Eastern Connecticut State University

I have literally never regretted a decision more in my life. Joke school with terrible staff and student employees that treat you like children shaped garbage cans. Never mind the other students there are so unstable and clearly stuck in a highschool mindset with zero maturity. My experience was genuinely horrifying and I had to drop out after my freshman year. Save yourself time and money, don’t go,

I graduated 3 times from here. Hard to give it a 5 but hard to give it a 3 as well. Is 3.5 an option? I went with 4. This school had some great professors and classes. I can't complain there. It's on par with UConn and much cheaper. That being said, some professors are a little more political than I feel they should be. I can deal with that for the quality of education they have given me, as I had learned a lot here, but thought it was worth mentioning. As for the management, however, it's gotten better since leaving from when I first started, but they aren't always on top of communication. I remember having to be on top of my educational choices more than the school simply because you either couldn't find answers or they contradicted with answers. They could certainly communicate better but have come a long way since when I started there. As a student, I was happy to attend. As someone entering the working world, they did not assist me in doing this very well. Their post-graduate program to set you up for employment isn't spectacular. I got more jog seeking support from the university school I graduated from. I also applied for several jobs at ECSU and have been shot down from the start, even though I feel that I was qualified for them. All in all, I had a good experience as a student, but I do feel there is some inequity in the management, job opportunities, and hiring decisions they make. That being said, being affordable, and getting a good education without loans was the overall goal, and Eastern helped me to do that.

The ECSU campus renovations are certainly a highlight of the overall look and feel. It does not however, override the experience as a whole. Over college tuition becoming increasingly expensive, this college is relatively cheap. But this is not an excuse for being inefficient, as I have one goal coming here which is learning about what I want to do for a living. I shouldn't have to pay the extra time money and effort attending pointless extra classes that both wear down my savings, emotional and physical wellbeing. It's a joke and if this university made an effort to eliminate said classes, it would 100% reduce depression campus wide and reduce the overall cost and time associated with getting the exact same educational value when you're diving into real world jobs. By my very generous calculation a 4 year degree here is more than half made up of courses that have nothing to do with the degree and can therefore be considered barely a 2 year degree's worth of actual job experience. I do regularly ask myself what I could do in the span of 4 years learning by myself instead of wasting my time coming here. Consider this, every year as a student, K-graduate, you are granted 2 months of time where you can endulge into hobbies, interests, self teaching experiences without the burden of school work and arbitrary responsibilities. What do you think you could do with 48 months of that same time. Even with a working job you are not held responsible for duties after hours and you are at least accumulating money, but for some reason it's normal to both pay to sit down and listen to jabber as well as get held accountable for duties off of class time. If ECSU wanted to be considered a good fit for someone who wants to fly high with wings untethered you would have to strip away 80% of the required courses for any said degree therefore limiting the friction required to make it year after year. You'd see immediate improvements to student involvement and overall mood compared to what we have now. You are keeping us occupied for no reason, and I think that is a waste of my time and money. My philosophy has always been, and continues to be. Go as far and as fast as you can until you hit a brick wall. If you need a tool to break through it ONLY THEN should you strive to get the tools to do so. Otherwise you're investing into something you can't gurentee will ever be used. I'm not saying college is never going to benefit you, I am saying there's a lot in there that doesn't. And I don't believe in paying for bloat.

Small class sizes and a strong sense of community makes Eastern a remarkable place to work and learn. This is the best university I have ever experienced, hands down, and I'm not just saying that because I work here. Our students receive broad hands-on training that makes them highly competitive and valued members of the workforce... Just like our motto "A liberal education, practically applied." I wish I had an Eastern education myself!