Hofstra University Top Questions

The best thing about Hofstra is that I actually feel like I'm in college. I transferred from a school in PA and it seemed very childish and high schoolish. I would absolutely change the administration. The people who work at the school are so nasty. My advisor is extremely rude. 90 percent of the people who I have talked to to try and figure out a problem are so obnoxious and think they run the world because they have a PhD. The size of the school is fine for me, but that's really something everyone has to decide for themselves. People say "it's a good school". Basically, love the school, love the classes, but the people who work there in the offices and some of the advisement are nasty, nasty, nasty.

The best thing about Hofstra for me is New College, which, for all intense and purposes, doesn't exist anymore. The division was modeled after Oxford's New College, and focus' on interdisciplinary learning and meaningful discussion based classes, something that is harder to come by at Hofstra's main campus. Classrooms are smaller, and students and professors develop a more personal relationship, which I found tremendously helped the learning processes. All the professors of the different fields of study have office's in the same building, so a real communal atmosphere is built, so students can just drop by and talk. New College also cut out much of the cooperate bureaucracy that is so prevalent in the main administration's, taking a more human interest. This structure was especially helpful for me as a creative writing major, as those classes were structured around in depth feedback-based workshops. New College also attracted on average a more intellectual, freethinking student body than main campus. However, as I said before, Hofstra has pretty much disbanded New College as I knew it, and I am just being grandfathered through the program. If I were to change one thing, I would change President Rabinowitz. He's a smarmy little shit with no sense of humor, who also has no interest in students. For example, he makes $800,000, and the only things he's improved about Hofstra are superficial things you can show families on campus tours. We have a redesigned cafeteria that looks like the inside of a cheesy 1950s space ship. It might look cool and futuristic to outsiders, but to actually eat there is terrible. First of all, he seats are bolted into the floor far enough away from the table that you have to stretch to each. There are violently florescent lights which poke out of the tables, blocking your view of friends and blinding you to boo. Plus, they removed handicapped seating. Those students now have to eat in the back. Also, my shower walls are peeling paint. I could go on, but I can't write this thing forever. The town is terrible. Hempstead is literally a ghetto, and I would not recommend walking around at night. People have medium to positive reactions when i tel hem I go to Hofstra.

Hofstra...let's you try anything once. I'd change the administration. The school is a good size - about 12,000 with 4,000 on campus and I'd say roughly the same amount living nearby campus and the rest either from Hempstead or commute from Brooklyn or Queens. People actually seem to respect hofstra. I spent most of my time on campus in my room, in my friends room, or roaming the campus causing mischeif. There is no college town - it really is a ghetto. We had the locals pull guns on us, there is theiving, we had a pistol whipping. The area sucks. Hofstra's administration does not make up for the ghetto town. There is so much paper to get anything accomplished that it takes about half a year to do anything. If you are looking for administration that cares - I would suggest going elsewhere. The biggest controversy on campus was how to stay safe when going out. Pretty much. I don't know. Wasn't big into the caring of campus issues. Some people have school pride, some don't. There is a HUGE fan section for our basketball team (one of the few things we are good at here)...so there is pride there. When compared to all campuses Hofstra is unique. When compared to Long Island - Hofstra is very typical. We have a large number of people from Long Island here (learn about them before coming)...with a large portion from Queens here as well. There are lots of out of area people here too...but the Long Island presence is felt strongly. What you imagine as an annoying frat kid is probably a good depiction of the average Long Island guy. I will always remember the good times I spent with my best friend that I met (she was from Texas...so not everyone's local). The most frequent student complaints are the laxatives put into the food as preservatives (I've been told thats almost at every college though), the lack of good administration, and the fact that you might get knocked out, pulled a gun at, or pistol whipped when you walk down the street toward the bar on Friday.

Best thing about Hofstra would hands down have to be the small class sizes in a relatively large school. It guarantees personal time with the professors and helps tailor classes to students specific needs. I don't find the advisement at Hofstra, or half the staff, to be too friendly, but it's still easy to get around the unpleasant ones. I think Hofstra is a perfect size, not scary huge that whole towns are devoted to the school (PENN state), but not teeny tiny either. More recently, Hofstra's reputation has increased so people are generally to mildly impressed when they hear I attend. I spend most of my time in my car (I commute) or in the various cafes on campus. Hempstead is known to be a relatively high crime area, so I wouldn't refer to it as a college town by any means--except maybe the strip of bars right near Hofstra.

The Hofstra Career Center is one of Hofstra's most undervalued resources. The career center helps students find internships during school and place them in a job after graduation. For students who may not know what they want to do, they offer career counseling services to figure out what you want to do in life. For students who know what they want to do, but may not know how to go about it, there are services. They offer seminars on resume writing, interviewing, interview dress, and more. The online recruitment site offers hundreds of job/internship listings. The Career Center is a great resource! Hofsta has a beautiful campus. The 240 acre campus is a national arboretum. We have over 350 different plant types on campus. In the spring we have almost 100,000 tulips blooming all over campus; they are absolutely gorgeous. The grassy courtyards are perfect for outdoor studying. Walking around campus with beautiful things to look at make school a very pleasant atmosphere.