North Carolina State University at Raleigh Top Questions

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

Tammy

Not enough dorm rooms and parking for the population it served.

Keleigh

The worst thing about this school is the weekends. I live an hour and a half away from my school so I cannot go home every weekend. On Fridays it is like the entire student body leaves campus and there is absoultely nothing to do all weekend unless you want to go to a party. I do not like going to parties because I feel as if they are immature and will only get you into trouble. I wish that there were activities or something to do.

Nia

I believe that the worst thing about my school is the size of the campus. On occasion, students may have classes on either end of campus-- this constitutes about a 20-minute walk, and some classes only have a 15-minute gap in between them. This could pose a problem in terms of being late to classes.

Timothy

Parking. If you have a parking pass is it pretty good, but if you do not and need to drive onto campus, you have to park at one of the pay lots or risk getting a hefty parking ticket. The parking officials are always out and extremely vigalent. Finding free parking on or near campus before 5 PM is almost impossible.

Kara

Seems like the staff want to see you fail at times. The tutoring available can be a joke at times.

Mason

The worst thing about State is that the dorms are similar to a cell block in a prison, and many of the buildings have the same aesthetics.

Xavier

There is a lot of walking involved in getting around campus

Sara

the most frustrating thing about my school is that the walls in the dorm are thin. This can make it dificult to do homework or sleep at times.

Jonathan

Engineering is certainly not easy. You may be a straight-A student in high school but do not expect college to be easy as a result - I can speak from experience. Some of the classes require a lot of time to succeed in, but why not give them everything you've got!

Anna

As it is a difficult thing to make into an "easy" process, registering for classes is always a hassle and never something that student look forward to doing. The availability of good/ desired professors isn't exactly as it should be, and there should be better availability of certain classes that students are required to take, especially for what we are paying for our education.

Whitney

Sometimes walking across campus can take a while and whenever I have to take a bus to my engineering classes on Centennial Campus the commute is annoying.

Taria

I have not found anything I consider bad about my school.

Mariah

University Dining I don't like that we can't use an equivalency twice in one meal period. I don't like a lot of the food in the dining halls, and if you are a vegitarian or gluten free you'll have a hard time finding food to eat that you like.

Evan

The nature of their curriculum was the worst aspect of NC state, in my opinion. It was a school that was in bed with industry, and as such, one that tailored their degrees to include coursework related to jobs. All of my chemistry courses were taught by researchers wanting patents, for example. To many people this would have been a good thing, but in my opinion, an undergradaute degree is about exploring a diversity of subject areas to become more deeply aware of the current state of knowledge, before venturing to further specialize in that area.

Alexander

The distance between my friends and family. I would normally see them everyday, and now I live 5 hours from my parents and friends.

Daria

The religious and conservative extremists that stage protests in public spaces. It gives the school a bad reputation.

Morgan

I don't think there is one area where NC State is seriously lacking. I think overall its a very good school

Devin

There aren't really any bad things so far about the school. The only thing I would say is the campus is so big and without having a car here, there is a lot of walking. Sometimes to get from on class to another it is a challenge and I actually had to drop a clas due to the fact that I couldn't make it from my previous class on time.

Remington

The worst thing about my university is the distance between the dorms and apartments around campus and the fact that freshman are allowed to live off campus. This combination makes it difficult to see some of my friends during the school week.

Zachary

Big. Very big.

Nicole

The only negative thing that comes to mind when I think about this university is the construction that's going on around campus. The dump trucks and construction equipment that drive through leave a mess on the roads and sidewalks. It's a petty complaint and really doesn't effect my academics. The improvements they're making to our student center are really giving us something to look forward to, the projected plans are breathtaking and I'm really excited for all the new dining options that will be available.

Antoin

Parking

Benjamin

The subjectivity of the grading process.

Bianey

The worst thing I would say is having to walk around such a big campus and not having enough time to get to your next class.

Matthew

the dining halls... the food is ok, but nothing special

Megan

The worst thing about my school would be the large class sizes. In the little time that I have been here all my classes have been held in lecture halls with 100 or 200 plus people with the exception of labs. Because of this, its hard to really get to know your professors and its also hard for the professor to change his teaching to meet the needs of the class. You don't really get that intimate feeling as if you had classes with only 50 or less students. It's all a blur!

Richard

The worst thing about my school is that their are so many students that you do not get the opportunity to really form a relationship with other students or the instructors. It is such a large campus.

Erin

I would say that the worst thing about my school is that although the size offers many benefits, it can sometimes be overwhelming in terms of getting involved and meeting new people, especially when you first get there and after a while people have already found their social niches and it becomes more difficult to make friends.

Christopher

Liberalness

Martha

They tend to have inconvenient weekend hours for dining halls and restrictions on the dining halls that you can eat at base on where you live on campus. It hasn't proven to be a problem for me personally, but when you want to have a gathering with friends who don't live on a certain part of campus it becomes somewhat selective.

