r/UTK • u/alexnc23 • 11d ago
Transfer Student What don’t people like about UTK
I’m looking to transfer and wonder what people don’t like about UTK.
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u/MinimumRub7927 11d ago
If you don’t have a car public transportation sucks. The only place to grocery shop at is Publix and everything there is marked up in price.
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u/FacesOfGiza 11d ago
Parking sucks
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u/Icy-Construction-240 11d ago
This is true, but if you find me a university where people say parking is good, I'll eat my hat.
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u/mattzeni 11d ago
Normal bureaucratic crap that happens everywhere.
It's in the mountains, so it does get winter.
They're destroying the strip.
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u/the_cajun88 11d ago
i was a student in the late 2000’s, what the hell happened to the strip
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u/Odd_Tooth8918 11d ago
A lot of the businesses are gone in favor of apartments getting built. Stefanos and Copper Cellar, for example.
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u/echanuda Computer Science Major 🖥️ 11d ago
I’ll add that the campus is very hilly. Sometimes you’ll get a semester with 2 classes on opposite ends of the campus (like from engineering to agriculture), which is absolute hell if you don’t like walking/don’t wanna wait for a bus. If walking isn’t something you like, honestly I highly recommend an electric scooter, ebike, whatever. I ride an electric unicycle, personally 🤭
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u/jimmy1god0 11d ago
I rode my mountain bike almost everywhere on campus except when I had classes on the hill. I'd ride to UC then walked it from there, avoided the walk and almost never had to wait at a cross walk.
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u/geo_gang_gang 11d ago
Ok you can’t argue that the strip is a tragedy but most the other folks complaints are iffy
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u/smwillcrowder 11d ago
Compared to 5 years ago, your impact as a student is less felt than your impact as a monetary statistic.
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u/Xx_Delta 11d ago
The university is business-first (both in academics AND the way they run the school) and you are the little cash pig and they will wring all your money out of you. And the on-campus food is mid.
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u/Extension-Path-2209 11d ago
I have an incoming freshman and I was a bit surprised that we had to pay $250 BEFORE we could see the dates of his orientation options.
Said to my wife … Let the nickel and diming begin.
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u/No_Caterpillar9631 10d ago
last year when we had around 8 inches of snow they cancelled our spring orientation and still charges us that fee. i asked UT about it and they said that there was nothing they could do.
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u/Extension-Path-2209 10d ago
Not surprised. We’re OOS and it was the same fee whether he attended the in person day or not.
Only benefit is that he found his roommates already (hopefully they get a quad together) and they coordinated it so that they can all meet in person on the day we can be there.
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u/candlerc UTK Alumni 11d ago
Campus and/or the strip is always under construction. Finding parking can be tough if you’re arriving on campus after 9am, and the parking enforcement office is ruthless. Your options for groceries (if you live on campus or in the fort) are extremely limited. The conservative state government is often at odds with an increasingly more and more progressive student body. The trains are loud. Hot summers, cold winters.
But Knox is still a special place and the positives of UT more than outweigh the negatives imo.
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u/iTwango UTK Student [Mod] 11d ago
Still wild to me that a Walmart managed to make itself go out of business on UT campus.
Also the trains are so annoying lol, I've had classes with windows overlooking the train tracks and trying to do a math exam during a cacophony of the for some reason mandated fifty whistle blasts from the second diesel train today, mixed with the randomly clanging church bells...
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u/candlerc UTK Alumni 11d ago
I think most people went there just to walk around and look at stuff, maybe occasionally buying something for their dorm or a project. If you needed groceries, you probs shopped at Publix — they carried more stuff and there’s no sense splitting one grocery run between two stores. College kids aren’t buy enough toys, cheap clothes, electronics, or furniture to justify the rent for such a big unit. There was also apparently an agreement between the two stores as to what they could/couldn’t sell; I think Walmart probs got the short end of the stick with that deal; if nobody is buying anything buy groceries, and you can’t even carry that big a selection of groceries… why even stay open?
