Saint Ambrose University Top Questions

For some people it is frustrating that it doesn't have their exact major that they are looking for, but it is a small school and almost every year it is growing and adding more and more majors.

Balancing school with life commitments.

The courses that are offered are limited each semester, and if you don't get in when it is offered, you may need to wait until the following year to get take it. With limited information about the future semester course offerings, it is difficult to plan accordingly. This is made worse by not getting information on the new course's book requirements until 10 to 14 days prior to the day it starts. This does nto allow enough time to order the book and complete the precourse work that is required.

Any scholarships that a student receives from the school is capped. There is very little housing on campus, yet if a student decides to move off campus his/her scholarship is capped at about seven thousand dollars per year. This means that unless an individual has a lot of money, moving off campus is not an option. I have not been able to use the lounge in my dorm building because of students being forced to live in the dorms because there isn't enough housing, yet the students can't move off of campus.

The cost of tuition is pretty high. The school offers so many scholarships and grants for those living on campus but there is very little available for off campus students. Another downside of being an off campus student at St. Ambrose is the lack of parking available, even with the purchase of a parking sticker.

There is very little flexibility with rules. We can't move off of campus until we have junior status, and those who have a full scholorship have to stay on campus all four years (which means they're paying extra for a meal plan all four years, too). Dorm security is way too strict: no one of the opposite sex allowed on the opposite floor past 2 a.m. and visitors have to have a pass. After 7 p.m., the visitor has to have his/her host (of the same gender) with them to get into the building. ridiculous.

Finantial aid. many a time I thought I was covered I ended up owing some 5000 dollars or more by the end of the semester.

One bad thing about St. Ambrose is the fact that we are growing faster than we can accomodate. A new residence hall has been built each year for the past 3 years. Despite this, at least 30 students were in temporary housing last semester. Parking on campus is also an issue because there are too many cars and not enough spots.

The lack of new people frustrates me. It's the trade-off for going to a small school and if I did it over again I would not have chosen a small university. Our work out facilities are terrible and the school never brings any entertainment like concerts with well-known artists.

It's very expensive and a class in comparative religions gave false information about Muslim's.