Bryant

nothing that any other school goes through its the same thing with every school and in every situation

Michelle

In North Carolina there are a lot of red brick and NC State is no exception. Most of the buildings and much of the paths are made of red brick. While it unifies the school, it also makes it somewhat boring. Many of the students get tired of looking at the brick everywhere they go on campus.

Dawn

To be honest I don't think NC State lacks anything. However, it would be great if there was more room available in our big halls like Talley Student Center where students gather for lunch and other leisure activities.

Donald

Probably the worst thing at State is its atmosphere. Unlike other Divison 1, top institutions, there just does not seem to be the same level of school pride here. We lack traditions that everyone can really stand behind. Also, we lack the essential college town atmosphere that many other schools have. With living in the middle of a big city, North Carolina's capital, there are so many distractions that take away from NCSU could be. There just doesn't seem to be the amount of city wide support that could take Wolfpack pride to the next level.

Karey

The worst thing about my school would be the dorms. The dorms should be renovated. I understand that are major budget cuts within the University, but a lot of the dorms are outdated and gross. My main concern of the dorms, are the bathrooms. The showers and toilets are appalling. Also, the lighting of the bathrooms are not adequate. There are usually only one small light within each bathroom. This makes it hard on the eyes to focus, especially when looking in the mirror.

Justin

I have found the clubs and organizations to be underwhelming. I have been earnestly seeking a club or group to join to supplement my learning experience here at NC State and have thus far found nothing. The clubs I am interested in either have no posted contacts or the contacts provided are unresponsive. In addition, the one or two clubs I have been in contact with have had very innactive officers and event schedules.

Ethan

There really is not a "worst" thing about my school, but if I could change anything, it may be the campus' physical feature..the campus is very spread out in comparison to a few others that I visited. Getting to class takes a hike of about 1/4 mile+ each morning. However, this should be considered a health benefit, since I start my day with a brisk walk, then another, then another, until I have finished my day with over five miles covered each and every day. Update..I now have a bicycle on campus! Ride on Pack!!

Sarah

The worst thing about NC State is the average large class size. Although I was aware of the massive population of over 30,000 students before attending, I think it is a better learning environment to have small classes where professors get to know students and connect with them on a personal level. Some classes are small though, and those classes are the ones that I can talk to a teacher, understand them and potentially receive recommendations from in the future.

Matt

I think that the worst thing about this school is that the dorms on campus are not as social as you might think. I would like to see more dorm activities and community building among the various housing areas on campus. It seems as if the college experience would be more enjoyable if the residents of dorms had more of a bond.

Derick

Honestly, I like everything about my school. If i found something that I did not like, it was easily corrected.

Amanda

The only thing about this school that I would consider a disadvantage is the campus itself. We are located in the middle of downtown Raleigh and the entire campus is made out of bricks. Althoughthis seems to be a vantage point for the university, these bricks get very slippery when it rains and there are many horror stories about slipping and falling in the brickyard.

Vanessa

In some areas we seem to lack resources, and this can be very inconvenient to the student. For example, due to budget cuts, a lot of course sections were eliminated and combined. This made the classes that you could squeeze into extremely large and more difficult to get to know your professor better.

Kellan

The worst thing at my school is probably the amount of students who do not value education as they should. Education is something that should be deeply valued, for it is a privilege, not a right. There are so many people in the world who are not given the opportunity to attend such a pretigious university but yet there are people who are given this opportunity and instead of cherishing it and making the most of it, they take if for granted. This is sad.

Aravind

I think one thing I would like to see is more areas to study, our library though very big and accommaditing doesn't meet our large student population properly.

Susan

If you ask most of my BS Chemistry class what would they do if they could do it all over again, most would say not chemistry. Part is due to hearing from other people who go to other schools in the same feild are having no problems with subjects that our student population is having problems with by learning from the top in that field. Our teachers are geniuses and we do not think at the same level. The number one problem is the need to understand what our teachers are trying to teach us.

Marie

The worst thing about NC State is the available tutorial subjects. Although there is a wonderful tutorial center, it only supplies tutors for the basic courses such as chemistry and physics. Courses more specialized within a major are hard to find help with (besides the professors' office hours).

K

I honestly can't say that I've had a bad experience with NC State. Everything for me has worked out smoothly and timely, so it is hard for me to say a negative thing about the school.

Justin

NC State is not the most scenic school. There's more guys than girls....which is a problem stastically for guys seeking girls.

Stephanie

The worst thing about my school is the different campuses and having classes on different campuses. Its really hard to get from each one quickly because of having to ride the bus.

Brittany

Not enough on campus parking near classes. Ihave to take bus or walk everywhere I go.