Washington, DC
Gallaudet University

In the big picture, I believe Gallaudet is struggling right now with its image as the cultural Deaf Mecca where everyone signs pure ASL and attends Deaf Power rallies and the encroaching reality of a deaf world that is changing; more students coming from mainstreamed backgrounds with weaker signing skills, oral backgrounds, and avid users of amplification technology. There is a deep ideological clash between these two camps and it results in a very fractured social scene; over there are the hearing kids, here are the oral hard-of-hearing, there are the late signers, over there are the mainstreamed ASL-users, there are those who sign SEE, those have Deaf parents...and so on.

From what I can tell the student body is extremely diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, nationality, American geography, communication preference, age, sexual orientation and gender identity, disability, educational background, and language. Unfortunately, those differences often seem to hang there like the "elephant in the room" and I mostly see students breaking off to be with other students who are culturally similar. The student body is not very politically active, unless it has something to do with deaf issues.

Students associated in any way with Speech Science: Prepare to go up against a wave of resentment. You can either stay and fight, try to change minds and attitudes about what it means to be a culturally sensitive SLP or audiologist, or mentally disengage by shrugging and saying, "whatever. Not my problem." The rest of the student body will expect the latter.

Not really. The majority of the student population is audiologically deaf or hard-of-hearing, but they span the gamut culturally.

I am graduate student so my experience is probably not representative of the average undergraduate, but my impression is that the majority of academics have been really, really easy. As a rule, professors have been standoffish and not very interested in teaching. Homework assignments are often reading comprehension checks and there is rarely time for creative discussion.

I am not a good judge of this one - football games seem popular. There is a vibrant party scene. Gallaudet is in the middle of DC, though, a lot of people take their social lives off-campus.

Everyone is Deaf and really into the Deaf-power movement.

Through my college experience I have not achieved much it has been chaos deciding what I would like to pursue, what my interests are, and what is going to be neeeded down the road. I started out majoring in business, and ill be honest I was being lazy and did not want to take some of the harder classes. I then changed my major to Early childhood education, that was going well until I found out that one of my co workers at Red Robin was a fifth grade teacher. I decided I wasn't going to go to school and pay all this money to work a second job in the end anyway. So with help from my advisors, and a little time off, I have decided to pursue in the medical field. I have chosen to start out with a medical receptionist certificate and work my way up to being a medical assistant. Even though it has been hectic I have valued being in college because I know after all of my hard work I will be going somewhere where I can help others and that I will enjoy.

I got a lot of things out of college; such as friends, independent, finding yourself and more. It's so valuable to attend to this college because we're a small school, and we are close knit with each other. Everyone is there for each other. The professors are a great help! They help you with a lot of thing, like homework or just being someone that can be there for you. If you come to this college, you won't regret it as long as you can control yourself at the parties.

The only worst thing I could think of is there's a lot of parties every weekend. You shouldn't have any problem if you could manage and balance your times, and that you should try to resist ever going to the parties. If you do party, please limit yourself to a drink or two.

Everyone should attend to this college!

I have learned more than I thought I could in just the first half semester. I feel confident in my choice of career path and am ready to keep working hard to attain my degree. I have a 4.0 and plan on keeping it that way.

Gallaudet University is the only college for the Deaf and hard of Hearing in the world.

I received BA in Art History and Museum Studies...that is what I got out of my college. I was not able to use my major in a school setting since No Child Left Behind (NCLB) did not include art education. However, the fact that I have a BA allows me to continue my education. I received a MA in Deaf Education. I have maintained contact with my friends from college. I am a member of the alumni sorority.

Communication access is probably the only good thing about Gallaudet. This school is for deaf/hard of hearing students and we used American Sign Language here.

In 3 months of college, I have made more friends than I made in 12 years of K-12 school. I have learned more about the real world and how to survive in it.

I wish I would've known how much college actually costs.

The worst thing about my school would be the immaturity that the students portray.

I had the opportunity of attending other universities but there is one thing Gallaudet University has that other universities do not have. My college experience at Gallaudet University has been valuable due to the fact it has allowed me access to teachers who can sign. As a deaf student, I have been allowed full access to teachers without an interpeter by my side. I obtained the advantage of being able to speak out on my own than to speak through a 3rd party member to relay information. I was able to learn more at an accelerated pace without having to worry about having an interpeter during a meeting or during classtime. This is valuable use of my time for my college experience at Gallaudet University. I greatly appreciate my time at Gallaudet University and wish for this type of exposure to expand throughout the United States to allow me to have the same valuable resources at other universities.

Students who care about their education more than their social life.

the fact that other students are not academically motivated especially for group projects.

Strongly cultural yet lacking in promise for its students.

My cultural experience and identity have been defined through attending this school. I would probably still be at a loss who who I am and my importance to my family and friends, if I did not attend Gallaudet. My social experiences at the school have shown me what needs to be done in the world, and my classes and college experiences have shown me how I can go about doing that. I can't really imagine myself not attending Gallaudet for my undergraduate years.

The worse thing about Gallaudet is that it has the potential to be something better, but there is a lack of strong relationships between departments. General Studies programs combine two different departments and tend to rely more on one subject than the other, and the classes provided are very impractical and only benefit a small percentage of students on campus. There are more and more undecided freshman who come because the school is the only thing available to them to be able to explore their culture. It's unfortunate that the school does not do more for them academically.

My school is wonferful school, it teaches me about myself and my deafness. It taught me to love myself and I learn so much about me and my culture. It not like school, it more like home. I'm around with people who love me for me and i learn something from them. Gallaudet is wonderful place. It opened door for me and expand my mind about myself and other.

What have I gotten out of my college experience is myself. I learned alot about myself and I am ready for the world. It valuable to attend because it like home.

There's nothing that I can say about Gallaudet, I mean it not perfect but I wouldn't say the wrost.

My classmates are competitve, outgoing, and passionate in all fields of interest.

The most important thing I could have told myself is to follow my dreams, work hard, and most importantly, do NOT procrastinate your freshman year.

Anyone with an interest in the deaf culture or deaf community.