Point Park University

When discussing my years in college I always have mixed emotions; did I have a terrible college experience, no. Did I think I got the best of my four years, no. I am always left to wonder, what happened during those years?
As a freshman, living on the 20^th floor of Lawrence Hall, formally the Sherwyn Hotel, I got my first I guess, real taste of independence. The floors were coed and still are. You’re living right downtown, which in 2001, wasn’t that exciting, but still– you’re living right in a city. After a year I moved out, rented and furthered my need for independence so at least college taught me how to adult.
At the time, Point Park was still going through te transition from college to university; spending tons of money constructing new sites, updating old ones and making it look unlike anything I have been accustomed too. Basically a face life. Some said lipstick on a pig, I’m not sure. The place looks great. And now has so many buildings as opposed to when I had gone and it was literally two buildings which was much like my high school experience.
The true complaint I have of the college/​university is the readiness of the real world in terms of educating you in your field. So many classes felt like blow off classes and it’s not as if the school is cheap. I still have the loans to prove it, but I could probably count on one hand the amount of non major specific classes I took that I actually learned from. And that’s not many at all.
As a broadcast journalism major, I did feel as if those teachers did have the educational background to help me succeed. If interested in that field of study, then yes, I recommend you inquiring about the university.
What are you going to do, you know? Yeah, I got my degree in four years. Yeah, I’m s high functioning adult. Did my schooling help me? I don’t know? Could I have gone somewhere cheaper and be in the same place? Maybe. Did the musical theater students drive me crazy acting like they were in Glee before Glee even existed? Oh. My. God. Yes. I guess I take it for what it’s worth. I made some friends, work connections and hey, I have a job, a career rather, not necessarily what I had gone to school for, but I’m happy. So in the end I guess it was worth it?

I attended Point Park from Fall 2006 until Spring 2009 and my academic experience there was, for the most part, mediocre at best. I was a psychology major, so choosing Point Park at all was honestly my first mistake. I was astounded by how few psychology courses were being offered at a time, and as early as my sophomore year I felt like I was being forced to take child psychology classes that I didn’t actually need for any real reason because I’d already taken all the general psych being offered in a given semester and I was panicking about how I was going to get all of those credits in four years. After three years, however, I took a medical leave. This was supposed to grant me two years from that point to return without any fear of consequence, and I carefully followed all of the instructions in doing so, which I must have done well because they signed off on it and sent me confirmation. However, a mistake must have been made on their end because when I did inquire about returning to school, which I did before my two years was up, I was told I couldn’t move forward because my loans had been sent to a collection agency. Yes, even though I’d followed all of their rules and should therefore never have had to worry about this, my loans had not only activated but had already been sent to the dreaded debt collectors. When I tried to stress that this must be a mistake because of what I’ve already said here, they simply told me it was out of their hands and there was nothing they could do.
So, basically, unless you’re going for something they strongly specialize in, you might want to consider another school. And if you do choose Point Park for whatever reason, you’d better make sure don’t need to take a medical leave.