The University of Houston

Economics department is terrible- faculty couldn't get a job anywhere else and don't care about teaching. They don't understand the difference between something being busy work and something being hard. Also, completely out of touch with the real world or what motivates people. The department operates in a shell that has no interaction with the other departments on campus. Racist, sexist and ageist beliefs were openly expressed by several faculty, and there was a great deal of victim shaming and inappropriate sharing/boundaries regarding students. Administrative staff throughout UH is on the whole atrocious- you're just a number, and most seem annoyed that they have to interact with you at all. No one is looking out for you, and there is no way to resolve any issues with finances/pay or poor treatment. In dealing with the parking office, I don't think I've ever met more self-absorbed, people hating employees. Also, the school only cares about sports, the engineering department and the business school. If you are not directly involved in any of these programs- GO TO ANY OTHER SCHOOL IN HOUSTON/TEXAS/ANYWHERE!

2nd Year Female -- Class 1925

Surrounding City: C, Education Quality: F

Really hard to get by when you have tons of professors in the science/engineering classes who don't speak English well. Resources offered by UH are great but this school still has a long way to go. I'm only here because it's close to my home. If anything I would've attended UT.

3rd Year Male -- Class 1920

Surrounding City: A-, Faculty Accessibility: D-

The good: UH is still accredited so you can get a degree. The math department is better than most of the other NSM departments, at least for the first two years of math. Higher level math courses have problems with consistency, and with quality instructors.

The bad: The University does not make any effort to provide a quality education to the students. Course evaluations are not part of a quality improvement or assurance program. Course evaluations are only viewed by the professor.

A few professors are so unprofessional they should not be permitted to speak to any students.
Many professors are engaged in research and are not interested in teaching. In these cases they rely heavily on student teaching assistants. TA's will create and grade assignments and tests without oversight from the professor, or the department. A third of you class time can be spent with a TA that may not even speak to the class for more than five minutes. TA that could not teach a class on tying your shoes outside of the university are inappropriately teach a university level course that awards credit.

Most professors, including the few that make a sincere effort to teach, are simply not prepared to teach a course. Most have never taught in an environment that is designed to develop their ability to teach, or to develop and improve a specific curriculum. The departments do not observe the professors, therefore corrective action of any form is impossible. The departments do not support faculty in any meaningful way, and do not make an effort to improve the courses of instruction. Therefore you can have an instructor that has been teaching for several years, but is no better at teaching than they were when they taught their first course ever. That said I ave had two courses taught by an an instructor that had just finished a Masters, and is teaching a university level course, but has never had even the most basic introduction to teaching, to developing a lesson plan, and they are not given guidance from the university.

Often computer science courses, that require the use of a computer during the class time, are placed in rooms without computers, without power outlets and without desks. TAs write assignments that are not proofread before they are given, so they contain many errors. When you write a program, it may work on 13 of 15 hidden bench tests, so it is impossible to know if the test case had errors, if it being graded correctly, or what if anything you did wrong. So there is no way to learn because you do not know what you did wrong or what the test even was. UH policy actually requires that the student be given the opportunity to view their graded coursework and see the test, but the TA refuses largely because they do not know any better, and the professor is there to do research, and not to teach.

Most professors are approachable with respect to their demeanor, but they are simply not good at teaching and do not have the support needed to to help them become good at teaching.

2nd Year Male -- Class 1920

Collaboration/Competitive: A, Education Quality: F