Andy

The best thing is the Honors College and the willingness to defy academic convention. The worst thing is ASU 101 and mandatory meal plans, which give you more crap food than you could ever hope to eat, and generally the willingness to run it like a corporation. The school is definitely too large, but once you get integrated into your department it's manageable. Tempe was sort of a college town and is now a commercialized version of one. There are very few transit-friendly off-campus hangout spots for the underage or more studious. Tempe city government also discriminates against students in off campus housing and generally tries to pretend that the university doesn't exist and doesn't totally run their economy.

Yes, professors in upper division classes know our names, but you do have to make an effort to get known, by going to office hours or volunteering in someone's lab. Some of the general studies requirements are pretty stupid and not very many classes fulfil them. Also my personal major is not meeting the needs of students and is very disciplinary, but they're working on expanding. I would say students support each other rather than compete with each other, and we study as little as we can get away with it. The Human Event at the Honors College is an awesome participation-based class, and again, suffer through the lower division stuff, it's not hard, and take whatever interests you in upper division because there are always unique classes being offered.

ASU is big enough to have a clique for everybody, and there are a lot of international students because it is comparably affordable. Although more conservative than a lot of universities, it's more liberal than the rest of Arizona. We have had big political events that bring out lots of students, such as the final 2004 debate between Bush and Gore, but overall students are not very politically active. Financial backgrounds run the gamut from people putting themselves through school to dumb rich blonde girls, but ASU is trying to encourage more underprivileged members of the local community to attend, and they give lots of scholarships. One recent controversy involved a new state law denying illegal immigrants in-state tuition, even people who came as young children and have been very academically motivated. ASU tried to find private donations to keep these kids in school, which was cool, but we don't know at this point how successful it will be.

ASU gets FABULOUS speakers. I have had lunch with Edward Albee, shaken hands with Barack Obama, and seen Gloria Steinem and Richard Dawkins speak recently to packed houses. ASU Theater is under-advertised, but you will likely see someone naked, so they're definitely worth going to. For such a big university, the dating scene is very insular, you will date a LOT of people who know each other, sometimes at the same time. I found the dorms not to be very social and met most of my friends through classes within my department. Off campus, First Fridays art walk is a fun indie event. There are always festivals going on in Tempe or concerts at Tempe Beach Park, but I always try to put the word out about on-campus art events because they are great, cheap, and under-attended. Sports are a draw for a lot of people, apparently we have good teams.

The girls are all blonde, dumb, and obsessed with fashion and sororities. The guys are all Abercrombie clones who get drunk all the time. People come here to party. Everyone has an STD. ASU is huge and impersonal, and you can skate through classes.

ASU has such a large student population that obviously there are a fair number of these people and ever-present industries that cater to them. However, it also offers a huge number of interesting, small classes taught by the leaders in the academic fields, populated by unique and vocal students. There are lots of opportunities for internships and the administration is really trying to improve the worth of an ASU degree and interact with the community to an unprecedented degree for an academic institution. The "party" stereotype, in my experience, translated into everyone being a little bit more laid back, like meetings with your professors taking place at happy hour of the local bar.