Southern Connecticut State University
Southern Connecticut State University is a Public, Non-Sectarian, Interdisciplinary, University established in 1893. The campus is located in New Haven, Connecticut, USA and hosts students with an endowment of .
Website: www.southernct.edu
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Institution Type: Public, Non-Sectarian, Interdisciplinary, University
Established: 1893
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I attended here because it was located within commuter distance from my place of living at the time, as I would not be living in the dorms. SCSU boasted many of its clubs, activities, and well-educated faculty (83% have PhDs). For these reasons, (mostly being close to my hometown and affordable), I chose this college hoping to make the best of my college experience. Sadly, I left very disappointed.
SCSU is definitely not the best school out there, and you’d be a fool to think that this medum-sized state school would provide an excellent student to faculty ratio. I got that, but I was not expecting my college learning experience to be so. . . non-existent, really. I spent two years commuting there, basically coasting by on average to awesome grades in the required courses and finally experiencing some in my major. I learned quickly that textbook prices at this school, as with all schools, are extremely pricey and most times you will not open the book at all. Also, I learned that with SCSU especially, you have to use the professor-rating website to decipher which professors you will take. My grades literally were made or broken due to the wide discrepancy of professors there. Most professors were bored lecturers in a class of 50+ and only had a few exams. Fortunately for me at the time, barely any professors took attendance and so I used that to my advantage to coast by my classes barely going to classes. One day in the second semester of my second year, I grew to the cold realization that I was going to be a junior in college soon and that I had not learned a thing.
SCSU was typical in its disorganized administration, crappy food quality, its sheltered location from the ghettos of New Haven, and rampant party/drug scene. The real kicker for me, however, was the poor education I wasted money to receive.
The college life at SCSU is awesome – if you live there. There are a ton of clubs and shows to get involved in, movies and fun campus programs and fundraisers. Commuters are sadly left out of most of these activities and programs, especially if you are also working. A lot of the students that attend this school are given a full to partial ride by either their parents or sport scholarships, and use their extra money or part-time job solely to fund parties. SCSU is definitely not a dry campus. Fraternities and sororities have huge parties off campus, but beware of date rape and alcohol poisoning. Many people drop out due to too much partying. Weed is rampant throughout the school. A much smaller percentage utilized other drugs, but they are there for the tempted.
I ended up leaving, feeling jaded about my college experience thus far. However, I had a few friends graduate here that enjoyed their time spent at SCSU, so take my review with a grain of salt. I was one of those students that actually wanted to learn stuff, a lot of stuff, and I was left empty-handed and under-stimulated. I can count the number of great professors I’ve had on one hand, and the number of classes I’ve dropped or switched out of due to horrible or lazy professors on two.
Connecticut Hall “Conn Hall” was way worse when I first went there. They didn’t service food after 8:00pm. Now they serve food for almost the entire day. The quality isn’t that great but you will survive. Eggs in the morning, Pizza is served lunch and dinner, make your own sandwiches, stir fry. It’s alright nothing crazy. The student center has a couple of different options like Mondo Subs and Blue Agave. Again, the quality is not that great but you learn to love it.
Keep in mind that this is a suitcase school so A LOT of people go home for the weekend… every weekend. Mostly to do laundry and see family. I was not one of those kids. I enjoyed spending the weekends down in New Haven. If you are looking to go out then you have 3 options. Stay in the dorms and be quiet, go to a house party (if you know someone), or go downtown. There are plenty of places to go if you are under 21 and about the same about of places to go. It is going to be repetitive and sometimes boring. Beers are generally around $4 and well drinks are about $5 too. I wouldn’t waste your money on buying expensive drinks we are, after all, starving college students.
The campus in general is okay, but it is based almost entirely around a huge cemetery which is pretty annoying. Walking across campus is never fun but not the worst thing. The shuttle service is actually pretty good if you learn the timings and very helpful during the winter.
I guess the overall consensus is that it’s a typical “state school.” Mediocre on all levels unless you are really into defining your education.
Dumbest mistake I ever made was thinking I’d get a good education out of that school. I’ll take my money and go to Housy, thank you very much.