Kennesaw State University — Attraction in Kennesaw

Attending this college was the biggest mistake of my life. Complete waste of time and money. I spent more time arguing with bureaucrats than attending classes.

Not only will they not help you get the classes you need, they’ll actively hinder you. The system students use for signing up for classes (called Owl Express when I was there) is fundamentally broken, and they will not fix it. They won’t even acknowledge that a problem exists. There was briefly a page for reporting problems, but it didn’t work either. If you email someone about it, you won’t get a reply.

When (not if) you have a problem signing up for a class, the only thing administrators will do is tell you to take another semester. Can’t sign up for a class with seats available because it’s “full”? Take another semester. There aren’t enough labs seats available to cover the lecture class? Take another semester. Unknown error? Take another semester.

The unknown error is the worst of them. If you get an unknown error while trying to sign up for a class, you need to transfer out immediately as you will never get that class. I got that error my second semester and every subsequent semester until I escaped. No one that worked there was willing to do anything about it, they wouldn’t even acknowledge that it happened. All they would do is tell me to take another semester.

It should be noted that taking another semester means paying tuition again. Every semester you take means more money for them and more debt for you. So obviously they won’t help students graduate, it’s more profitable not to.

Another problem is priority registration. A good college lets students register earlier and earlier as they progress so that they can more easily get the classes they need. Not KSU. KSU uses priority registration as a reward for participating in certain programs. The only time I got it was when I did peer leadership, but I never got it because I needed it. So as you progress through your required classes, it actually gets harder and harder to get classes you need as there are fewer options left.

The problems are so bad I had to CHANGE MAJORS so I could graduate before my financial aid ran out. Even then I couldn’t get one of the two classes I needed to graduate. My last half-semester I had to wait three days before I could sign up for classes, and by then one of them was full. I sent a help e-mail asking if anything could be done and, surprise, they told me I’d just have to take another semester.

That was my last semester, and they still told me to take more. Even if I could afford to keep taking classes, it had taken so long to even get to that point that my earlier credits were about to expire. I was out of money, I was out of financial aid, I was out of time, and they still refused to help. They bled me dry and they were still trying to take more. They took everything, and it wasn’t enough for them.

Anyone who has experience with customer service has probably heard the phrase, “I understand that you’re upset.” Customer service workers are taught to recite this in order to feign empathy. You won’t get that at KSU, because they don’t care enough to fake empathy. They don’t understand that you’re upset, and they don’t care. They don’t even care enough to pretend to care. They hold all of the cards, there’s nothing you can do about it, and they know it. Their one solution for everything is to tell you to give them more money.

I’d like to draw attention to the fact that everything I’ve written is only about registering for classes. There are lots of terrible thing about attending this school, but for this review I chose to only focus on the most basic requirement of being a university. This is just one problem of many.

DO NOT attend this university. Don’t attend, don’t work there, don’t even date someone that attends. If you’re even thinking about attending, I can save you the trouble by summarizing the main lesson of this school in a single sentence: Bureaucrats would rather ruin your life than spend a single second...

I want to share my experience at the Norman J. Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences. I enrolled in the PhD program in International Conflict Management in August 2023 but had to leave after four months due to encountering racism and anti-Palestinian attitudes, which made the environment very unwelcoming. Here’s what happened:

As a PhD student in International Conflict Management, I wrote an op-ed essay on October 2023, which was published on the Middle East Monitor website about the conflict in Palestine. Two days later, the school asked for my permission to post the essay on the school’s LinkedIn page. It was posted but lasted only seven hours before being deleted due to concerns about donor influence on knowledge policy. I mention this to highlight the need to address academic freedom and the relationship between struggle and study, especially in a world where theories can be selectively opened and closed.

The next day, the school director informed me that the article was deleted due to safety concerns raised by a major donor of the Norman J. Radow College. To understand how a donor's comment led to the deletion of an op-ed on a conflict topic in a conflict management school, I had numerous conversations with the school’s director, dean, and student affairs dean, and I also contacted the provost's office to discuss academic freedom in the PhD program. Despite these efforts, almost nobody paid enough attention to the role of donors. However, the college dean did ask if I wanted her to facilitate my departure after I informed the program of my intention to leave. Higher education needs to be decolonized, especially if one cannot write about critical topics like Haiti, Palestine, and Kashmir in a conflict management school.

KSU affects knowledge quality and recipients based on gender, class, race, and sexuality. The negative impact of commercializing education, which leaves many students struggling to meet basic needs and maintain a decent quality of life, is particularly felt by students from BIPOC communities (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). Significant issues include student debt, health insurance costs, housing, campus activities, the student acceptance process, and diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. These factors disproportionately affect BIPOC students, placing them in disadvantageous positions and often forcing them to leave their programs.

My experience demonstrated how heavily the university's policies are influenced by big donors, creating an unwelcoming environment for PhD students to learn and innovate. During my four months in the program, I had to switch accommodations nine times between different hotels and Airbnbs due to housing issues, which no one seemed willing to address. As an international student, I couldn’t secure housing because landlords required a credit history, two months' rent as a security deposit, or a guarantor, none of which I could provide. This renting policy results in social sorting, leaving marginalized communities like international students and people of color struggling with housing. I contacted the graduate school about this issue, but no one responded to my queries. Financially, the situation was dire, as the stipends provided to graduate students were insufficient to meet basic needs.

This university is broken. I witnessed a deeply racist incident against a Black classmate, and no staff or faculty member addressed the issue. Students had to mediate the dispute after the school director stepped down. Even some faculty members admitted that one of the biggest challenges KSU students face in finding a job is the school’s name. Such negative energy is disheartening.

This is my own experience, and I hope yours will be better. However, my advice is, if you have other options, save your time and do not attend KSU or join the Norman J. Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences. The quality of education is more important than the...

Going to KSU has been a great experience for me. My freshman year I struggled financially because my family’s income changed. The KSU financial aid office did a great job of helping me get financial aid even though I was already halfway through the semester. Many of the reviews for this university should be taken with a grain of salt. To start off parking is in high demand. It’s your responsibility to get there at a reasonable time to be able to find good parking. Don’t expect to get to campus right before your class starts and immediately find parking, when there are constantly people coming in and out of the parking garage at the same time. The school of nursing is notoriously hard to get into, you should know this before applying, and know what you’re getting into. If you can’t buckle down and get into the program, you should consider looking elsewhere to get your degree. Freshman that live on campus usually have to spend the most amount of money. KSU requires freshman to live on campus, and to have a meal plan. However they do provide financial aid for those who cannot afford to pay for this on their own. The commons sells a $5 dollar reusable tray that you pay for once every semester (if you want to) so that you can come to the commmons and take some food to go everytime you come. The meals plans are pricey, but you should keep in mind the commons at KSU is one of the highest rated as far as university commons go, and it’s basically a buffet. Kennesaw also has free tutoring resources available to help students who are struggling in their classes. There are so many other resources available at KSU at the student center such as an international center for international students, a center for older students, and an lgbtq center. KSU also offers students the chance to speak with counselors if they are overwhelmed or struggling. The library also offers students laptop rentals if the computer labs are full. KSU has various career fairs throughout the year for a variety of majors, and there are always events going on an both campuses that offer free food and often times free shirts and other items. There are shuttles on KSU that will take you to Walmart and the mall if you are a student that does not have access to transportation. I have never had a terrible experience at KSU, and especially nothing that I would think would merit giving KSU a one star review. I have been here for three years, and have nothing but good things to say about my...