University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras Top Questions

The best thing about this school is that it has a good science and architectural program. One thing i change is to make it more politically stable. When it comes to size it is just right. In Puerto Rico this college is seen with prestige. Most of the time I spend it in my faculty building "Ciencias Naturales". It is not a college town. The school's administration is a bit lacking. The biggest recent controversy in campus was a strike. Their is a lot of school pride. Their is nothing unusual about the school except for the students. One experience I will always remember is studying for finals. Students complain about too much work and no sleep.

I love this University. Its made me meet incredible people! Its nothing like high school. The professors are all strict. It isn't easy, especially if you are in Natural Sciences where classes are filled with students with pretty tough material. Students from the UPR especially this campus, are very stereotyped; especially since all the strikes that have been going on for the past years. Its not easy for some people to understand what standing up for an institution you love and feel proud of feels like; especially with people who feel that education is in a higher caliber if you pay excessive money for it. My advice is don't listen to others and follow your dream and protect the only public institution for high class education. Our grandfathers fought and built it, we shouldn't bury it.

The best thing about my university is the fact that we have history and prestige on our side. We were the first university established in Puerto Rico and have since developed some of the greatest minds, professionals and human beings that have been brought up in Puerto Rico. ALthough I would like to change the sad stereotype of the university students that is currently being presented to the public. My university, I believe is the second largest in Puerto Rico and I, as I know many of my colleagues would agree, believe the size is just right. We have alot of nature, buildings and students and it all fits in quite nicely. I usually get two reactions to the fact that I study in the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Pierdas campus, the first one is people instantly recognize I must be working hard to keep my grades in such a competitive university. The second reaction I get is they might think I am a student that likes to protest against authority because of how students from my university have been presented in the media locally. Most of my time on campus I spend either in class or in the library, either in individual or group study. My opinion on the school administration is that even though they have received some bad press in the past few years, they work towards an amazing end goal, which is to better the university and the standard of education not only in the university but in Puerto Rico as a whole. The latest controversy was about a year ago and a half ago; when the administration stated a new quota must be paid by every student. This lead to some stop in classes, the university getting shut down for a couple of weeks, police being brought in to monitor student activity and the students protesting and even rioting in the streets. It was a sad and awful time in the university as well as the education system in Puerto Rico. There is definetly alot of school pride in my university, as we fought and studied hard to earn our right to study in the university of Puerto Rico and we clearly show it whenever we can. Our mascot may be a rooster but being part of such a locally well known university makes students feel like peacocks wanting to show off their colors.

I love my school. I feel like it's a separate world inside the campus. In spite of the somewhat bad reputation it has for leading many student strikes and being very politically active, I believe it is the perfect place for people to feel comfortable about being themselves and share ideas. Not only can people develop their creativity and intellect, but they can also take action based on that creativity and intellect by completing projects and investigations highly recognized.

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.

My school is the largest in Puerto Rico, but for my is just right. The best thing about this school is that you can get the best education for a fair and reasonable price; also, you can be yourself without being judged. UPR Rio Piedras Campus was the first campus founded and the most with an historical content, as a consequence people tend to feel proud if they know you got accepted. In this year, I spend most of my time on the Natural Sciences' lobby talking with friends and involved in student organizations. There is no doubt that here you are going to find the best education, but I would change the quality of service they offer and increase the courses offer and variety. The school's administration is a polemic topic and their actions/decisions provoked recurrent strikes and delayed classes. The biggest controversy on campus was the recent 2009 student strike and the most frequent student complaints are that they have to delay their graduations because of the time lost on strikes. However, there is a lot of student pride because of the historical content. Definitely, being in the UPR-Rio Piedras Campus is a whole experience in which I met new and good friends and I developed as a leader and professional and I'm not going to forget it.

UPRRP is by far the best education you can get in the Caribbean in a really affordable way. The professors are well prepared. The student body is lively and applied overall. The university is quite big, to say that there about 18,000 students with about 3,000 freshman entering every year. The downhill about the college is the bad administration. This makes changing courses, applying to programs to give you a headache. But at the end, all the trouble is worth it, only if you are observant and don't waste much time, or else you will end up studying more than 5 years for a degree.