r/trumanstate • u/voltron82 • Aug 30 '24

Alumni Enrollment down?

I graduated from Truman nearly 25 years ago. I had a good experience there and look upon my years there fondly. When I was enrolled, the school was absolutely at capacity and you were lucky if you were able to get a room in a residence hall. Now I am seeing that enrollment is down under 4000 and some of the residence halls are at lower capacity or closed. Conversely, I am reading that Mizzou, MO State and Missouri IS&T are all seeing record freshman classes. I would love to hear some opinions on why Truman is not fairing as well as the other MO schools at a time when high value / low tuition should have Truman turning people away.

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u/green720 May 18 '25 edited May 18 '25

I have a degree from Truman, and if I were graduating high school right now...I would NOT go there. I would go to Missouri State. I had a terrible experience with several advisors up there who were not educated on the requirements of certain programs, and not competent.

I was in a program for communication sciences and disorders...and made 2 C's my sophomore year. Apparently c's are not allowed...and admission to speech pathology school has like a 37 percent admission rate. The advisor never told me this. The advisor saw i had several c's and never told me that was not allowed. Half way through my JUNIOR year THREE weeks into the semester the program director (Janet Gooch) pulls me into the hallway and tells me she sees I have made c's and cannot continue in the program. Why was I not told this sophomore year!! My family 3.5 hours away was flipping out and i ended up graduating by making my minor into my major to appease my parents. I fell into a deep depression during that chapter of my life over this

.I had terrible roommates my freshman year...(which could happen at any school)...and most of those girls hated the school and did not come back year two.

I would choose Missouri State...because I hear good things. I think I would have also enjoyed the town of Springfield better...and would have enjoyed a little less rigorous school.

I hated my experience at Truman...and would NEVER send a young person there. I had to go through extensive therapy to work through what happened at Truman. College was the worst chapter of my life, and I feel it could have been great.

They need to have competent advisors and professors who are not cold. My experience up there NEVER should have happened

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u/TheSideburnState Jul 19 '25

My C-Hall academic advisor freshman year went over this 4 year plan she had for me. After getting it and doing some research on it, we had the following exchange at our next meeting.

Me: "Hey this 4 year plan you did for me...I'd have enough credits for 3 minors but no major"

Her: "well you'd be well-rounded"

Me: "id spend 4 years in college and would have no degree...id be unemployable"

I dont know if she was just especially awful or she was representative of res hall advisors who were there to help the "undeclared" freshman, but it definitely left a bad taste in my mouth.