University of Portland Top Questions

What's the most frustrating thing about your school?

Emma

The University of Portland is a wonderful school, but it is incredibly expensive to attend. As an out-of-state student, it is very difficult to find the money to attend UP, and as a result sometimes I feel pressured to take more credits than I should or to find more jobs than I need to feel as if I am making the most of my college experience.

Kayla

The most frustrating thing about the University of Portland is the price of tuition. I come from a family that values independenacy, and as a nineteen year old college student $53,000 a year is hard to come by.

Quyen

It is located on the hill, so there are not too many foodcards around. Thus, it is un-convenient to buy food.

Madison

The most frustrating thing about this school is having to take the core requirements, like Fine Arts and History. Although these core requirements are helpful and make our education more well-rounded they take up a lot of space in schedules. This then makes schedules much more rigorous, and creates an atmosphere that a student must sefficiently plan for. Although it is the most frustrating in the long run, I think it will end up benefitting every student.

Hayley

I sprained my ankle once and went to the Health Center to be treated. Instead of receiving the help that I should have, I was told that all available appointment spaces were full and was told to go to ZoomCare which is off campus. I could neither walk or drive anywhere, nor did I have a car or have a solid understanding of the bus system at the time. I was definitely disappointed and frustrated with the lack of help I received from them. Thankfully my Hall Director was kind enough to drive me to the hospital and back.

Serenity

The most frustrating thing is keeping track of all the deadlines along with school events happening because there are so many that you don't even know about.

Andrew

Honestly, the food. I love nutritious, delicious food and while I was in the process of researching universies, the food options really stood out to me. Large posters are draped across the Commons with pictures of fruits and vegetables and signs reading fresh, local, organic, food but once I started working at the school cafeteria, I discovered that these advertisements were not so accurate. Not only does the food lack the healthy quality I desire, they also lack in selection. All too often I find myself in the cafeteria staring at the menus wishing for more healthier options.

Alex

The most frustrating thing about my school is that a couple classes are a lot harder than I was expecting. Theology is a require class and it is something I have little background on so I find it hard to keep up with what the professor is saying. There are many quizzes and readings that are required. The professor also assigned extra books to buy at the end of the semester so that was frustrating because it was required to spend a ton more money in order to do well on one quiz.

Alina

The most frustrating thing about attending my school is the quality of coffee. When I order a coffee here, I am never sure what it is going to taste like. A majority of the time, I end up with an alright cup of coffee and I have no complaints, but no praise either. However, there are times when the barista over steams the milks, burns the coffee, or messes up the drink entirely. In college, coffee is a vital part to making it through late nights and early mornings and not knowing what I'm going to get is unacceptable.

Thomas

Sometimes the wifi is extremely bad but it is much much better this year.

Kerrie

The only thing I find frustrating is that, unfortunately, we seem to seriously lack diversity in our student body. While the majority of students are white, we have an alarmingly small number of students of color, and I think we could do a better job of reaching out to potential students who are people of color and making them feel welcome here.

Susana

The most frustrating thing for me is the lack of diversity. University of Portland prides itself in having diverse students however, it is very lacking. I also don't feel comfortable expressing my culture here because the population here seems very close minded when it comes to other ethnicities.

Katharina

The most frustrating part about the University of Portland is the view of the students on religion. UP is a Catholic school and many students identify as Catholic or they at least know the "Catholic Routine." However, being a Prosestant, I often feel misunderstood about my view on Christianity by the Catholics. Likewise, the students who don't have a religion or are non practicing are often judgemental towards Prosestants based off of things they've heard or previous experiences. Its frustrating going to a Christan school and feeling a dissconnect from the Catholics and the Non-believers.

Taylor

This school does not give an adequate amount of money for financial or even merit. I think that either students receive a lot of aid or really none at all. I wish that I was able to get more scholarships/aids for good grades and service.

Lillian

The elevators in my dorm is old so it keeps gettting broken.

Jessica

I really haven't encountered anything huge that frustrates me about my school. Registration was a bit stressful and frustrating because as freshman you are the last group to register and by then you may have to change your schedule because some classes you planned on taking are now filled. However that's really just the way it works at every college.

