How ODU should NOT be considered...

Introduction
When I was applying to ODU, I was basically doing so in lue of NROTC, when I decided not to do the NROTC program, I stuck with ODU as my college choice. Since I've been here, I feel more like a number than a person, the crime has sky-rocketed, the so-called diversity is more a barrier than international community and I feel as though the school itself is more interested in money than providing the best education it could offer.

Please, oh dear God, find another school than this one. If you can find a better education, I would totally recommend it. I have several older siblings, been around the country and seen various schools and ODU is, sorry to say, very much 3rd tier among the competitors.

Campus Life and Social Life
For being a boarding student, opposed to those who travel home on the weekends, it's very much dead for activities and programs outside of classes. There are very few programs to make you feel welcome as a student and as a person. Most of the parties that actually occur break up within a couple of hours, not leaving much room to have a good time. The campus police often break up parties, but never arrest anyone. Clubs are active, like any other campus in the US, the biggest difference is that scheduling, as I know for most people, can be a serious problem.

Also, a lot of the problem at ODU is that the programs and activities are orientated towards Black Culture. For example, for our Homecoming Concert, we had 6 various rap artists, leaving no choice for other students who don't prefer rap. Or the House of Blue Cafe, the late hour dinning hall, is often playing hip-hop and/or rap, with the televisions tuned to BET and nothing else.

As a white student, I feel ignored as though my tastes and preferences, like many others, are being disregarded in general and fail to lure me into any such activities. Advertisement
Academics
I feel the academics at ODU are average, nothing special. I have no problem with any of my courses except for the NewPAGE course that every freshmen is required to take as part of his/her general education requirement.

NewPAGE is an environment orientated class that teaches the facts, economics, and problems that face the environment. The class is taught, in most students' opinions, by biased, left-wing professors only trying to accomplish their own, personal goals and indoctrinate their views about the environment. I consider myself an environmentalist and have great concern for the environment at hand, but how they approached the topic is disappointing and disgusting; they turned students AWAY than rather encouraging them to help.

They claim they preach in an un-biased manner, but when a conservative speaker came to one of the lectures of 2,000 freshmen students, he claimed that environmentalists were over-exaggerating the problem. By the next class, one of the NewPAGE Professors had told us that what this speaker said was outrageous and not true. So much for an un-biased manner of teaching.

The class does not seem to be coming to an end anytime soon. The whole concept of NewPAGE was thought up by our very own ODU President Runte, and she champions the class above anything else, as it seems.

Student Body
With the diversity of ODU, the main two students are either black or white. The vast majority of students are from Virginia, which makes it uninteresting in most conversations. Myself being from New England, I rarely see many people out of state. Luckily, there are roughly 100 International Students in the dorm where I stay, and they are most diverse.

I haven't seen the Student Government do any activities recently and i feel as though they are not voicing themselves for the students.

In Closing...
I look at myself, and other students, and realize that there are two different types of academic students that attend ODU. First, there are students who somehow or another (being location or money) chose to come to ODU but could have easily attended another school, one with more prestige or a better reputation. And second, there are students who couldn't get into any other colleges, who do poorly academically, don't do many activities or clubs and those students detract from the feel of the academic community. There is a social life at ODU, but not one to boast.

Being a second semester Freshman, I'm glad to say that I'll be transfering next year, hopefully somewhere I feel part of a community, academically.