I Tried to Like It, I Swear

Introduction
Other than the one or two locals with little ambition, who've been indoctrinated into believing that Case is the Harvard of the midwest, and made it their top choice university, there exist two types of students. The first are those who couldn't get in anywhere better. These students, myself being one, either slacked in high school, to the point where genuinely good schools were out of reach, or were too damn stupid get decent grades. The other, much larger group, are students who came here because they were bought off. Alot of the students you meet got in to schools like Carnegie Mellon, the University of Chicago, or any other number of superior institutions. But they came here because the school gave them the most money, such that attending costs about as much as an even lower quality state school. Because the school is full of students who don't want to be here, a ton of students end up transferring out. We're consistantly ranked among the 20 least happy student bodies in the nation, and after a few months here, it becomes very clear why. Before coming here, think long and hard about what you want out of college, and whether or not it is worth giving most of that up for a lower sticker price.

Campus Life and Social Life
It seems fairly easy to start a club here, and a decent number do exist. But people here are generally apathetic, so unless it is an ethnic/religious group, or something involving free food, numbers are weak. Clubs that should exist, like the College Libertarians, tend to fold every few years. I think the College Republicans have fewer than 10 members on a campus of 4100 undergrads.

A few clubs, namely Model UN and Mock Trial, are fairly large, but are often poorly run, to the point where it is easy to fall out of the loop and be forced to end involvement with them. But those are the exception, rather than the rule.

Sports here are weak, and very few people them. Being DIII, interest is low. Football has gotten a huge boost this year because of its record-breaking win count, but that is a fluke. IM sports are bigger, but are largely Greek, with some frats too weak to pull such teams together.

Greek life isn't too bad. Roughly a third of campus is Greek, with 18 frats and 6 sororities. For Jews there is an AEPi chapter, which is very small, and a ZBT chapter, which is openly anti-semitic. A few frats, namely ZBT and FIJI, are known for their love of date rape, drug dealing, and near-lethal binge drinking. But generally, most of the frats are responsible, and their members contributory to the campus at large.

As far as socializing goes, the only real parties are thrown by frats. The open ones are totally dry, and usually lame as hell. The closed ones are better, but are obviously limited, such that having an on-campus social life requires being Greek. Going off campus or to other nearby schools creates more options. Downtown Cleveland has alot of bars that don't card at the door, so you can have others buy for you, but it is nowhere close to campus, so you need a car, and a safe place to crash. The nearby area has some decent food, and the RTA system gives you a few more options, but generally you're limited in what there is to do. Advertisement
Academics
The school speaks so highly of its academics that you might mistake it for the University of Chicago...until you sit in on a class. I do next to no work, taking mostly upper level classes in a varied array of subjects, and based on my midterm grades, should have a 4.0. People complain about how hard the introductory science classes are here, but taking 200-level bio as a non-science type, I've found it to be easy. Honestly, if you're halfway competent, as a good number of students here are, you should have a decent GPA, no matter what your major.

Class size and department quality varies greatly. My smallest class has 7 people in it, and my largest has roughly 80. But there are classes with a few hundred students, particularly in the sciences. And yet, the natural sciences and engineering are the only really strong offerings Case has. Nursing and business are both also decent, but tend to attract many of our weaker students, rather than people genuinely interested in those fields. Anything pertaining to the humanities or the social sciences is abysmal at best. Students interested in such areas would do well to look elsewhere. As a Political Science major, I am constantly sickened by the lack of resources, variety of courses, and general strength of the department. That is one of the main reasons that I'm planning to, like so many others, leave Case for another college.

Teachers are a mixed bag, with some clearly assigned to teach classes they know nothing about. And in subjects like math, there are several who know little English. But there are a few competent teachers that do care, and make themselves available to help. This is more often the case is smaller departments, where the smaller number of students means that a teacher's time is less in demand, and so is often available.

Student Body
More than half the students that come here are from in-state, and so especially during freshman year, a number drive home on the weekends very often. And there are a substantial number of commuting students too. As far as socio-economic breakdown goes, most students are middle class, and manage to qualify for financial aid. True poverty or wealth is rare, so money is not flaunted all that often. Racially and ethnically, the majority of students are white Christians, but a good number are either Indian, Arab, Black, or Asian. Supposedly there are alot of Jews here too, but as an active member of the community, I'm finding that to be little more than a myth. Most ethnic groups have clubs, and in cases where the ethnicity or race is visible, students tend to segregate themselves along those lines. Truth be told, the little racial mixing that takes place comes almost exclusively from athletics.

In Closing...
There are any number of other negatives I could cover, like the $47,000 price tag, the low quality food and dorm rooms, the in-your-face endorsement of piracy, the ineptitude of the admistration, the weakness of most sections of the school paper, or the lack or any real students center. Or, I could mention the few positives the school has, like its excellent software center, or a very nice library. But really, that will make little difference. You'll either be bought off, denied better admissions options, or have the good sense not to apply. I came here with an open mind, was outgoing, and found the school to be decent for the first month or so. But after the novelty of being in college wore off, I quickly realized that I made a huge mistake in paying $47,000 to come to such an inept school, and will thus go elsewhere next year. If you come here, chances are you'll go through the same thing.