Temple University

Date: Aug 09 2010
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
I went to Temple because the tuition is cheap, and although I do not live in the Philadelphia area, I live in the state of Pennsylvania. This allowed me to experience a new city without paying expensive out of state tuition.

But now, I wish that I never came here.

Temple prides itself on "diversity"; however, this school is extremely segregated, and unless you fit neatly into a clique or subculture, you're probably not going to make many friends. Yes, there are lots of different types of people here, but they all hang around people who look like them. Another issue is that since most students are from the Philly area, they just hang around their high school friends. This school honestly feels like high school, and I came to college not expecting to be taken back to my dreadful high school years, but to actually move on, and Temple doesn't allow you to be an actual college student.

Also, this campus is completely dead on the weekends since most students commute, so there's not much of a social scene. Temple makes it impossible to join or start an organization, and most organizations pertain to certain cultures (like Muslim organizations, Black organizations, Latino/a organizations, etc.) or political affiliations (Temple Democrats, Temple Republicans, etc.), and not to specific interests, which makes it hard to find a club that's not about politics (foe example, wouldn't it be nice to have a club dedicated to people who are pop culture geeks? Won't find that at Temple.).

Unfortunately, most of the students here are extremely lazy and unmotivated and will only do the bare minimum (if that) that it takes to succeed. I cannot tell you how many times that I have been in a class where on the due date, I and a few students would turn our assignments in on time only to have the professor push the deadline back to the next week because the rest of the class were lazy fools who did not feel like turning their stuff in on time. That would NEVER happen in most universities, and I cannot respect a school that accommodates laziness. Students are passing classes that they seriously have no business passing, and it's frustrating to those of us who actually complete our schoolwork on time and don't make excuses.

This school is also extremely unorganized. I've had offices lose my paperwork, tell me wrong information, and just carry an overall apathetic attitude towards everything. I sometimes have to talk to at least seven people before I can get my questions answered properly. Also, aside from being apathetic, a lot of staff members are extremely rude. And don't ever go to Student Health Services if you are sick or injured because they are the most unhelpful people I have ever come across.

I guess I will say something positive about Temple since this review is so negative. Unlike most people, the area is not a problem for me. As long as you lock your doors, keep to yourself, and don't do anything stupid, you should be fine. I also seem to be the only person who thinks Temple's gentrification of North Philly is unfair, but whatever. Temple encourages its students to be wary and afraid of North Philly residents, and it's really disgusting (I have talked to and worked with several North Philadelphians, and most are actually nice and unharmful people). Philly is a good city and there are lots of things to do here, you just have to travel off of Temple's campus to find all of the exciting stuff. I've also had a few great professors and have taken some interesting classes aside from the ones I described earlier. Some of my favorite professors have been the ones who DO NOT tolerate slackers, and those are the ones who unfortunately have the worst reviews on ratemyprofessor.com (which is another testament of how lazy most Temple students are, they don't like professors that make them work).

Overall, I would not recommend Temple to anyone and I would not choose to go here again. On paper, it sounds like a fantastic school, but once you get here, all of that will change. Unless you're a native Philadelphian who wants a repeat of high school life and wants to be rewarded for being a slacker, then this is not the school for you.