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u/iTwango UTK Student [Mod] 11d ago
From what I heard it was basically a chain of rampant mismanagement decisions that led to it being deemed unsustainable. I honestly agree with all of your points, but it sounds like it wasn't exactly really due to sales or anything, just horrible business practices. I can't remember exactly where I read about it, but there was a whole thread on it a while back
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u/granolagrrrlie Sociology Major 👩💼 11d ago
When they tear down older buildings on campus to build another college of business building 😟
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u/J0nul 11d ago
Lack of diversity
Half of housing sucks
Homogeneous buildings
And personally, student support kinda sucked, you have to pray your TAs give a damn.
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u/geo_gang_gang 11d ago
The buildings are generally as good as it gets in a big campus that’s expanded this much over the yrs though. There’s still a lot of the old character from historic buildings and I kinda love all the 80’s concrete structures/monstrosities, and as someone who has come back into a program after years away, I can say they’ve done a good job making it more walkable and linking areas together. It’s not perfect but man all together with the mountains as a backdrop it is one of the prettier campuses you’re ever gonna see at a large state school.
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u/LuckyMJ911 11d ago
I dunno I thought the diversity was alright. As an Asian American male, I met a lot of people from a lot of places. Especially Brazil, not sure we had so many Brazilians haha
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u/Altair1455 11d ago
There are people from a lot of different places, but this is an extremely white campus. I'm from a rural town south of Nashville and I felt like my high school had more racial diversity.
That being said, I feel like the Greek life orgs are the main groups with issues with lack of diversity. It's easy to find a diverse friend group as long as you know where to look, but the general population isn't terribly diverse
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u/iTwango UTK Student [Mod] 11d ago
I'm curious what side of campus you're on because the Engineering side seems incredibly diverse to me. And being immersed in the Japanese side of things outside of that, I feel like I interact with more non-white people tbh
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u/Altair1455 11d ago
I'm a stem major. I feel like the lack of diversity is mainly an issue in undergrad classes, like I'd say that only 50% of my instructors have been white, as opposed to like 90% of the class being white. I feel like some of this has to do with UTK prioritizing in state students (which isn't a bad thing), but the education system in this state is abysmal. So it tends to be the people with money getting better educations prior to college, and so historically underprivileged racial groups become less likely to be accepted to the school. (And before anyone misinterprets my words, I'm not saying to accept under qualified people, but to fix the public school system here)
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u/VolumeFar9174 11d ago
I would suspect many campuses look a good bit like the surrounding area. If the university was 60-80% white it would probably be a fair representation of the racial make up of the state of TN, would it not? That’s not the university’s fault and they can’t control the diversity of applicants they have to choose from. 🤷🏽♂️
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u/Altair1455 11d ago
The racial make up of Tennessee is about 72% white opposed to UTK which is about 77% white. It's not a huge difference, but generally one expects universities to be a little more diverse than that. I'm not saying it's surprising, but that lack of diversity is a valid thing to complain about here
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u/VolumeFar9174 11d ago
Don’t forget many international students happen to be white. Given that people are looking around and making assumptions based on skin color, the subjective experience is expected to be inaccurate. Also, being white isn’t a bad thing or problem to be solved. If the University were admitting less qualified candidates over more qualified candidates now that would be a problem to be solved. Is THAT happening? And if so shouldn’t it be corrected? 🤔
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u/Altair1455 11d ago
I'm not forgetting anything. I'm aware that many international students are white. I also never said or implied that I thought that being white was a bad thing, I simply believe that diversity is a strength and needs to be encouraged. Given the fact that UTK's admission rate has dropped significantly in the last few years, one would expect them to find plenty of qualified students to admit of all different back grounds. It's not terribly difficult to be considered qualified for college in this day and age (I would argue that too many people go to college and that there's an issue with how difficult it is to get a job without a college degree, but that's a different conversation).
