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I'm currently in a CUNY graduate program. So far i'm ok with my experience. But, I have some class mates that COMPLAINT and CRY over their bad experience to the point that I start questioning my own happiness. My question to them was then why not apply to the so-called-elite schools such as columbia or NYU?
So,I want to start this thread to hear from you CUNY family members? I have questions such as.....what has your experience been? Which CUNY campus did you attend/are attending? how's the job market out there for us? And did you miss the social life? I know that social life is non-existent in CUNY....etc etc.
I'm currently a CUNY Undergraduate student at Lehman College, majoring at Multimedia Journalism.
So far, my experience has been pretty solid. Whereas I was just going through the motions in Bronx Community College, that has changed upon entering Lehman. I'm learning hands-on stuff there about the field of Journalism.
As for social life, I usually keep to myself. While some classmates hang outside campus hours, most tend to stay in their own circles.
My mother went to Baruch and my father went to Queens College and they never had any bad things about their schools and attribute much of their success to CUNY. I don't think CUNY is bad so don't feel bad about CUNY if you feel you are learning from your education!
Practically everyone in my immediate and extended family went to either Hunter, Brooklyn or City College. When it became my turn to go to college (a long time ago) I followed in their footsteps and went to Brooklyn. Money was also a factor for going there. Everyone kept asking me if I found it hard to adjust to college life after being in high school. My response was that it didn't feel much different. The work wasn't much harder and I felt like I traveled by school bus everyday. I took a regular bus to get there and it was filled with classmates from high school. However, by my second semester, I started to feel rather miserable. I wasn't making very many new friends. At the time they had "house plans" to join instead of fraternities and sororities. I wasn't interested in that and I don't recall any kind of interesting clubs either. Most just went to class and then went home or to a job. Also, the students in my major were mostly much older than me. I was 16 and many were in their late 20s and 30s or older. They were going back to school to get a degree and had real full time jobs and families. I transfered somewhere else and was much happier.
Yes, my experience has also been ok so far. Learning is also happening. As any other school, we have a share of great and not-so-great professors. The only negative, not for me though, is an absence of social life and people keeping to themselves.
Coney, I think in your case, a major issue was new friends isn't it? I think that's a major problem for sure. Because even in my program we have most students keeping to themselves.
Over here, I graduated from Bronx Community College for my Associates in Liberal Arts and went to John Jay College to obtain a BA degree in Criminal Justice. I left BCC with a 2.9 GPA started John Jay and by GPA was on the decline. I ended up graduating John Jay eventually but not with a high GPA. While attending John Jay I paid my tuition and also got help from a federal Grant which paid the other half. On the bright side Im debt free compared to other Americans with degrees and no jobs at all. What sucks about CUNY is college life, everyone runs to the subway to either get home or to work, the only way to socialize is having a cigarette in your hands and smoking with other smokers outside the schools entrance.
I'm a graduate of 2 CUNYs - Hunter and City College. Overall, I had great experiences at both, and am very glad I chose these and was able to graduate pretty much debt free since I was also working while doing both programs. After graduating, I worked with people who had studied at NYU, Columbia and Pratt. I don't feel that the CUNY degree held me back at all. Now I have my own business - I only minimally use my degrees, but at least I'm not still paying them off.
I found the social life to definately be enough for me. People got together from time to time and I was busy myself and wasn't interested in hanging out every weekend.
I went to a prestigious school and all I learned how to do was DRINK. But one is as good or bad as another. You can get a great education at a prestigious school or at a bum school depending only on your own input.
Of course let's talk reality...I am not including Berkeley College or any of the other "fake" colleges geared only to suck borrowed money from taxpayers and make believe they are educating those who think the SAT test is the past tense of the SIT test and trained only to sign their names on loan documents.
Back when I went to school, things were cheap. Now 4 years at a prestigious private university costs a king's ransom. A BIG waste of money.
No personal experiece but if I had kids I would have NO qualms about sending them to CUNY (or Penn State unless they were cute boys. )
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. My question to them was then why not apply to the so-called-elite schools such as columbia or NYU?
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