You Didn't Like Albany?

I had initially left for the University at Albany with every intention of loving it. From my orientation weekend up until move-in day, it had been every graduating high school senior's dream: new MacBook Pro, assorted things to decorate a dorm with, and parents waiting on you hand and foot in preparation for their own empty nest syndrome.  Needless to say, as an only child, I don't think there'd ever been a period in time where I'd been more spoiled by my family members than the summer of 2010.  My transition to life in Albany went swimmingly, my roommates were fun and our residence hall was located perfectly between the dining hall and the lecture halls.  We would get meals together, walk to the same classes together, complain about the same schoolwork, party together, and eat late night calzones together.

Now I know you may be wondering, "what's not to like?"  Well, believe it or not, I got extremely bored.  Being overly involved in multiple extracurriculars in high school, I only participated in Albany's Student Press and nothing else.  The rest of my time was consumed with the same cyclical behavior that I learned to hate, and I slowly started finding more things to complain about than just the dining hall food. To say my professors in the courses I had actually wanted to focus on in were incompetent would be an understatement, and that's putting it nicely.  

Through some research, I learned that a large majority of professors in these programs were adjunct faculty who taught because they had the extra time to and not because they were passionate about it.  Additionally, most of the state's funding for SUNY Albany went toward the science and pre-health career programs rather than the humanities.

The straw that broke the journalism student's back so to speak, came when the university announced it would be cutting French, Italian, Russian, Theatre, and the Classics programs by May 2012, but continuing with the projected construction of new apartment buildings for upperclassmen and new fountains.  It was with this news that many students such as my suitemate began making plans to transfer to other universities that offered the courses they wanted.

So where does Rockland Community College fit into all this?  Well, I had never considered it to be a viable option while in high school but I realized that I could just get my general education requirements out of the way and save my parents the money until I ended up in a school that I actually wanted to attend.

None of this is to say that you may dislike Albany, but just a thought to help you consider another perspective.  If you're considering applying for transfer to SUNY Albany for humanities you might want to think of going somewhere else.