I'm from St. Louis. By reputation, it's a glorified community college for kids who can't possibly get into a real school. Terrible reputation.

In reality, it's a commuter school for a relatively diverse student body. Lots of students who live at home, work and attend classes at UMSL. If you need to do a cheaper engineering degree while living in St. Louis, UMSL shares facilities and faculty with Washington University. You can get some world class engineering classes in at state school prices. It also has a very good nursing program which is affliated wiith BJC Healthcare. BJC is affiliated with Washington University School of Medicine (which doesn't have a nursing school), too, so the clinical nursing educationat UMSL is top notch.

I actually know a lot about it. I am a college counselor myself and lived in St. Louis for a while. It is very much a regional type place, I would say that the local reputation puts it one step above a community college and the vast majority of people outside of STL have just never heard of it - which could be a good or bad thing. I am sure that the education is fine, but local employers will not be targeting UMSL first - probably Wash U, Mizzou, SLU in that order. If you have a particular reason to go there, I'm sure it will be fine, especially if you go to grad school somewhere else, but it is not a school that I would specifically seek out.. especially not from someone outside of the area.

Overall, is it (UMSL) a good school?

How is its reputation amongst local employers? Does it have good programs?

What sort of things have you heard about the school; this can be anything (but please be civil)?


Anything else?