Western Michigan University — Local services in Kalamazoo

I'm a 5th year senior this year at wmu and wish I'd chosen a different school to transfer to after my 2 years at kvcc. I mainly chose western because living at home was the cheapest thing to do at the time, but I never expected it to be this bad.

It is a party school, so if you live at surrounding apartments or dorms, always wear shoes outside when walking to your car or anything else. Usually, there is glass everywhere.

Parking is super expensive with little parking spots for actual students, who by the way, are not allowed to park at parking meters if there aren't any spots to make it to class on time. If you end up going to western and want to find parking, leave for class 30 minutes to an hour early. Also, be careful driving around campus, especially in the parking lots, which students seem to be fine with whipping through as fast as they can.

Teachers aren't very adequate. There are some who are engaging and actually care about how you're doing in class, but most could care less if you pass or fail, as long as they get their paycheck. Some professors are really smart, but are boring and don't know how to teach the material. Also, most teachers will specify that the most reliable way to get ahold of them is via email, but I've had maybe 3 profs so far that have been quick and helpful with responding, all my other profs don't frequently check emails or just don't email you back at all, resulting in you asking them "did you get my email?" like an idiot the next class period you have with them.

If you do end up going to western, I would take Mark Orbe and Randy Ott. I loved both of these professors.

There are a lot of teachers I didn't really care for, but the worst are Katherine Propp and Onaiwu Ogbomo. Especially Onaiwu Ogbomo. All this professor does is copy facts from the texts and liters powerpoint slides with paragraphs upon paragraphs of text he reads word for word in a monotone voice, on top of his Nigerian accent. He is sometimes hard to understand and makes class very boring. He seems to be as unenthused as the students are to be there listening to his lecture.

Moving onto financial aid and what western calls "bronco express". They absolutely suck. If you're like a normal American student and have to take out loans, go through someone else. This is only my second time taking out a loan from them. The first I didn't have to worry about them splitting up between fall and spring semester because I ended up taking out my first loan in spring of last year. This year is a whole different story. Like I said, I am a senior and am planning to graduate after next semester. What wmu does is split up the federal loans you qualify for between both fall and spring, therefore I did not have enough to cover my fall classes because they won't let you put all of your loan money on just one semester. Soooo, my parents filed for a parent plus loan, which was denied because if something doesn't apply to you on the loan application, you're supposed to write "n/a" instead of leaving it blank.....which no one stopped to tell me when a bronco express employee was entering our application into the system right in front of me. They are EXTREMELY unorganized and uninformative. I've called multiple times the last week to see if the loan was processed and each time I was told "no", only to find out a week later, that it was denied the previous week. On top of them being slow and unhelpful, every time you go in to see someone, there is ALWAYS one or two people working, the rest are talking or ignore the students standing in line. Yes, I know they have other things to do, BUT helping students should be first priority. But....at WMU, the students don't seem to be a first priority in general.

I'm so ready to leave this school. That is, if I can find a way to pay the rest of my tuition off in time to register for spring classes so I can...

Western Michigan University has a lot of lovely amenities, and it is in a wonderful city. Kalamazoo, MI, is not too large, nor is it too small, making it a great transition for someone from a large city or a small town into the college lifestyle. There are several groups that one may join while attending Western, and there are several incredible programs such as their Medieval Studies Master's program, their engineering programs, their aeronautical programs, their acting/arts programs, and they have recently added a medical school.

However, WMU is a party school, and the carelessness has shown in the buildings' interiors and exteriors. The dorms are the absolute worst. Living in a very small room with another person is already difficult, but much more difficult when you share a bathroom with two other people and your walls are made of blocks similar to what you see in prison movies. The rules are ridiculous. As a full grown adult, you are not allowed to have people of the same sex stay with you overnight, and if your RA finds out that you did, that person can be blacklisted and not even allowed in your building at all.

During the tours/visitations, they will show you the new buildings, but do not be fooled. It is unlikely you will be in those buildings often, unless your major's classes are held in them. The outside of Dunbar Hall looks like a prison, and it is not much better inside. This is where a number of English, foreign language, and history classes are held. Being a history major, I spend all of my time in this building. It is depressing. My low budget, rural high school of eight hundred students, placed in a cornfield, has nicer classrooms than the classrooms I have had during my time at Western. New Sangren and Brown are lovely, but Knauss, Dunbar, Rood, and Old Sangren are in dire need of a makeover. Considering how much students pay to be here, keeping the buildings clean and welcoming should not be majorly difficult. While there are many wonderful, caring professors, their work becomes muddled due to the university's carelessness for the interior of its buildings.

Western Michigan University has also recently cut its foreign language departments, firing or threatening the careers of many of its professors. Some of the best professors I have had have been in that department, and they have gotten rid of them, despite having many loyal students that continued to take their courses.

They are also not very good at updating things. 90% of the classes mentioned on the website that were applicable to my minor are not even classes anymore and are to never be offered again. They were not offered three years ago when I was a freshmen and they still are not offered now. When I asked the head of that department what classes I should take, he simply instructed me, "Take classes with the word 'medieval' in them." How helpful.

Outside of the university, things are not much better. This is a party school. While rent is low, it is very difficult to find places with decent living conditions. My boyfriend and I were able to find ONE apartment complex out of the dozens that we felt would have suitable living conditions for having animals and not wanting to live with other roommates or in a bad neighbourhood. It took us three and four years to finally find someplace that we felt was acceptable.

Western is a great school if you are looking for the college experience, and you will likely meet some great professors here. However, if you are trying to stay away from party schools and your environment really matters to you, I would consider re-evaluating...

I got my undergrad at Western before eventually getting my MBA at Michigan in 2013. While I didn't have the biggest expectations for Western, I was continually let down by both the counseling staff and Teaching staff. 85% of the students and even some of the teachers, seemed to be more concerned with getting wasted rather than actually preparing them for a career (seriously a prof would come in hung over everyday). I originally was in their health administration program and their HFHS program was a COMPLETE AND UTTER JOKE. Half the teachers were clearly there just for minority hires and were bar none some of the stupidest people I have ever met and most other actually qualified professors were clearly more interested in their research than actually helping students. The hard science classes were ok but overall I had a more challenging time in my public highschool than at Western. This is not an exaggeration. My 11th grade chemistry class was more difficult and strenuous than WMU's 3000 level course.

With that being said it is not all bad should one not have the grades to initially get into a big 10 school in Michigan and are looking to take cheap courses your first two years before transferring. WMU's business and OT programs are both very good, far better than Western's overall tier suggests. The same goes for Engineering. In addition, they offer many masters programs that are well received as well as (formerly) being a good party school with a strong greek campus. Also, there is a surprisingly good Alumni association here, mainly due to Stryker's influence, who recruits a lot from WMU. Besides that though this school is a waste of time. If you're going into sales or finance Western is a good alternative to MSU if you are cash strapped but besides that, and a few health programs, it's a waste.

In short: Consider going to this school if you are going into: Higher level Business and need a cheap undergrad, engineering, Nursing, Occupational Therapy or aviation. In addition, if you have rich parents and goofed off in HS western is a good party school to get an easy 4 year degree from so you can end up working for your parents. A large percentage of kids from the West Bloomfield/Northville/Rochester Areas seemed to go there just as a participation degree before getting hooked up by rich mommy and daddy.

Do not consider this school if you: don't like retards (accounts for approximately 80% of the population), have any school pride, want a big school experience, don't like remedial classes dumbed down for the Kalamazoo promise kids, or just plain have the financial means and credential to go to MSU or UofM...