Harris-Stowe State University — Attraction in St. Louis

Update 3years post grad I (obviously) am no longer engaging regularly with the university, but I can say with confidence things have improved quite a lot. The student body and housing accomodations have grown drastically, The offices are better organized to help student, and the effort to increase student engagement has been greatly successful. Because I have been out for some time and hiring top tier professors can be difficult at a smaller place like HSSU, I cannot speak to whether or not staff has grown or the quality of growth, but many professors that I was fond of are still there and are still doing their best for as many students as they can.

OLD Some things are quite sub par in some offices, but they always (at least as of late with newer hirees) do their best to help with your issues. Sometimes you can get the run around but theres a number of golden individuals who talk to the right people for you and get you what you need. I studied biology here and everyone in that department is great and does their utmost to push students and help them be competitive with top universities like SLU and WASHU. The classes are small and the facilities are... minamalistic, one might say. However, that could be for better or for worse depending on your schooling preferences. In my opinion this is a good thing, particularly because of the price. All tuition and fees (which includes your books for the semester) is 5820/year for up 16 credit hours/semester. I think that price increases by 3000 for out of state students. Housing is a bit more costly. About $10,000 I think, per year but this is pretty standard and the rooms are rather nice. In the gillespie dorms, there are 4 people to a suite, but everyone gets their own room, which is quite a luxury. There are washing/drying and exercise facilities; however, since my last time there, laundry was not free as well as the facilities were not great, and the exercise room was not usable. That said the new personell have made a lot of changes in one year, but I haven't been there to see the results of them. Lastly the dorms have a very nice, conveniently located computer lab(gillespie), bookstore(gillespie), and dining...

I wish I would have attended a different university. Unfortunately, this administration DOES NOT care for their students. They make us wait 2-3 months just to receive OUR refund money which students use mainly to pay their bills and make sure they’re able to make it school. NO OTHER UNIVERSITY IN MISSOURI DOES THIS BUT HARRIS STOWE. They have an emergency assistance program but they wait 1-2 months just to let you know whether they’re going to assist you or not. The administration acts as if they’re just there for a paycheck rather than assisting students. If you’re not a known student administrators are reluctant to help you. Activity fees are included in the tuition BUT THEY STILL CHARGE STUDENTS FOR THE ACTIVITIES ON CAMPUS. If you wanted to save $300-400 on books by using Cheggs or another company you can’t because they automatically charge you the cost of books in your tuition which should be a decision that students make. I could go on and on about...

I was very briefly interested in the daycare on the campus until I received incredibly rude and unacceptable service from a male answering the daycare phone. Earlier I had spoke to someone who seemed okay and was willing to transfer me to the accounting dept to inquire about cost. Later in the afternoon, a particular person refused to transfer me like the previous person did and said to call the operator. So I called the operator and asked for the accounting dept for the daycare and she transferred me back to the same rude male employee answering the daycare phone. I decided that if i cannot even get through to the dept that I need to speak to, on at least 2 occasions, then why would I ever trust them with a child?! Will never recommend to anyone! Save yourself the headache and hassle from dealing with miserable people who hate their job at the college and daycare and go...