Winona State University

The Education program is designed to help you become a great teacher. The classes revolve around literacy education and how to be in a classroom with gifted or challenging students. The education program is not test-based but rather project and or paper understandings.

One thing I don't like about Winona is once you get off campus there are not a lot of street lights so it can be very dark if ever walking on the sidewalks.

Winona had so much to offer that I did not take advantage of. If you are engaged, you will love WSU. While I excelled in my studies, I did not engage in campus life further, and I highly regret that. There were many clubs and campus things going on, constantly, but I was caught up in other things. Regardless of regretting not being an active WSU student, I do not regret going there. The area is beautiful, especially if you are looking for someplace "bigger" than your "small" hometown, but a place that is not too big.

Some classes, especially general education courses that do not pertain to your major, were hard to find as they are in unfamiliar buildings. Ask for help or scout those classrooms out prior.

The professor is nice and works well with students.

Old buildings not have a lot of funding in the art department.

My favorite part of Winona State is the people. Everyone is very friendly and it's nice having people in a small community that you can connect with. Most professors are super friendly and genuinely care about your education and your goals. The campus is also super beautiful in the summer and fall. It's also very easy to travel around campus and off-campus. There are very many transportation options.

Some of the buildings are quite old, so they are not very aesthetically pleasing. Winona State also lacks a lot of diversity compared to other schools.

On the outside, everything at WSU seems like it works smoothly, with a caring community and easy-going college experience. In some ways, yeah, that's true, but I find that in a lot of ways, college life ended up being filled with more complications, and not just at the hands of unfulfilled expectations. In many ways, Winona State fails in proving that they care for their students, that they want to help, and that there are any actual improvements that the school is willing to make. Their handling of the pandemic proves they dropped the ball in lots of ways, with piling student mental health issues, instances of dropouts, and the lack of overall policies to help with the pandemic in the first place. Reporters for the Winona State newspaper will write about issues around the school and receive backlash or lectures from those they write about; there are multiple professors that are publicly racist or sexist to their students, yet it's the students that receive forms of punishment if they are called out for it. Beyond that, in my three years as a WSU student, I've seen rundown buildings never get the improvements they were scheduled for, incredible crime rates of stalking, robberies, or sexual assault on campus with no news as to whether people had been arrested, and tuition costs rise. I stay at WSU, however, because I know it's the cheapest university in my state and I don't have many other options. I know it sounds as if I'm simply saying it's an awful school, which it's not. It just has its share of problems, and if I had other options, I don't know that I'd stick with it. For many students, WSU is the right choice. Just not for me.

I've never felt like the administration at the school cares for the students or what they need/want. Student voices seem near-silent when it comes to admin decisions.

During my freshman year, it was clear that most professors there are not entirely interested in teaching the curriculum as they are conveying their own political opinions. And if you don't agree, it might affect how they grade you.

Quality of food, lack of diverse opinions, lack of sharing challenging ideas, and few professors in my field.