Montclair State University Top Questions

What do you consider the worst thing about your school? Why?

Thomas

weekends, this college is a huge commuter college so a lot of people go home on the weekends.

BIANCA

Limited on the majors

Yocari

The one thing I don't like about my school is the way they settle there delayed openings or school closer when a storm hits. Since I'm a commuter, it makes it difficult to travel and I get a dissatisfying feeling when I manage to make it to campus only to find out that it was closed. I just wish they do it a day earlier.

Qualicia

The worst thing about this school is the unsatisfactory advising from the professors. Often times professors are not in their offices or they do not tailor their advice or guidance to the individual students that come to them for help. Their approch tends to be cookie cutter and rigid and as a result many students end up advising themselves or switching advisors quite often.

Sophonie

The worst thing about my school is definitely having to live across from the full campus. Of course the shuttles do a great job of picking us up at a timely manner during the weekdays but on weekends it is a whole different story. I despise waiting for almost an hour just to go to the other side of campus.

Samantha

A lot of people seem to go home on the weekends and there are a lot of commuters.

Mia

The worst thing about my school is by far the communication between departments. Coming from a small school, I expected everything to run in a similar manner, however, given that there are many more departments within a university, miscommunication between them can be quite prevalent. It takes a great amount of patience and perseverance to deal with, as well as adjusting to the system of the university. Understanding that merely calling or emailing will not always give you the answer you desire is key. Building the skill to pursue your needs actively is necessary and will benefit your success.

Brittany

I would consider the restrictions of where you can eat unlimitedly with the resident student meal plan to be the worst thing about Montclair State. There are many places on campus to eat, however, a student who uses constant pass (like all Freshman) is limited on where they can eat, without using the extra money set aside on their card.

Patrice

Lately, I feel that I no longer feel as safe as I used to. There are too many empty and hidden parking lots on campus that make me feel uncomfortable. I started to realize that the campus police have started to stay in the parking lots at night, but it is not consistent. As of last semester, a girl was attacked on campus. As a female who walks alone at night, I feel more unsafe than ever. I wish that the school would be more active about the safety on school.

Griet

The thing I would consider worst about Montclair State would be the parking. I am a commuter and parking every day is a struggle. Currently 18,000 students attend Montclair State and more than half the student population are commuters. There are only a parking garage and one big lot for students to park their cars. I would consider this to be the worst issue at Montclair State.

Vanessa

No financial aid for graduate students...this is not just for this school. This is for all schools that I apply to. There are a lot of promises on the fafsa, but then you receive nothing but loan options.

Uchechi

The worst thing about my school is the food. I personally hate school food so i'm allowed to say that. they have their moments and sometimes they don't.

Samantha

Construction. While new additions to buildings are great, the mess and clutter it involves is not. Especially for new students, getting to know the campus is difficult when it is constantly changing. Sometimes the renovations are simple, but when they are significant just as adding a wing to a building, the horizon's appearance changes. The best way to learn a school is to see it totally stripped down. Seeing MSU that way doesn't come easy. It's always expanding.

Sabah

One of the worst things i consider at Montclair is the lack of financial aid available for prospective students and the lack of help they provide. They do give adequate amounts of aid but they staff is not that sympathetic or friendly.

Kaila

For the amount of commuting students that attend there are not nearly enough parking opportunities for students. There should be more on campus parking opportunies and the parking permits should not be as expensive as they are. Parking should be somewhat included in our tuition, rather than 200 dollars per semester for parking.

Newton

The worst thing about the school is that it is expensive.I can not adequatly meet the financial obligation of attendingf the school.

Celeste

The absolute worst thing about Montclair State is the campus food. Unfortunately, there are plenty of unhealthy choices to make, and no where near enough healthy choices. Gaining the “freshman 30” instead of the “freshman 15,” believe me when I tell you that it is in your best interest to stick to whole wheat bagels and hard boiled eggs. There definitely needs to be a change within the dining services. There are too many temptations to eat poorly, and obesity is already a growing problem in America. If you plan to attend MSU, please be conscious of your health.

Chelsea

The worst thing about my school is the price. I was blessed enough to have Financial Aid cover most of it but it's too expensive to live on campus and its hard to make the commute because everything is so easily accessible when you live on campus.

Melissa

I believe that the worst thing about Montclair State University would have to be that it is not in a town that is easily accessable. There are many colleges out there that are in a town that students can walk to whereas Montclair you need a bus. If it was in an accessable town i believe it might give students a little more freedom while also maybe helping them to become more independant, like having to shop on their own and manage money.

Milton

At the time, there was not enough parking. Now there is plenty of parking.

nicole

That upon driving to school the parking situation is not as convenient as I would like it to be. Then I have to pay for parking and then use the shuttle bus to go from class to class.

