do the professors teach well and give personalized attention to students? do you feel like you have actually been taught or that you do most of the work on your own?
Make no mistake -- Arizona is a big school. I'm a junior there right now and decided I wanted to move back east towards my home in PA for pharmacy school, so I'm headed to Temple. I've really loved my time here. Most of the undergrad classes, especially gen. ed. courses, are really large and hard to get personal attention in, but I think that's the case at most places. As you take more specialized classes, the class size decreases, but you'll quickly notice the same faces in all of the health field pre-requisites.
Tucson itself isn't the most exciting city. There's plenty of restaurants and shopping and all that junk. On the weekends, most people just party. Football and basketball games are a pretty huge deal here and have been one of the things I enjoyed most. Especially with Sean Miller leading U of A to their second golden age of west coast dominance
😀 (you'd see it in your time here).
Another plus is housing. Tons and tons and tons of off-campus housing, all really close to campus. It's a city with a close-knit and small-town feel. All of the off-campus housing is very affordable, and my rent for my own bedroom and bathroom in a 4 bedroom house 0.75 miles from campus is $425, versus paying $600-700 for most dorm rooms these days. Like someone else had mentioned, the city is pretty liberal, especially compared to the folks in Phoenix. Just look up "Baja Arizona"
🙄 -- you'll see what I mean.
The financial aid has been good for me too. Tuition has gone up over 30% since I was a freshman, but my financial aid has also increased each year, though this is probably the most expensive year so far. It's awesome they're offering you a free iPad. I'm in the Honors College and definitely didn't get anything that cool for it. Especially unfair because they just started charging a $500 annual fee for being an honors student.
The school gets ridiculous amounts of research funding and it's easy to get involved with professors on campus as an undergrad. Gives you good experience and looks great to the pharmacy school, not to mention a solid rec. letter. The pharmacy school is supposed to be top-notch as well. Consistently ranked in the top 10, so I've heard. One of the perks of not being a 0-6 program is the freedom to change your mind. It might not seem like you want to do anything else right now, but you might take organic chemistry or microbiology or something and totally change your mind.
And did I mention the weather?
😎 My advice is to try and visit each place, but that's pretty expensive, so asking here is probably your next best option.
