Barry University

I was so excited to attend Barry for my MSW, but I was disappointed in the lack of communication and unprofessionalism that was allowed in classes. The field office was very unprofessional and rude. It seemed like some people in the office just wanted power. Majority of non teachers seemed to just care about power not actual students. I was so disappointed that some of my professors allowed students to show up late to class almost every class without consequences. It was always the same few students... Read More who showed up late to almost every class. On a plus side I have to say the quality of my education was probably a 8/10 stars. I loved that Barry was such a faced paced program which worked out wonderfully for me. The environment of the school itself is also great. I would recommend Barry but I hope changes can be made to make it a all around better program.

From the first week Barry university has been, in one word, chaos. Professors show up 45 minutes late, students do not have language comprehension to read basic English or understand assignments. I can only speak to foundation level MSW courses, but Into to SW's content can be reviewed and comprehended within a three hour movie. Not an entire semester. The professor for this class doesn't know how to answer questions on information being covered and spends at least 20 minutes/class talking about... Read More her family and completely irrelevant stories. Bring a catholic school, its not surprising Barry faculty feel compelled to bring their faith into the conversation. What seems to be lost on them is the fact that not everyone is catholic, and therefor would appreciate the topic staying on what will be relevant to our field. I dropped two classes after two weeks, within the grace period and was expecting a tuition reversal. It took six weeks to be refunded, after being re-directed from department to department, no one know who I needed to speak to in order to resolve the issue. Faculty and staff were rude and cynical. I was placed on hold for an hour, drove to the office I was trying to reach, and it was empty with staff hanging out. I had to pull teeth to get my add drop form printed, after I was told it didn't exist by Financial Aid in my schools department. When I printed it out and showed it to her she yelled at me, took me to another staff and handed the work onto him and walked away without saying anything to me. It seems the school only looked at me as a source of profit. My academic advisor also made zero effort during the semester. I met with him once to discuss a letter to the dean which I needed re: tuition reversal ($4,500!). He said he would have it to her within a few days. I never heard from him again. I emailed twice to follow up and stopped by his office during office hours and he wasn't there. People I've spoken to regarding how awful my experience was at this school seem to be surprised, and it appears I have managed to have the worst experience possible. I decided to leave after one semester, and as a result of my experience, would absolutely not recommend Barry for Grad or Undergrad. Dorms are a dump and the campus is nowhere near downtown Miami. Public transportation is non existent. There are no restaurants or bars. Barry is a Catholic jail. Don't waste your money. Wish I had paid attention to transfer rate..

Where do I begin? They are the most unorganized and unprofessional group of people Ive ever met. Starting from the financial aide office, the office staff dont seem to have a clue whats going on! I filled out my application 6 to 8 months prior to entering graduate school. When it came time to disperse my financial aide money it seem as though no one had a clue when my money be in my account. When I asked what would happen if the money doesnt get here in time if registered for classes, the response... Read More was the courses would get dropped! When I have gone to other institutions, the turnaround time to receive my financial aide money very short! I had reservations about going and I should have listened to my gut feeling about this so-called University! As for the professors, I cant say much other than if you want quality education from quality professors who are quite knowledgeable in there area of expertise then this isnt the place for you!

I did graduate from Barry U with a 3.75 GPA and completed the MSW program successfully in 4 semesters. I should have dropped out my first semester and transfered to ANY other school. I am not a big fan of writing reviews, but I cannot go without expressing myself. First, from the dean to the faculty in the Social Work Program, I cannot express how completely disrespectful and absolutely offensive these folks are. There are only two instructors that I actually enjoyed. One of the primary reasons is... Read More that my first semester, one of the instructors called me "gay", once I corrected her and informed her that is not a lable that I take on, it became a full argument in front of the entire class. My background and area of exptertiese is non-gay identified men who have sex with men and the HIV/sexual health programs tailored to them. So, it is not like I do not know what I am talking about, or have the reasearch, personal experience and insight to be able to educate and inform less knowledgabel parties on this topic. However, when she continued to lable me as "gay", stating "back in my day we only had two lables; gay and straight, you just need to accept that your gay" I lost it. I eamiled the dean and discussed this matter with other faculty, and the consensus seemed to be, "this is a short program, you need her to graduate. Don't upset the system" Being the good social worker, I quickly reminded them that a part of creating change is upsetting the system. But I was hopeful that things would get better. Each semester seemed to follow the same pattern. I disagreed with one professor in my 3rd semester and the disagreement turned into be being percieved as someone who was "threatening and I felt unsafe around". Now, let me also say that I was the Graduate Assistant for the Center for Human Rights and Social Justice for 3 out of the 4 semesters I was at Barry. I was heavily invovled with community work and HIV planning counsils from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale and had been collaborating with the Health Department and other agencies while at Barry, on top of the manditory internship. I will say Barry U. did pay for me to go to Europe and present at the International Conference of Sexualty and Social work in 2016, and I am grateful for that. No only was I struggling with dealing with all that drama, but the classes were a HOT MESS. Like I said, there were only 2, maybe 4 professors who actually cared and came to class prepared. The other classes, it really was a powerpoint presentation and the instructors didnt seem to have read the books, or learned the information. If you ever put off studying for a big exam until 5 minutes before hand and then you realize "oh crap, how am i going to fake my way through this" that was how almost ever one of my classes were. Now about the over all university: When I moved onto the campus in 2015 for my first semester of graduate school, I was in Sage hall. Half of the semester they had shut off the water to the building for a week and a half, which meant that there was no shower or flushing the toilets. Sage was supposed to be Freshmen housing, but due to the number of graduate students, the overflow was put in sage. On top of the water being shut off, and the front of the building flooding, they refused to refund any portion of the housing and stated that if I wanted to stay on campus for the month of December, I needed to pay about 3 grand, and it did not include food. So at the end of October I had to quickly come up with 3 grand or move off campus. I went to the housing office and asked them for suggestions, and the response was "we can refer you to a homeless shelter for the month of December". I went to DePaul University in Chicago for my Undergrad and I am in a PhD program right now. I do not have family to fall back on, but my experience with every school I attened was that they worked with me. I informed DePaul I could not afford my last semester and I would have to drop out, and they worked with me to ensure that I graduated. My experience with Barry is that they care NOTHING about the students, most of the instructors are too consumed with their personal lives or publishing some BS research to make the school look good. I urge you all to go to a school that will actually work with you to succeed and achieve your goals in life. Do NOT put that much faith in Barry, because quite frankly, they do not care about you. If I had the chance to do it again, I would have attended DePaul's MSW program in a heartbeat.

My experience as a graduate student at Barry University's School of Social Work has been incredible! The professors have endowed a great amount of knowledge and I am still in my foundation year! The School of Social work has recently adopted a new curriculum that is trauma based, which has been extremely beneficial interning with child in foster care who have experienced trauma in their past home.This program also has an accelerated program, so I will complete my MSW degree as a part time student... Read More in 2 and 1/2 years instead of the 4 years at the local public universities. I would highly recommend this program to anyone interested in becoming a social worker!