Beloit College

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One Student Review of Beloit College

• Luke

  February 2, 2019

  I’m a current senior Class of 2019.

  I do not recommend Beloit College for anyone really.

  The campus is located in a small town, that is charming, but not much to do, especially for people in their 20s. All amenities like grocery stores, movie theatres, malls etc. are not within walking distance. Very few opportunities to get off-campus, unless you’re driving over 30 minutes to something interesting. Not as many students travel to Chicago, Madison, or Milwaukee as Admissions makes it seem. Most students are too busy or don’t have the resources to do so. A few restaurants and bars can be walked to, but they’re expensive or not that good. The college also does a poor job at creating recreation on campus. Most of the time students have to take the initiative to host social events, which are frequently shut down anyways. A lot of people just end up watching movies or playing videogames. Many others just get drunk or do drugs in their rooms, which makes people develop problems. I know several people that go beyond the “college experience” and have real addiction problems.

  The food is ok. As a low-income student I’m not one to complain as long as I have food, but for what I pay and the large debt I now have I would expect much better quality.

  The housing is meh. Decent buildings, but there are frequent mold issues, they’re drafty, and often somewhat in disrepair. Student complaints about such things go unanswered.

  The education itself is ok. Most professors are pretty good. The ones that are bad are exceptionally bad though. You can develop a very close personal relationship with your professors. The college leans toward being a bit more informal, which is nice to a degree. The workload is a lot and you’re expected to come to class unlike other universities. Most professors allow 2-3 absences before they start dropping your final grade, so try not to get sick.

  The housekeepers and maintenance people are all very nice people. As are many staff members.

  The administration are not communicative, unresponsive to legitimate student complaints, and paid obscene amounts of money despite tensions on campus about the issue. The administration is probably the worst aspect of this college in my opinion; to me they just seem to not care about the students or other faculty and staff. It’s about money and spreadsheets numbers for them.

  Student labor is frequently exploited. All student jobs are paid Wisconsin minimum wage of $7.25/hr. Work is hard to come by in town, particularly if you don’t have a car. There are no opportunities for advancement, barely any training, very little personal growth. The college says they can’t pay us more, because it’s federal student work study aid. Fine. But there are dozens of jobs that aren’t work study, that are paid from departmental funds and these jobs are only paid minimum wage too. I worked as a housekeeper during winter break from 6am-2:30pm Monday through Friday for 4 weeks. And was still only paid minimum wage, while the starting salary of a housekeeper was ~$10.00/hr. The only reason I was paid minimum wage was because I’m a student. This wasn’t work study. I was a regular full-time employee. Seemed exploitative to me at the time, but again jobs are few and far between.

  Students are often unrewarded or unrecognized for the significant impacts they have on campus. If the college administration is slacking, students will often fix issues themselves, but without the praise the administrators often get and demand.

  I won’t go into statistics about sexual assault and violence on campus. I can’t speak for everyone. But these issues are prevalent to say the least.

  There has been three hate crimes on campus since my time being here. Mostly targeted at people of color. The responses by the college was seen as less that satisfactory by students, faculty, and staff.

  I genuinely consider Beloit College my home. And you can have a complicated relationship with your home. I have met some of the best people in the world at this college, who I’m sure will be my friends and family for the rest of my life. I enjoy much of the college, but there are more negatives than positives. I don’t want any regrets in my life, but if hard pressed to think of one, it would have to be choosing Beloit College. I’m tired, burnt out, and unhappy a lot. This college can often make you feel really isolated and bad about yourself. I often feel bad for freshman who don’t understand enough until it’s too late to transfer.

  I don’t really recommend Beloit College unless they made some real substantive changes in the next fews years.

  P.S. The Powerhouse doesn’t count as a substantive change. Most students are opposed to the addition of that building. Again, the administration should actually listen more.

  Overall Score: (2.54/5.00)

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