valuable with you. It's best to have a safe, or something along those lines. The town itself is fairly safe, as only 1 person has been murdered here in the last few years. I guess that's a plus. The campus security supposedly will drive you to your car if you go to the blue light areas. I say supposedly because I was on crutches, leaving the library to walk home at 10pm, and tried it--and no one showed up after 20minutes.

Why you shouldn't attend SOU – The university is absolutely ridiculous. Despite the 2-3 administrators, the rest of administration is uncaring about students, and when they graduate. They (especially financial aid) will try and give you as many hoops to jump through as possible. Leading you in circles, over and over again, in order to charge you the most interest and late fees possible. They are increasing tuition, while not increasing the quality of the school, or the classes. Instead of worrying about academics and how poor of a shape they are in (including laying off 20% of teachers!!), they worry about spending $20+ million dollars on improving the sports areas, or even better, the building where the administrators' offices are (no classes in Britt, yet it's going to be the best building on campus). The school provides little education, while most classes are just busy work, or silly assignments that aren't academically motivated. The school talks about being open minded and helpful. But that's only for areas like the queer resource center, and gender neutral bathrooms. Rather than places such as allowing students to conduct their own research, or assisting students with career planning. While I was here, they removed the Career center, the job placement center, and the women's resource center. The school boasts of their small class sizes, yet all classes in the 100s-300s have over 30 students in them. Including how next fall, all the Psychology 201-203 classes will have 100+ students in them. Not at all a great school. Not only do I not recommend this school to people, but I actively advise against going to this school for a quality education where the administration cares more about their purse contents than the students.