The best thing about our school are the professors (top-notch) and that there's a lot of cultural diversity within the Faculty members. Also, the school is rather selective so you get to be in a very competitive atmosphere that pushes you to always strive to be better. Also, the campus is beautiful :)
The administrative part of the school is awful. There's so much bureaucracy that dealing with any type of paperwork, asking for materials or paying for something becomes a nightmare. Because of that, funding is not well distributed and a lot of important things suffer. For instance, bathrooms always seem to be dirty and without the necessary elements you would expect to find in a bathroom (toilet paper, soap, etc.). The laboratories have outdated instruments, lack of materials and the space itself leaves a lot to be desired. Also, the libraries are having a really tough time maintaining subscriptions to journals that we need for our classes and investigations.
Compared to the other universities here, i would say my school is large but i wouldn't know in comparison to other American schools. I feel that you can blend in if you want to but professors are always available during office hours and discussions in class are encourage. This way, the student that wants to get noticed in class and have a more personal rapport with the professor can do so too.
I think people react favorably if you're from my school, specially if it's a potential employer. Nonetheless, there are some people that may be put off by us because of the image the media has bestowed upon us as the perpetual "strikers".
I spend most of the time in my different classrooms. I don't tend to linger around if I don't have class. I prefer to meet friends in other setting and study in my room.
Yes, I would definitely consider Rio Piedras as a college town (or neighborhood). Just in front of the main entrance we have the University St., which is a street lined with bars and cheap-but-good restaurants.
I think the school administration is inefficient and most of the employees are rude to students. Of course there are exceptions but for the most part our school is run as any other government agency and that's a problem in and of itself.
The biggest and most recent controversy in our school was a list of unsolved robberies and sexual assaults that had been happening in in some of the parking lot . Fortunately, no one was ever killed or seriously hurt during the robberies (mostly cars and laptops). As for the sexual assaults, there were a lot of rumors and I believe all of them got away by using pepper spray and self defense techniques they had previously learnt. Things have seem to calm down but you can notice everyone more aware of their surroundings at all times.
With being a "gallito" (guys) or a "jerenzana" (girls) (like mascots but they're gender-specific) comes great pride. I don't follow our different teams during the whole year but in April (or March) we have "Las Justas", which is a sports event that gets together all of the universities in the island and they compete in a variety of sports. I personally enjoy the dance team and the cheerleading competitions. During that time of year, school pride goes through the roof. Also, students manage to win a lot of awards in the different fields of investigation (Social and Natural Sciences) and we are very proud of this.
I'll always remember trying to get to class while we were on strike and feeling a little like Rambo. Also, I will remember that I had the opportunity to do a semester abroad and it was a magical experience.
As i mentioned before students are always complaining about the Administration and the lack of courses (and spaces available) in any given semester.