Academics

Small classes and highly qualified, unique professors make academic life at UAF difficult and rewarding. Be prepared to be challenged to think outside the box. UAF professors come from all over the world, to share their vast knowledge and offer students incredible experiences.

Expect to work your butt off the further you get into your major. Math seems to be exceptionally hard here, as the professors weed out students. Engineering students: expect to not have a life outside of your homework and projects if you want to pass.

A lot of the hardship depend on your choice of major. Engineering is definitely one of the more difficult departments to pick, but there's a bit of sway within each major as well.

There are professors here that will push you to be your best, and expect the best of you. You'll be held to high standards, but if you work hard and do the work required of you, the professors offer many opportunities to advance and do very well in their classes.

Academically, most of my teachers were great and friendly, but I didn't feel like the course work was very rigorous. This would probably also depend on what major you're pursuing. If you're in the biology department, there's a lot of opportunities for field research. Two research opportunities I encountered while I was there was a study on vole populations in Denali and a study on blueberry antioxidant levels with a professor already working in that area, and I wasn't even a biology major. It wouldn't be very hard to find more research and field opportunities there. Also, my sister is in accounting and she seems to be greatly enjoying that.
If someone was studying native Alaskan culture, this would also be a good place to go. It has some native Alaskan languages, there are a lot of native Alaskan events happening it its general area, and I believe it has courses in native Alaskan arts.