Today's Chattanooga Times Free Press examined retention issues at UTC, and we'd like to hear your stories.
Fellow students, what challenges do you face that make it difficult to stay in school?
Source: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/dec/01/once-staying-tough/?local
aristera on Dec. 2, 2009
Speaking personally, the fact that I am married with a two-year-old son and other priorities in my life. The fact that I have little to no time to actually focus on school makes me question why I am still going (at the same time, having a family is also a good motivating factor as to what has kept me in school). In my opinion, UTC is not very accommodating to older/transfer students. I technically have enough credit hours for a degree right now, yet I have nothing to show for it. I have had to basically repeat courses I took at my former college a few years ago because the numbers didn't match up or because the content was not similar enough to the courses offered here. When it seems like they're trying to drag your "college experience" on as long as possible simply to get more credit hours/$$ out of you, dropping out is always there in the back of your mind. I have heard other transfer students complain about UTC's lack of accommodation, and that could be a major contributing factor to its poor graduation rate.
kelseystokes21 on Dec. 2, 2009
There is nothing to do on campus on the weekends and even downtown, you have to be 21 to get into half of the places your friends like to go. Most freshmen, sophomores and some juniors are still under 21.
R P on Dec. 2, 2009
The problem with UTC is that it doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up. They are trying to be a sports school (bwahahaa), a "college experience" school, and a school that serves the community need for low cost bachelor and graduate educations all at once and it fails at it. Personally I 'd prefer the last option.
I will agree with Aristera that you will get nickel and dimed to death from fees and tuition on top of the fact It's almost impossible to live on campus and not go broke from housing and food. And what do you get for your money? Academic programs that are understaffed that makes it almost impossible to graduate in a timely manner because the upper level courses you need are only taught once a year one section only.
Buy hey, you have a new gym! Good thing we have that to attract the mouthbreathers that bounce out after a semester.
Evan Bissonette on Dec. 6, 2009
Thanks for you comments! These are all great points when it comes to the situation at UTC. Keep them coming! Let's expand, for example, with a follow-up. Do you think it is the administration's fault? Or the student's themselves?