CUNY--Baruch College | Student Reviews | Best College

Student Profile

boomiehastoes

Class: Junior
Major: Journalism
Gender: F

High School: High School for Environmental Studies
Transfer Student: N

Big Picture

Because Baruch is part of the CUNY system, people who are unfamiliar with the school are unimpressed. However, people who know that Baruch is the best of the CUNYs react nicely. I spend most of my time at Baruch outside of the main building at the tables they have set up, or in the BPAC (Baruch Performing Arts Center). The best thing about Baruch is the staff. The professors are wonderful and knowledgeable and super helpful. The unfortunate part of Baruch is that it has no sort of "campus" atmosphere. Everything is very solitary, making it difficult for students to get to know each other. There is barely any school pride, the sporting events aren't really taken seriously (aside from the players). The most frequent student complaints are the elevators/escalators. The main elevators only stop on floors 2, 5, 8, and 11. at 2:30 on a monday afternoon it is nearly impossible to get to your class on the 13th floor unless you arrive 20 minutes early and don't mind waiting for an elevator for 15 of those minutes. The escalators only go up to the 5th floor, and they are ALWAYS broken. There is almost a 0% chance of getting all working escalators up to the 5th floor. because they're broken, there's always congestion of people trying to walk up and down the same escalator. We have express elevators hidden on the 1st floor, but even though not everyone knows about them or uses them, there's always a long line to wait. And the elevators are really small, so they don't even hold many people. Baruch has a beautiful library, but it's very hard to find any material within it.

Academic Life

The professors of the smaller classes learn names, but within a 500 seat lecture class, they don't get around to it. Which is understandable. Class participation is common, especially in classes with a higher opinion base, such as Anthropology or Philosophy. My least favorite class has been my English 2150 class. It was supposed to be a writing class, but we did barely any writing. Some classes at Baruch are like that. The course descriptions do not match up with the actual courses at all, which is very disappointing. Students don't seem to study much, and don't take classes too seriously. A lot of Baruch is like high school all over again. The education at Baruch is a lot more geared towards learning for its own sake, which is not necessarily a bad thing, however i would prefer to obtain some real-life knowledge as well.

Student Body

Many of the students come to work wearing a suit and tie. Casual students, who aren't always dressed to impress, would feel very uncomfortable there. Also, students with low incomes might feel left out as well. Students often discuss money and jobs that they have and that they will have one day. Students from Baruch are from all over the world, which is very interesting. Baruch is considered the most diverse school in the country, and it is interesting to get to know students from places I've only dreamed of. Students who are openly politically aware seem to be mostly conservative. One of the tables in the dining hall would be filled with business men, suits and ties, quietly eating sandwiches while talking on their cell phones, using their computers, and completely ignoring each other. Another table would consist of girls talking about spending the evening in the local bar, or going to a party later that night, but not actually eating anything. The third table would be some more business students, perhaps talking a little more, maybe discussing their new brief cases or the stock market. The final table would be the few students with a bit of a personality, the english majors and the liberal arts majors, maybe a few students from the school newspaper, telling funny stories or sharing food.