Adaugo

The worst thing about my school is that even though the diversity level is extremely high people don't interact enough with people outside their ethnicity erase. I try my hardest to stop that.

Amanda

My school is located in the suburbs, so the homogenous nature of such schools can be frustrating. While it is surely more diverse than other schools in the area, it lacks the diversity in age, ethnicity, and background that make for an exciting, interesting, and beneficial learning experience in and out of the classroom.

Courtney

THE PARKING!!! Since my school is such a commuter school parking is terrible!! It is so hard to find a spot when you need it. Also being able to live on campus can be difficult at times, if you don't get your deposit in early FORGET IT! You will be waitlisted!

isabella

The social life. If you are not apart of a frat or anything like that it is extremly difficult to make friends because there are no social events for everyone. It is very dissapointing because the school has so much to offer but does nothing about it. Another example is over the weekends everyone who lives there goes home and we have New York city less then ten minutes away from our school and have our own two train stations however the trains do not run on the weekends. There are alot of social difficulties at MSU especially for commuters.

Jessica

My school is heavily a commuter school and therefore things aren't open as late or available as much around the clock and ESPECIALLY on weekends. The campus is pretty empty on weekends.

Elisha

The worst thing about my school is that many construction projects take longer than they were originally supposed to. This happened with our new Student Recreation Center, our School of Music building, and the Panzer basketball gym.

Joseph

The quality of on campus living, the dorms did not have hot water for nearly 2 months, the air conditioning didn't work, and I was paying extra for it. And in turn the heat would be blasting to the point where you would be so stuffy and it would get people sick. Also the value of the on campus amenities. The amount of money we pay for our dorms/meal plans is not worth the return. Our food was never really any good, and the people who worked the counters were always rude and unhappy.

Jamie

I was an out of state student, there were a lot of in state students because it is a state school. I think there could have been more of a diversity of where the students came from.

Bianca

th eworst thing about my school is probably the amount of students in each class but that is improving as each school year goes by and the amount of classes they make available to students so that they can take the classes when they need them.

Julie

The worst thing about my school is the trouble of signing up for classes. I feel like they never have enough spaces for the students who want to get into a class to fulfill a requirement. I worry that these struggles will prevent me from finishing all my classes by the end of my senior year. I do like that the classes are decently small, but I feel that this causes me to have a lesser chance of getting into a class I need.

Dan

I believe that the worst thing about my schools is the inability to travel or remain active on the weekends. With the population being roughly 90{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} commuters, there are not many options left for on-campus residents. On the weekends, trains do not run, many students are not permited parking passes, and campus shuttles do not run as frequently as they should. Many food facilities are limited to weekday use and do not leave many options at all for the seemingly "stranded" residential student body.

Jae

A lackluster support for those going for their masters and more.

Chelsea

The dining hall food is terrible. Food at the student center is ok but is much more expensive. The school accepted too many students and ended up putting around a hundred of them in a hotel. My English advisor is not very helpful and doesn't seem to care about my future. The administration faculty are not very helpful. Shuttle buses take forever. Parking is atrocious.

Elaine

The worst thing about the school is that in previous years there wasn't a lot of diversity. The latest freshman class has helped out that situation a bit thankfully.

Kory

This schools administrative staff sucks. Financial aid makes you wait forever to give you your award letter, they misplace paperwork often, and they beat around the bush when you come in to ask questions.

Elizabeth

not enough transportatio

Meredith

The administration here is somewhat disorganized. Registration for classes, housing, and meal plans is like a mad dash that leaves a lot of people unsatisfied. Because so much of it is done online, servers crash and students wind up getting shut out of housing or classes that they need.

Lauren

I feel some of the staff in various offices around campus show little concern for the students. It's disappointing.

Andrew

No one takes responsibility for changing things.

Rebecca

Montclair never struck me as a bad school. I always feel safe and confident in the services they provide.

Daniela

PARKING. There is not enough places to park for all the commuting students; there isn't enough housing for those that need/want to dorm either.

Melissa

If you are a commuter student the parking and shuttle service is horrible. Although take advantage of the learning communities that are offered for incoming freshman, it helps you make friends.

John

There are several things that are "horrible" about Montclair but if i had to pick one single thing it would be the size . It has become too large for itself and it is IMPOSSIBLE to get any help from the staff when it comes to money, credits, or other questions. Since it is a state school, no one will ever admit that it is their job and you are sent from office to office, much like dealing with the DMV.

Danielle

The fact that it is dead on the weekends and most people commute. The dorms needs to be nicer and the shuttles are a problem.

Alyssa

Parking is the worst thing about my school. There isn't enough for students and it is so expensive. You pay so much for parking and you are not even garenteed a spot. Also adivising isn't so great.

Lynn

Parking in this school is really difficult. I truly love coming to school and love the campus but when it comes to parking Montclair is the worst that I have seen.

Leah

The housing is very hard to get.