Chelsea

The weather at school is the most frustrating. I never know whether it's going to rain or be blazing hot. That's what Portland is: One big bipolar state. Throughout the day, it may be 40 degrees and change to 60 in a matter of minutes. I hate it because I never know how to dress, and I'd feel foolish if I wasn't wearing the apporpriate attire.

Junna

Being a freshman, there isn't much that I can complain about. However, if I were to choose something that's frustrating about my school, it'd be that it's hard to see your professors during office hours. We are told that it would be good to meet and make the time to see our professors for help during their office hours. But how do they expect students to do so when their hours conflict with the time of other classes. I would hate to ask them to come in on a day they don't have to.

Sarah

One thing that frustrates me about the University of Portland is the parking. Their are a large number of parking spaces, but the school is so packed and busy that sometimes it is hard to find one during the day.

Sarah

It's way too expensive

Tesa

The most frustrating thing about our school is the food. It is the same food over and over again, day in and day out with no variation and it is extremely expensive!

Ariel

University of Portland is a Catholic school, so it does have some conservative policies. As a non-catholic, I never felt pressured into observing Catholic practices. They are supportive and welcoming to all religions. But their policies are still informed by their beliefs and that can be a bit limiting.

Edith

What frustrates me the most about UP is having to figure out how to pay the very expensive cost of attending here; i think coming to school here is worth it...but that doesn't mean that I'm not constantly worrying about payments and such.

Kayla

The fact that those who are richer do better because they don't have to work while attending school. Also, the fact that families who blew all their money and didn't save for school get more financial aid. Also that if you're ethnic you get a bigger scholarship.

Brooke

One of the most frustrating things for me is to find enough time to stay current with all the home work for my pre-engineering classes while working full time.

Arianna

The fact that the school will not offer me financial aid. I work hard for this school and they still do not seem to care. My parents pay for my school and they can hardly afford their own lives. I know that my father may make enough to pay for my school, but he makes enough if he was only paying for my school. The cost of this school is too much, especially since my parents both attended this school and my parents have made many donations in the past.

Andrew

U of P is a small school. So if you want to go to a school bigger then your highschool , U of P is not it.

Victoria

The most frustrating thing about school would be balancing play with work. You really have to figure out how to do well in your classes (studying, homework, etc.) while balancing time with friends.

Jacquelyn

For someone who paid out of pocket it was very difficult to afford.

Anna

since it is small, gossip travels fast. everyone knows everyone else, which is not necessarily a bad thing, unless something bad happens. the rain would be another thing that could be seen as a frustration. the food isnt all that great but it is still healthy and they do try.

Liana

Lack of resources due to over population. The stuffy people who go here. The admin sucks and there it too much politics.

Wendy

The financial aid department can be extremely difficult to deal with sometimes. It can take several days to get a reply back to an email concerning loans or tuition information. They are not very good at helping ou find aid to cover what is left after scholarships, which is generally a lot. There is not that much given to normal students as athletes and those in specific schools (business, nursing, education, engineering) appear to get most o the money.

Will

It is a private catholic school, and yet people still get into the argument over whether the school should be following Christian ideals when it makes choices for its students. I am atheist and I have no problem with a Catholic school being Catholic, and it is very annoying to hear people whine about it like they couldn't see it coming. For instance the health center doesn't provide contraception. Well, duh. Just go off campus.

Andrew

Students do not often communicate thier frustrations correctly. Administration most often uses mostly empty threats to prove points to students. These things only make the situations worse.

Nicole

The lack of vegetarian food options on campus.

Michael

Some of the ways things are run are very frustrating, especially Bon Appetit's catering service. They have monopolized the campus so they have no motivation to actually provide quality services

Robert

The first two years of classes could easily be combined into 1. At times it feels as though the professors don't expect enough of us or that the class seems to be lagging behind out of sheer laziness. Some professors are great and push us, others don't push us hard enough. There's a mix

Cheryl

The most frustrating this about my school is the male to female ratio. Since the nursing school is a very good school, it often attracts a great deal of female nurses, but tends to lack in male recruits to the nursing school. Therefore, there is a great influx of female students into the nursing school and a much lower amount of males that are matriculated into UP each year.