Going to UEA set me back a year...

First of all if you’re female, black, asian, LGBTQ+, or any combination of all of those things- save your sanity and avoid this school. Racism, sexual assault/harassent, and some homophobia are all too common here. Only in my year(2017-2018) did the school finally create a “never ok” campaign to combat sexual assault and harassment, but the campaign fails to cover racism and homophobia(even though it is supposed to cover general harassment). When it comes to even reporting sexual assault, know that it is hard. There are no instructions on who to talk to or where to go when it happens. Security on campus are pretty hard to talk to considering they can barely make eye contact with you?

Mental healthcare on campus is also a bust. It takes about a month to get an appointment with a counselor(if you even come to try and get help, your mental health is already in a serious position and to wait another month?). Living in the Ziggarauts amongst younger students I have seen some sad/ disturbing stuff. I do worry for students here because there is little to no support for them mentally or academically.

Now to academics, if you are in sciences- just run away. You dont get any of your grades until a month after you turn in assignments and there are no extra credit/make up assignments for if you did worse than expected-so you’re screwed( same logic applies to exams I took in may and still dont have my grades- its JULY). There are no tutors or academic support for sciences here and most advisors are pretty unhelpful/do the bare minimum to help you. Unfortunately, most science students here act like we’re all competing for a single degree so they wont work/study with you. Aside from that hot mess of a lab, I did meet a few kind and friendly lab professors and associates who actually answered my questions, were helpful, and very supportive when I told them about the blatant discrimination in that one horrible lab. It seems like the professors here are hard to talk to at first, but if they get to know you as a person, they are SUPER helpful and supportive. A handful of the professors here want to help you succeed, the other half and more so researchers who are horrible at teaching so be prepared to teach yourself from the start. Another pet peev of mine here at UEA is the fact that 90% of lectures are extremely boring, monotone, and not very engaging. Professors get angry when students dont show up to lecture but they read their slides word for word! Only a few lecturers ask students questions during class and get us involved in discussions so we actually digest and piece together what we learned( S/O to Cell Biology for being the most engaging and relatively enjoyable class for me). At my home university, iclickers, quiz questions, and other methods are used to get students involved but for some odd reason, most science lecturers avoid this(not the same for other majors like economics and business from what i have heard). So again, you really are in charge of your own learning and teaching yourself for the most part.

Overall, i feel like I set myself back a year academically with this university and its lack of support services, little to no diversity in both students, staff, and teaching styles within the sciences, and slow grade publishing. I worked my butt off this year and ended it mentally exhausted and feeling defeated. So if you want one heck of a challenge, go to UEA. Maybe it will put pressure on the vice chancellor to actually do something about these issues and allow the school to grow into its full potential.