University of Arizona Top Questions

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

Paulina

What I would consider the worst thing about my school are the girls restrooms. The reason is because they are not always clean, the toilet seat is too low, and some of them don't always work. Also some of the buildings need a little more maintence work because to me they look a little bit old. For example, the paint on the wall is pealing off and even though the school has the sufficient technology the buildings need to be more modern.

Liza

The worst thing about the UofA is that a lot of the professors are really researchers and do not excel in the teaching profession. This makes it very difficult for students to really understand information.

Bernard

I belive the worse thing about my school is when in lower level classes teachers just want to weed out students. I feel that teachers dont want you to succeded untill you are a junior and senior. All big universites care about is money.

Emanuel

Many classes are getting too big. Last semester I was in a class with over 800 students in it.

Nicholas

I think the control that the Greek system has at our school is the worst part about it. I chose to avoid the Greek system because I couldn't afford it. However, the University clearly favors students that participate in Greek life to those that do not.

Breauna

What I consider the worst about my school is the location. The U of A Campus is beautiful, however outside of the campus the area can be considered unsafe. That is why I take the initiative to travel in groups and be aware of my surroundings.

Tanya

To elaborate more on my earlier response, I just wish my University offered more traditional classes compared to the classes available online.

Jordan

The attitudes of members of large fraternities and certain sororities, who think they above everyone else at the school and think they are in some exclusive club.

Joel

That only sophomores and freshman are allowed to do GRO's (Grade Replacement Opportunity)... I think that is counter-intuitive as it is the upperclassmen who need that the most.

Viridiana

The worst thing about my school is that the parking is very expensive for students. Students are already paying for tuition plus parking is just too much.

Mercedes

What I consider worst about the University of Arizona is its size. This school is smaller than the other in-state university that I was considering, it's still a very big school. Coming from a private catholic high school where my graduation class was about 300 the move to the university was shocking. They had so many students, there was no way they could possibly care about all of the students or have any sort of personal investment in their lives. Due to its size, the faculty is unable to become invested in a student's succes or failure.

Constance

The school can be huge. If you do not get involved it is easy to get lost. There is also a lot of history on the campus so some things look really old but the old is beautifully intergrated with some of the most state of the art technology. Also, the university is located in Tucson, unless you enjoy outdoor activities there is not much else to do off campus.

Katherine

The city of Tucson is probably the worst part about the University of Arizona. South of campus is an area that students tend to try to avoid, yet the majority of the dorms are on that side of campus. Fortunately my dorm is not, but the new Honors dorm as well as the other newer dorms are. Given the poorer conditions of the city, one does not always feel safe. The University recognizes that though and offers a program called SafeCats which is a free cab service for students.

Lissette

The worst thing about my school is probably how much tuition has risen every single year. Just this past year our university faced a $78 million cut of state funding because of a passed legislation by our Governor Jan Brewer. This made tuition increase $1500 for in state students like myself. There is no doubt yhat education comes at a price, but it is becoming elusive for students like me who live at home and still stuggle financially. I have been raised to value education and I would hate for it to become a simple luxury for the priviledged.

Katia

The worst thing about my school is the location in which my university resides. The University of Arizona is an amazing school with plenty of resources for students to succeed, yet the city of Tucson is nearly deserted. Without the University, Tucson would be a failure because there is nothing else keeping the city alive. The city lacks reconstruction and money to allow the city to flourish. Also, being in an under developed city, we are limited to outside opportunites off campus, which would allow students to gain knowledge of the working world.

Danielle

As a transfer student there is a great difficulty in trying to navigate the transfer process. Resources are rather limited, as is information, and there is very little offered in way of scholarships and help in the transition from community college to university life.

AzelJayhe

There is nothing I really dislike about The University of Arizona, except for walking around certain parts of the campus. Many students ride their bicycles to get around the campus, and sometimes it gets hard to cross a sidewalk because of the many bicyclists.

Stephanie

The worse thing about my school is that the students don't have a voice. In relation to the board of regents, students' voices are limited. As funding keeps getting cut for education and our tuition rates rise, it's hard to imagine if they have any concern at all for our well-being. It would be an improvement if students were able to voice their opinions on policies or program funding rather than adminstration doing what they think is right.

brett

I would consider the parking to be the worst thing about the University of Arizona. It can be very expensive to park in a parking garage and there are far too few metered spaces available. The metered spaces that are available are for very short periods of time, most of them are two hour maximums. These meters are patrolled constantly by a omnipresent group of meter maids that are known for writing tickets the minute your meter expires (this is not an exaggeration).

Chelsea

One of the biggest problems with the University of Arizona is that it's very large. It's hard to find the right person to help you out with a problem. Often times I have to go through multiple people.

QuynhNhu

I think the worst thing about the University of Arizona is that it is located in Tucson, AZ. It's location makes the social life a bore because there rarely are anything exciting and/or adventurous for young adults/college students to do in this city. The typical social life at this university is at the cliche party scenes.

Triana

The worst thing about my school is that the budget cuts are now going to force the school to change how they teach the students. It has already been going down before I got there, but I know that it is going to go down even more. It is going to hurt the students in getting jobs in the future.

Marysol

The worst thing are the academic advisors except for the undeclared majors. The rest of them assume you kow everything and you don't need their help. They don't connect you to helpful people or places, they don't offer advice unless you squeeze if from them.

Wesley

The worst thing about my school is the cost of attendance.

Jonas

At my college in tucson, arizona it is always sunny. It would be nice for it to be cold sometimes and maybe get some snow every now and then. It seems like it is always summer in tucson.

Cinthia

I don't like how expensive parking is.

