Carthage College — Local services in Kenosha

If I could give this place 0 stars I would. Only go here if you want to be treated like a wallet and nothing else. I will give a lot of backstory so you can properly understand why I have such an opinion.

Coming in my Freshman year I was informed by my Freshman Advisor, Alejandro Medellin, that I had tested high enough in my Spanish proficiency test to not have to take any Spanish classes. The way it sounds, he told every Freshman he could that they could just not take the Spanish. I only found out my Junior year of college, while being a part of a completely optional group (peer coaching) during an optional meeting that what he informed us was actually wrong, and that we did need Spanish credits. Following that incident I took a 4000 level Carthage Symposium class that counted towards both Spanish and Humanities with the understanding that Carthage Symposium classes are capable of counting toward either of the subjects it was under. My senior year, after meeting with my advisor, I had been informed that this information, provided to me via 2 years of peer coaching and 1 year of freshmen advising, was actually wrong and that there needed to be very specific qualifications for it to count. I was lucky and was able to beg and send various emails to get my Spanish requirement waived during the Fall of my Senior Year.

My Freshman year I also took an introductory computer science class, taught by Perry Kivolowitz. The class had 2 imbedded tutors for it, and they made sure to show up to as many classes and were as available as possible. They made sure to let us know early on that the assignments we were doing were above the level of an introductory computer science class. They also had some issues as the assignments got more and more challenging as they were not provided any sort of assistance from the professor. They were having to figure out solutions that matched our knowledge on the fly, which meant they were typically only capable of figuring out 1 solution in general. Our tutoring sessions usually had about 10-15 students in them, all struggling to understand how to even begin the assignments. Our tutors would try to walk us through the assignments as best they could, but as they only knew of one way to solve them we were only able to get one type of solution. This became a problem when Professor Kivolowitz started to take off 15% from our homework grades if we had visited the tutors. So if you visited the tutors, then chances are you had working code that was similar to other people as there were only 2 tutors that had other responsibilities as well. On the flip-side of this Professor Kivolowitz was handing out 100% to anyone who had original code, even if it didn't work at all. So you could turn in an assignment with minimal coding, not even working, and still receive a 100% for the course overall. The tutors and students were upset about this, but the tutors also tried to discuss why this grading was wrong. He would not listen and stuck to taking 15% from any assignment if you had visited tutors.

My Sophomore year was pretty much the only good year I had at Carthage and I have to say "good" lightly at that.

In between my Sophomore and Junior year my dad got into a motorcycle accident and became paralyzed from the chest down. This comes into play when I include that he was the main income for my household and that the Carthage is insanely expensive so he was able to take some of the pressure away from paying the outrageous prices. I had appealed to the Carthage Financial Aide Office to get some sort of "emergency financial aid" as this was an unexpected event in our lives. Carthage decided that my dad being paralyzed from the chest down and being hospitalized from June 2019 - February 2020 was worth $2,000 of their time, which doesn't even cover a day in the hospital.

This was just in my first 2 years, I have more but I've hit my character limit so I will include it on a...

The student body is made up of 95% mute individuals (based on repeated observations of the systemic lack in in-class engagement and participation). Okay maybe they're not actually mute, but seriously, this college has a severe problem with its student body. I cannot in good conscious recommend this college to anyone attending college primarily for an education. A significant portion of learning in college comes from one's interaction with their peers, so it is essential to make sure the student body (in addition to the courses) challenges and inspires you. The faculty are forced by economic necessity to dumb down their classes so enough students can pass to sustain the college's finances (based on off-the-record conversations with over a dozen faculty members from a number of departments). A number of the classes are complete jokes, total blowoff classes (most likely to increase GPAs). Some, usually the smaller niche ones, are fantastic. If you do go here, befriending the professors is key.

The faculty are friendly, accessible, and highly qualified—even if some don't know how to make decent PowerPoint presentations. Class sizes are rarely above 20 students.

The campus is strikingly beautiful, but the interiors of some older buildings are quite underwhelming. The college doesn't skimp on landscaping.

The campus is also designed to isolate itself from the surrounding community. I see this as a negative, though certain kinds of parents might see this as a positive. The campus's walkability with Kenosha is properly poor. If you plan on frequenting the downtown, a bike or skateboard is a must.

The buildings aren't open 24/7 which is incredibly annoying.

Also it gets seriously cold in the winters. Bring a jacket.

It's a welcoming college for the politically conservative. It's not so good if you want a diverse student body.

I'd give it...

After 2.5 years, I had learned a lot from the professors who had studied abroad and came from different backgrounds. However, even after $45k a year and having small class sizes with one veteran professor.... they apparently need training in inclusion and diversity. If you’re not white and “well-off”, this school will suck and it will be hard to fit in or find anything that you can relate to. I was president of Latinos unidos and had one member, I was in Democrats at Carthage and fencing club... I met lots of great people. But overall, the campus has a huge issue with apathy and lack of support for anything that isn’t “traditionally white”. They simply don’t give a care about anyone else. Including the billing department that asked if the reason I was late on my payment was because I didn’t have a social security card... or my advisor speaking to me in Spanish and patronizing me when even my Spanish is horrible. Or being called out in international politics and asked if my father beat my mother because of “machista” culture... or my Spanish professor saying that I had no right to hate on historical events of colonialism or neo-colonialism because my name and last name is Spanish. Like I said, great professional services offered to you if you’re white... but if you want to spend that much money on your education; I recommend staying away from Carthage. There’s UW Madison or other great schools in Wisconsin or even better...