Boring Green, Kentucky the home of WKU

Introduction
I chose Western Kentucky University because I felt it was the most appropraite school for me, considering I had to find a school with in-state tuition. I am from Nashville, TN, and attended highschool at Father Ryan High School - a private Catholic school. If you are a student who would like to meet other students from around the states and hang out and have a good time, dont go to WKU. The vast majority of the students are from small counties in Kentucky or Tennessee. To give you an idea of campus life, if you would like to hang out somehwere, you can only choose from a variety of Restaurant chains: Applebees, Rafferty's, O'charleys and if you're lucky, Buffalo Wild Wings. If there is ever something cool in Bowling Green (our town), it gets closed down. The dollar theater: closed. Figaro's: Closed. Blue Moon: Closed. Head shops no longer exist. I could go on forever with negativity about Western.

Campus Life and Social Life
OK - the Social Life... Holy Moly! I have been wanting to scream this from a mountain top! I was warned many times not to go to school at WKU. But, I figured i had to find out for myself and everything is what you make it. I also had my two best friends right by my side. We were positive and sure we were about to embark on the incredbile 4 year adventure to COLLEGE! Then I got here, and of course gave it a while before I wanted to pass judgement: I had to get experience, adjust and start living before I knew how I really felt about the school. Time passed i was settled and living... I guess I wasn't miserable, but it definetely wasn't what I had expected. It was worse than High School! But I was convinced it had to get better... I would just have to make it that way. Then, time passed I started loosing hope. Western is a ghost town on the weekend! I knew people, but no one ever stayed, everyone always packed up on friday and headed straight back home to Moms and Pops. There is never anything to do! Students are also in constant fear of getting arrested since all the cops do is focus on making sure no one is having fun. It works, they do a great job of throwing an INCREDIBLE amount of students in jail nightly. You cant even walk home after having a few drinks... even if you are of age! Cops have and will arrest you for PI (Public Intoxication). Even if you're not outlandishly drunk or acting like a fool, cops know you're walking at night and figure you've been drinking. I know people who were just walking down the street ... cops came and harrassed them, eventually whipping out breathlizers then sending them to the backseat of the cop car for Public Intoxication. Its crap i tell you! You might as well Drive Under the Influence because deciding to walk home with a group screams you've been drinking and cops know they can make an arrested.

My older sister (by 4 years) went to Western at the time also. Most of her friends agreeded when i complained, but told me to give it a year. So I gave it a year. After a year of blah...i figured it was my fault and I'd try another year! After two years of experience I am confident when i say I would pay my child not to go to school at WKU. My sister and just about everyone I meet agrees.

The town is so small! If you meet a new friend and you try to hang out with them, it is a nightmare! There are no cool places to hang out. It is either at your place or theirs-dorm and all. But the dorms kick the opposite sex out early. There are about 3 bars and 1 kind of club. The bars kick you out way before a college student is ready-about 1 am / 1:30 if your lucky. It's hard to enjoy yourself when the employees are cleaning up at 12:30 making you feeel rushed to get your last call in. Then what? You're not tired yet, just feeling good.

The cops. Man oh man. I swear they are Nazi's. DONT EVER THROW A PARTY! IT will get busted well before midnight. I went to bigger parties in high school that didnt get busted. These cops know the small town like the back of their hand and they know where they parties are. They go there and they ruin the fun as early as 10:30. The worst part is that I am not exaggerating.

And again, don't drink or party because you will get arrested.

The social life at Western is the worst I have ever heard or seen. I went to a Vanderbilt party once in Nashville and was shocked to see that people could hang out in the front of the yard, much less still hear the music from outside and the best part--it was 2 am and the cops drove by-saw the scene was fine and kept on moving. To me being so sheltered from a good time at Western, I was surprised such a prestige school was having a better time than WKU students. Advertisement
Academics
I went to Western because I heard it had a great Journalism program. I wanted to study magazine journalism. I worked for school newspaper (for 1 and 1/2 years), The College Heights Herald. I gained a lot of experience but it wasn't in my study. After two years, all i was learning was AP style and newspaper etiquette. I didn't want to be told i had write only facts and no opinions. So I headed straight to the head of the Journalism Department, Jim Highland. I talked to Highland about how I was getting discouraged because I wasnt learning enough. He apoligized and admitted WKu's Journalism department focused on Newsprint. He said the closest course I could take to Magazine would be the one and only Creative Writing course. I really did apprecaite his help because he immediately got on the phone to The Bowling Green Daily Newspaper. He asked the advertising manager to help me get an internship so that i could gain some experience. Highland did hook me up, and I landed an internship working for Kent O'toole at the Daily News. I realized I had to find another school because, even though this is the best WKU could offer, I was still not excelling in my field. I am not going to say I didn't learn anything, because of course I did. I just wanted to expand my horizons and learn enough to be really successful in my field of study.

I felt that my academic counslors at WKU all 4 semesters were absolutely no help. I didnt like how I was treated and how my concerns were handled.

Student Body
Here's the thing about the student body: if you're looking to meet someone outside of Tennessee or Kentucky, forget about it. The only out-of-towners are probably the vast amount of real foreigners. I think most students are "hipped out" due to boredom and do what they can not to care. Tail gaiting at Western is not even about the football. Every one leaves when the game starts. Also, the cops get everyone off the grass in hopes to get them to the games, but really everyone just ends up leaving completly. The stadium is what most call "half ass" ... it's obvious no one goes to the games - that's why thay didnt bother buliding another side of stands! Also, the worst part is they put the only set of stands facing where the sun sets so you're always blinded by the sun.

In Closing...
Join Greek Life i suppose because they seem to be the only ones who dont care how boring the town is. I suppose it is because they have each other and they have people to force them to stay busy. There are definetely more girls than guys in the Greek system. But girls beware: there are not many good looking guys even in the "cool" frats or great at sports.

I just wanted to spill my guts on how awful Western is. I hope you get my point. I could go on forever about how I don't enjoy WKU, but for now I better stop!