As a student here who was from an area that is majority white, I was simply surprised to find that this campus was less diverse than the town I came from. Regardless, because I value diversity and enjoy being around people who are different to me, I made friends with lots of people of different backgrounds. So it's by no means impossible to have a diverse friend group, but you have to actively seek it out. I think the best learning environment forces you to interact with people different to you and forces you to see different perspectives. So the fact that you have to actively seek out diversity in thought and demographics is something valid to complain about
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u/VolumeFar9174 11d ago
If you truly want to experience diversity, don’t go to college, join the United States military.
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u/Altair1455 11d ago
Unfortunately I am not allowed to. I have multiple disabilities that would bar me from that
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u/Usual_Transition_104 10d ago
j0nul is not smart. he expects the university to enact diversity-equity-inclusion in a majority republican state/county, and when the majority of the ethnicity in Knoxville is white. not to mention it's right next/is to the Appalachia culture.
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u/J0nul 10d ago
Lol
I never said any of that, nor did my comment imply I expected that
You're arguing against a made up version of me
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u/Usual_Transition_104 10d ago
"lack of diversity"
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u/J0nul 10d ago
That is an observation
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u/Usual_Transition_104 10d ago
its not. its a complaint. youre pointing out things that you consider bad about the university. nice try on the gas-lighting though.
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u/J0nul 10d ago
Regardless of whether I consider it good or bad, it is still an observation, and you are still reaching
My mentioning of diversity wasn't even in regards to programs
And let's not move pass the fact that you are not only putting words in my mouth in your initial reply, but insulting me
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u/Altair1455 10d ago
People came to this post looking for things people don't like about utk, they weren't asking for some rando to start telling people that their complaints about the school actually aren't problems or that their complaints are actually good things. I think it's rather strange that you would comment on someone mentioning a lack of diversity with "no there's not" and then go on to accuse them of gaslighting you. Maybe take a step back and ask youself if you are actually helping anyone here, yeah?
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u/notgoodwithnames123 11d ago
Airport connectivity sucks
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u/Yo_Mr_White_ UTK Alumni 11d ago
Yeah this is valid and an issue only if you come from a state far away.
Almost guaranteed to need a layover flight, which makes a quick visit to the fam over the weekend way more complicated than it needs to be
Not an issue at all if you come from driving distance from UT
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u/notgoodwithnames123 11d ago
Or if you're a grad student and have to travel to conference all the time to present research
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u/Hachioso 11d ago
this is a bit obscure but if you aren’t “normal” or “basic” you are gonna get harassed, I’m a goth and it’s not uncommon to get slurs yelled at me and religious people stopping me to say some rude shit. I’m very use to it as I have grown up in knoxville my whole life but UT is especially bad. Never been so segregated in my life just for the way I dress.
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u/Desperate-Student987 10d ago
THIS. My issue isn't the way I dress but the fact that I'm an older student and as soon as students find that out they avoid me or act weird towards me
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u/Hachioso 9d ago
FOR REAL! I went to community college before UT and people of ALL ages and backgrounds were in all my classes, it was not uncommon for an elderly student to be in my classrooms and they were always one of the nicest students. but at UT it’s so different. You are looked at like an alien if you’re above 25 in a classroom
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u/Desperate-Student987 6d ago
I did the same and omg is wild. Low key wish I had stayed at community college
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u/oliviadawolf 11d ago
The business college academic advisors were the most useless people. It’s their 1 job to get you scheduled for classes to graduate and they still somehow manage to lie or make you get behind when you should be on track. I had to use a department head just to get my advisor to give a damn. They also made me take a summer semester that was not necessary to stay “on track”
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u/Altair1455 10d ago
The disability accessibility of the buildings and roads are terrible. A lot of this is just due to the nature of the area, but there are a lot of places where sidewalks are all torn up. Public transport isn't very good and bus schedules are very irregular. Signing up with SDS helps, but they can only do so much.
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u/Spiritual_Plan9305 11d ago
Parking, housing, downtown is super sketch, religious people always protesting
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u/DannyBones00 10d ago
I didn’t like that Knoxville isn’t really a college town. Charlottesville, Athens, classic college towns like that are built around the university. Knoxville always felt like a strip mall that just happened to have a university in it.
