My Rollercoaster Ride at This University

I'll break down this review into chunks since there aren't many photos. I'll ask my friends to send me some if they have any and I'll add them in later.

Admission

I applied to this university back in 2016 for the international relations program. The entrance exam scores are relatively low, which is a plus for international students. If you're an international student, you can just take the entrance exams. Unfortunately, I didn't know that at the time, so I took the EGE without any prep. But I'll spare you the details of my traumatic experience.

When my mom and I first arrived on campus, we were really impressed. The grounds are huge and green, and everyone was super friendly and welcoming – at least until they found out we were there to apply. As far as I know, students who come from out of town can live in the dorms. I'm not sure if we were offered that option or not, but we ended up staying in a hotel instead. They gave us a tour, showed us around, and answered all our questions.

After a few days, we went back to the university to finalize our application. We signed the contracts for tuition and living arrangements right away. I won't go into the cost since it's changed a lot over the past almost 5 years. I'm sure you can find the latest info on their website.

Campus and Location

The campus is located in the Veshnyaki district on the southeastern side of Moscow, near the MKAD. The closest metro station is Vykino (about 15-20 minutes on foot from the main exit or 5-10 minutes on public transportation). There's also the Novogireyevo metro station (about 25-30 minutes on foot or 15-20 minutes on public transportation), and the Rizansky Prospekt metro station (about 25-30 minutes on foot or 15-20 minutes on public transportation). There's a bus stop right outside the main entrance.

The campus is huge and really green, but nobody seems to take care of it. My friend and I explored almost the entire campus over the 4 years we were there. The forest on campus is basically a dump, filled with trash and construction waste. Apparently, there used to be a park behind the dorms, but it's been completely neglected. The main paths and areas around the buildings are cleaned up, but everything else is in a sorry state.

The meadow on campusThere are a lot of buildings on campus. There are 4 residential buildings (2 regular dorms and 2 fancy ones), plus separate buildings for some of the departments. For example, there's a building for international relations, economics, law, and culture and art. Most of the academic buildings are pretty nice, usually 3-4 stories high.

Building #3 – the biggest and ugliest oneThis building houses a few more departments.There's also a sports complex, a sports field, and a college building, but it's a bit separate from the rest of the campus.

There are plenty of benches and student areas on campus.

By the way, there are actually squirrels living on campus, which you can see pretty often. And in recent years, stray dogs have started showing up, which has made my morning jogs a bit of a challenge.

About the dining options. There are canteens in the sports complex (the largest and cheapest one), as well as in buildings 1 and 3, there are buffets in buildings 3 and B. In building 3, a coffee shop appeared a couple of years ago. Almost every building has vending machines with coffee and snacks (only snacks in the dorms).

Safety

I want to say something about this. If you're not a student or an employee, don't even try to get on the territory. You won't be let in. There are turnstiles at all entrances, and there's a card access system. If you're here to apply, you'll be told where to get a pass. For all other purposes, ask your university friends to get you a pass.

Couriers aren't allowed on the territory either. So, you'll have to leave the dorm, walk for 7 minutes to the main exit, and only then pick up your order. The same goes for taxis. They can drop you off at the entrance, but you'll have to walk from there.

On the one hand, this strict security is great. But keep in mind that if you don't live in the dorm, you can't just visit your friend. And with a resident's pass from one dorm, you can't get into another. That was a major issue for all of us.

There are some good security guards, but most of them are guys with a 'security complex'. Especially during the pandemic.

Education

I want to start by saying that everything I'm about to say is based on my personal experience and subjective perception.

As I mentioned earlier, I studied International Relations (it was later renamed to Economics, Management, and International Relations) on the same specialty. For almost all 4 years, we had classes 5 days a week, 3-5 classes a day. The workload was no joke. But there were a ton of subjects that left me scratching my head, like math analysis or advanced math. I'm guessing that's a common problem at most universities. Otherwise, the curriculum is built around the core subjects for the specialty. There are a ton of history classes (in one semester, we had 5 history classes with different names). I'm not saying that's bad - it's more about the teaching style. We also had 2 foreign languages. English was the main one, and you got to choose between Spanish (my choice), German, or French for the second one.

Throughout my time, I met some great teachers. For example, I had an amazing Spanish teacher; on the 4th year, I finally got a solid English teacher (all the others were a disaster); there were some good teachers for the core subjects; the department head and dean were both fantastic.

But then there are the teachers you just play 'ping-pong' with. They throw information at you, and you're expected to regurgitate it back in the same words and format. Nobody cares about your thoughts. I had a situation where a philosophy seminar leader found out I'd read Machiavelli, and he was so surprised that he told me to respond in the exact same wording and format, not the actual substance. That's most of them. In their minds, students should worship them like gods.

Now, about the coursework. It's a total nightmare. You write it yourself, and you get a 3 or 4 because it's not written in the professor's language. You buy it, and you get a 5 because of the exact same wording that even the teachers might not understand.

I've gotta say, getting in shape is way easier than dealing with the administration here. If the teaching staff thinks you're a person, the admin is a whole different story.

The Admin

It's scary even to start talking about it. If the teaching staff is already giving you a hard time, the admin is a whole different level of crazy.

Yeah, they do make temporary registration for international students, which is super convenient. But when it comes to filling out some documents, they might just refuse for no reason at all. And they'll do it in such a way that'll leave you in tears.

They're always coming up with new, confusing rules. Like the time they decided that you could only pay for classes or living expenses with a card in the name of the person who signed the contract. So, when I signed up at 17, my mom's name was on the contract, but I've been paying with my own card. It's just ridiculous.

The university has this weird cult of personality thing going on with the rector, but it's not really working. The rector's secretary is this completely unhinged woman. She once called me during lunch break and started yelling at me because I wasn't in class.

The accounting office is basically a nightmare to deal with. It feels like they're just waiting to devour you with their gaze.

The international relations department, on the other hand, is super friendly and understanding.

Corruption

I was lucky enough to avoid all the usual stories about groups of students cheating on exams. On my faculty, we always did our own work.

I did have one experience with corruption, though. It was when a teacher was grading us based on her personal feelings towards us. She didn't like me, and she sent me and my classmate to retake the exam. Later, she reached out to another classmate of mine who had nothing to do with the situation and asked her to pass a message to us. The message was that we should agree to get a 3 instead of retaking the exam. Luckily, it was our last semester with that teacher.

Other than that, everything was fine. I guess the teachers understood that our tuition fees were paying their salaries.

Dorms

I'll write a separate review about that.

2020 and the Coronavirus

It was around March when we were in English class and the teacher told us that we'd be switching to online classes from then on.

They cancelled our state exams. Our final English exam, our pre-defense, and our defense all took place on Zoom.

We got our diplomas in a socially distanced ceremony with masks and gloves.

Long and windingOverall Impression

I've got really mixed feelings about this place. On one hand, the teachers and admin are super rude and condescending, the campus is a mess, and on the other hand, some of the best years of my life.