Malyree

The worst thing about the University of Arizona is probably the same thing at any university. The worst thing would be the consumption of alcohol. However, this may also be considered one of the best things at the University depending on the person. It is college and college students enjoy drinking. Honestly, drinking is a part of college. People may not want to admit it but we all know it is something that goes on at a college campus. However, if that is the only bad thing the university has, then I consider it to be a great university.

William

When trying to discover events and information about the school, it is difficult to find this information in one central spot. I would like it if there was a central organization that sent students emails about talks and workshops going on during the school year. Not just for your own major but for every major that you would like to participate in.

Rebecca

What I consider the worst thing about the University of Arizona is hearing its students talk about the amount of difficulty that financial aid relations create in terms of communication. The students are incredibly passionate about retaining their position on campus and the security of that position can create a lot anxiety for them. It becomes very unnerving when contact between the student and the institution itself is not established more attentively making it difficult to plan financially for forthcoming events on and off-campus.

Christine

The worst thing about the University of Arizona is not getting real-world work experience.

Calvin

I dislike the heavy focus on sports and fraternities/sororities. I feel like a lot of the student population is mostly concerned about sports and drinking rather than about intellectual or artistic stimulation. My own department does not share these same attitudes towards college, and is mostly filled with individuals who care about learning. I don't feel like the administration is doing much here to direct it towards a more academic oriented direction, but rather leave this up to the department heads.

Kali

At the U of A it is said between the students that math and science classes are weed out classes to their upper level classes. Most professors and TA's like to give you the bare minimum you need to suceed and see what you can do rather than making sure you can suceed. If this is really true, I feel that the the school would have a lot more sucess from their students if they focus on trying to make them suceed not to test their deducing and self taught skills.

Steven

The large amount of drinking and related lack of focus on academic work is the worst thing. Not for all students but many do party very often and this can be seen in their attitudes in the classroom. While the university is large enough that these people do not make up a significant majority, they can still be disruptive at times.

David

The level of difficulty to get into math classes at the Unviersity by the Math placement test. Although one may score low on the ALEKS system, it may not reflect that person's true knowledge of math. However what makes this the worst feature also makes it one of the best, in the sense that the U of A has an elite math program.

Ishan

The worst thing about the school I would say is that the most of the classes I have been in including my chemistry and biology classea have been very big so it is very hard to interact with professor or get help. There are preceptors avaiable but the help you get from the professor and teachers is different. Also, the science departments hire a lot of graduate students to teach big classes and since they don't have good experience, it makes the class more tough on students.

Tess

the worst thing is the class size, and difficulty getting into classes the you want/need during registration.

Aisha

In my opinion the worst thing about my school, especailly because I live on campus, is the campus food choices. I feel like they place those unhealthy restaurants in easily accessible places than the few that are healthy. For example the healthy choices, "Cellar Bistro", "Cactus Grill" are located downstairs (1st floor) and upstairs (3rd floor) of the student union which many people do not know even exists. In contrast, Burger King, Panda Express, Chick-fila, etc are on the main floor (2nd floor) which catches the eye of many throughout the day.

zea

I strongly dislike the off campus housing situation. There is not a tight community of off-campus housing, people live relatively spread out from one another.

Michael

I believe that the school is not very good at spreading the news about possible social activities on campus, unless they are associated with major sports programs. If a movie, for example, is playing at the campus movie theatre, the school rarely does anything to alert or notify its students about it. The only way I find out about the movie is if I walk by the campus movie theatre and read about it on a flyer. However, most students do not even notice that the flyer even exists.

Andrew

If I could choose any worst thing about my school it would be the lack of encouraging students to beome involved in the social life. However, there are countless ways and opportunities to interact with different organizations and clubs but I feel that the school should further emphasize and somewhat force students to make new friends. It would have been beneficial for me because I am shy and hesitant when wanting to join a club or participate in a interactive social event.

Mia

I believe that the worst thing about my school is that the tuition costs keep going up each year. I receive financial aid, and when the tuition goes up, I have to keep taking out more and more loans which is not only a financial burden on me, but also my family, who is helping to pay for my school.

Sean

The worst thing about this school I would say is that you don't really have too much time to do many things, this school is difficult to complete but it can be done if you are focused well enough. Also making friends in classes is a little bit harder than usual because everyone usually already knows someone else and they are all already in groups of friends.

Shaun

The worst thing I consider about my school is the lack of on campus apartments for upperclassmen. I think it would be neat if everyone could live on campus as one big happy family, but it doesn't always work out that way.

Dominic

Alcohol consumption and party atmosphere. I feel is is overemphasized. Out of state tuition is also ridiculous!

Beatriz

The worst are the dorms. Some of them are too small and old.

Adaleta

The University of Arizona can be a lot to handle as a freshmen. There are a lot of parties, a lot of alcohol, and a lot of drugs. Freshmen need to steer clear of the negative influences because many of my old friends from freshman year dropped out of school because their grades were not up to speed. Do your homework, go to class, and do not make excuses such as "I'm in college now, I don't need to study." YES you do, and it will benefit you in the long run.

Jorge

This is my third month studying at the University of Arizona. I really have not experienced any bad thing during this time. However, I would consider a little bad the distance that I have to drive every day between my house in Sahuarita, to the school in Tucson.

Amanda

The party repuation. We boast about the "awesome parties," but in reality they don't exist. Sure, there are some, but generally speaking a good party is hard to come by. Especially if you're a guy. Fraternity parties are exclusive to girls, and the brothers in the house. House parties are a little more lax, but typically men have to pay to get it. I don't care either way if I attend a "party school," but I was a little disappointed when I went to my first party with such high expectations and was promptly let down.

David

The tuition cost is the worst thing. I will not have money to continue attending the University of Arizona for much longer, and I love my school and what I do as a student.

David

The greek life seperates itself from one another and the rest of the university.