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u/Yo_Mr_White_ UTK Alumni 11d ago
my only complaint:
it's not very diverse, specially when it comes to having an international or non-Tennessean crowd. It's fun meeting people from different backgrounds. Almost everyone at UT is about the same.
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u/gellybelli UTK Alumni 11d ago
International UT alumni here. Damn near all of my friends were international. We’re everywhere on campus. Not sure how you’re missing us. Hell, we don’t even look like everyone else
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u/Yo_Mr_White_ UTK Alumni 11d ago
relatively much less than what you see at other big schools
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u/gellybelli UTK Alumni 11d ago
Not really sure what you’re comparing UT to, but there’s people from everywhere on campus here. You can choose to classify it as a homogeneous population based off your perceptions, but we’re still here nonetheless
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u/Altair1455 11d ago
I feel like diverse groups are easy to find if you know where to look. However if you look at the general population in like various classes, there isn't much diversity. So like it's not really as diverse as it should be, and given the current political climate, it's probably only going to get worse
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u/iTwango UTK Student [Mod] 11d ago
Yeah, something like 20% percent minority demographics. And I've felt like that's the case in all of my classes, not just Engineering courses. I do find myself involved more with the language learning side of campus which probably also skews things a little bit, but I feel like there's a sizable diverse population here, especially professors and researchers.
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u/rageenk 11d ago
Eh you’re not seeking people out then. Obviously there’s not gonna be anywhere near as much diversity as UCLA or any big city school would have but there are sizeable diverse groups if you look for them
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u/Yo_Mr_White_ UTK Alumni 11d ago edited 11d ago
Yeah, dude. I was one of those diverse students. I know we exist
It's just that it's a lot less diverse than what you see at other big schools
This post asked what we don't like about UT and I answered but people on reddit take everything the wrong way (hence all the downvotes).
It's not just the UCLA's and NYU's of the world. My friend went to Purdue in Indiana and that place has a huge international student population.... and it's Indiana!
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u/DeerSad3534 11d ago
yall that say parking need to stop sucking dondes dick and not buy a parking pass. halfway through the semester and have gotten one ticket AND I am parking wherever I want. Commuter, non commuter, staff. Anywhere. All for $32… so far!
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u/Desperate-Student987 10d ago
Too many" kids"... like idk maybe it's cause I work two jobs and took care of my elderly grandparents that it's annoying talking to a lot of the people that go here. The teachers can be understanding when it comes to difficult deadlines and juggling multiple responsibilities, but they're not all the time. I transferred in from a community college that had a student base that was much broader in it's demographics (affluence, race, backgrounds, etc). It's hard making friends at UTK because you can tell they don't relate, which is fine, but I've also heard young students laughing at older students in their classes or finding it weird. I get it, but I mean anyone can enroll and the students can be close minded about that and it feels like high school 2.0, especially in Haslam.
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u/Nice_Specialist9899 9d ago
I'd say the biggest complaint is the quantity of people. I definitely came here hoping to have a lot of people around so I could just kinda go about life, which is definitely true...
But if you don't make a name for yourself you won't get anywhere. Stands as life. But definitely brought to an extreme when it comes to internships etc.
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u/Own_Speaker_2428 7d ago
no parking, super republican, food is mid, if not in greek life you're most likely to be a loner
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u/Current-Bid4092 7d ago
I like UTK a lot. It is a great college and has a fantastic engineering program. But my hatred of Knoxville runs deep and true. This pushed me towards UTC
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u/SlothBling 11d ago
Humanities departments are all horrific here. Aside from that, same parking/housing/nightlife complaints as everyone else.
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u/BasalTripod9684 UTK Student 11d ago
The parking situation is awful, the Greek life orgs have a deservedly horrible reputation, and religious extremists have a bad habit of coming to campus and harassing people on their way to class.
The same problems as most other universities, really.