The University of Houston was my first state of a university. I chose this school because it was in Houston and that’s where I wanted to live. I also knew a lot of people that attended this school and they all had good things to say about it. I spent three years at this school working on my Bachelors of Arts degree in Communication with an emphasis on print journalism. Like any place there are bad and good qualities to it.

I’ll start out with the pros for the University of Houston. What I liked about this school was that not all of their classes were huge lecture halls, in fact the majority of classes that I attended there were small to medium size classes much like at a community college. Yes, it’s not the most recognizable school but I think it’s very underrated. The University of Houston offers many degree programs as well as graduate programs. There’s a lot that this school has to be proud but it gets overshadowed by the major schools like A&M, UT and even Rice, the pseudo Ivy league school in Houston.

Speaking as a Communication student I wouldn’t trade my experience here for any other school. I like that all of my professors have had real life experiences working in their field. They may not be professors but they know what they’re talking about because they’ve gone through the steps that their students are about to take in their career, they’ve struggled, succeeded and failed and have all that knowledge to share with their students. Many of my professors still work for the local city paper, have connections to local publications and media sources. My production teachers have worked in Hollywood, and have had many years of experience working in that business. One of the local news anchor even teaches a broadcasting class there. There’s an investigative reporter who works for the Houston Chronicle that offers a night course on investigative journalism. The school paper, which I wrote for, is one of only two college paper that’s solely run by students. On top of that
it’s won many awards over the years.

The business school at UH has been ranked as one of the best in the nation. Many great ballet dancers and performers have attended the art school there. The list goes on but because UH doesn’t measure up in sports it gets over looked. I find it sad that our society places so much emphasis on sports even at a college level, what ever happened to academics?

Aside from all of it’s accomplishments, UH is a pretty affordable university and it’s a great school for older students because it’s considered a commuter school. The school has quite a lot of older students, working students and international students. It stands out from other schools because the students are there to get what they need to succeed, they’re not there to party. Although the main UH campus is on Calhoun road there are several other campuses around Houston.

My only complaints about UH is that I wish they didn’t do the plus and minus letter grades, it can really screw with someone’s GPA. I also didn’t like the average of repeated courses, something that even UT doesn’t do. I also would have liked there to be more night classes, summer classes and shorter termed classes. I was very disappointed to find out that UH didn’t offer shorter termed classes.

Overall the University of Houston is great school. It may not be the most well known or recognized school in Texas but don’t let that fool you. In the end, grades won’t land you the job, heck, with this economy a degree won’t even guarantee you a job out of college. What you need is the right tools to survive and connections, with the faulty and staff at UH they’ll definitely gear you up with the tools you need to survive in the real world.

Rating: 9