The best thing about MSU is it's students, and that can be seen by the activity of the student body on campus, in the immediate community, and even effects branching outward into the world. The school itself is a perfect size for the students enrolled here, because mass learning and personal teaching can both take place as necessary. Most people don't understand why I would choose to go to this school if I am going to pursue a medical degree, and they are right in their perplexity as this was a terrible choice of school in attempting to do anything medically related. The Biomedical Engineering curriculum that I have spent the last four years trying to complete is so underdeveloped that in no way do I feel qualified to do anything medically related with very few classes left to take. When trying to decide which college I would attend, Mississippi State appealed in boasting that almost all of their Biomedical Engineering students did well on the MCAT and were often at the top of the roster for medical school. I have a hard time understanding how that could be possible when all of the course requirements for medical school had to be taken outside of my curriculum such as Organic Chemistry, Advanced Physics, and in-depth Biology. There isn't even an Anatomy & Physiology course offered at this school, but is supposedly included in a small part of a departmental course. I spend most of my time on campus in either the Student Union Building or library studying, doing assignments, or waiting for class. The town isn't horribly inactive but without looking for it, it's hard to find the charm in Starkville. The administration at this college is the most aggravating sources of oppression in my life's experience. As long as you agree with everything that takes place on campus and in the classroom, I suppose there are no issues to be had. If you disagree with the way a teacher behaves there is absolutely nothing that can be done about it. If you disagree with how grading takes place or how you are graded individually, there isn't a soul with an open ear. If your adviser is incompetent and lacks any interest in trying to help you succeed, good luck finding the first person that cares. I have had many teachers that micromanaged everything; in one case down to the type of pencil used in their classroom. Some who would waste an entire session of class to lecture on the importance of taking notes in a certain way. This type of attitude was never necessary in these particular instances. I have by one teacher been thrown out of class for listening intently without writing notes. I have had a teacher directly tell me that I was not being graded on my performance on tests, assignments, homework, etc., but on his observation of me in a departmental class. I've had the joy of having a teacher who could barely speak English that used another professor's slides from the class a year previous. I have also had a teacher the "taught" 6 classes in the same semester using the guise of the "emporium" style class in which all learning was taught in videos online while we went to class and did problems out of the book. In no way did these two "teachers" teach the first idea in either of their respective classes. Those who I have attempted to approach about these issues have the agenda of protecting the professors before helping the students. Other professors will only agree with the way these situations were handled; the person above them, i.e. the department head would distract from anything I would try to rectify and instead suggest that some sort of personal problem was hindering the learning process. All levels above that continued in the same manner of bureaucracy until the red tape became unbearable and on each occasion I had to swallow my pride and succumb to being treated unfairly or suffer being handed off to professionals or programs designed to deal with personal problems. I am fully capable of noticing when someone is treating me unfairly, and the administration of this school would do anything to hide it. There is no ongoing controversy at this point in time. School pride is somewhat a misnomer here because all sport related hype and support of the university is completely separate from all academic activity; however, the students are very supportive and energetic about the activities and team sports that take place here. The landscape and architecture of this campus is incredibly disorganized and hard to manage as a whole. I will always remember the Engineering Community program that introduced me to some incredible people that I would be friends with from then on. Parking Services is the absolute bane of any commuting student that is trying to get to class. Their sad methods of overcharging unnecessarily for something as small as being a single space from your zone or putting your parking decal in the wrong place is only outdone by their "discreet" bright yellow envelopes that tag your car.