Fort Valley State University Bookstore — Local services in Fort Valley

There are some very precious gems at this school and it does have its pros, but being brutally honest? Go somewhere else if you can afford it.

Pros: = The classes tend to be of small to mid sizes, the largest being around 30-40 people. This makes the teaching much more accessible as the professor is more able to address individuals' concerns. = Most professors are pretty good about being accessible, and the best ones will bend over backward to help you succeed as long as it's apparent that you want to do the work to make it happen. = If you don't like going to professors, or can't go at their stated offices hours, there are MANY services that offer free, excellent tutoring, such TRIO and the WIN reading and writing lab. = The agricultural and biology departments are pretty good. Most of the money - grants, scholarships, etc. is under the agriculture and biology majors.

Cons: = Like mentioned by others on here, financial aid is a disaster. If I went into detail about everything they screw up, I'd need enough space to write a novel. = Those wonderful professors? Cut. So many departments have been gutted and many professors have been let go in favor of cheaper hires that aren't as costly because they don't have the credentials and years of experience. = Don't bother trying to get a degree here for anything else other than something pertaining to agriculture or biology. Every other department is a joke, taught by only one or two decent professors or even offers a degree anymore. English, music, history majors? Gone. = Due to all those cuts, so many classes are now only available online, and let me tell you, most of them are crap. If you're lucky, you might get an ecore class, but the ones taught by FVSU aren't anywhere near as good. = It's not as cheap as they try to make it out to be. Every semester they take on more fees that can't be waived and previous fees just get larger. = Lastly, there's no stability whatsoever. With so many presidents, staff, and department changes, etc, you never know what will be offered and so many people had to change their majors in the middle of completing them. Which sucks because, the lower the quality of the school becomes, the more likely that, if you want to transfer, other schools won't accept credits from FVSU.

Seriously. If you live close by and just want to get your core classes out of the way, or for whatever reason, don't have other options, then sure, go here. Otherwise, you can do so...

I absolutely adore The Fort Valley State University and I am glad my daughter chose an HBCU that’s going to put on the top in the long run. I’m also glad she was able to get accepted in short notice. This school is very close knit and rock that school pride loudly. This isn’t your ordinary HBCU! I had a tour at this beautiful campus by an excellent tour Guide Ms. Wheeler. she is very personable and knowledgeable of the history and offers at the University. She took us on a ride on her golf cart around the entire campus in this nasty heat. She even gave my daughter some pointers being that my daughter had interest in the Mass Com field. She even answered my daughter personal question and was very elegant with her words and she is the model student as to how to act as a young lady while earning education here. I had a bad experience with Gillard or Gilyard who works in Carnegie. He does not appreciate his staff one bit and he was not attentive to our needs at all. He even told another staff to deal with us and walked off. So to me he’s just sitting behind his desk and collecting a check. Ms. Paige was very nice in the cashiers office and even went out of her way to help us get my daughters pass to park at her dorm. The president was really humble and a down to earth man. He actually believes in not just sitting in the office but actually getting out of the office...

My experience here was horrible. The financial aid process is a nightmare. Getting a response to your calls and emails is unheard of. They have a new president, so hopefully changes will be made, but I don't recommend attending for another 3 years to give him time to straighten out the infrastructure. I have had email professors 7 or 8 times asking for a response to my questions or concerns. I have a 3.3 gpa and have never received any recognition. Do yourself a favor and go somewhere else. Don't pay attention to the other ratings, they are old...