St. Olaf Reviews

4.2

80% would recommend to a friend

(165 total reviews)

David R. Anderson

65% approve of CEO

65% positive business outlook

St. Olaf has an employee rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars, based on 165 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The St. Olaf employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Education industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

165 reviews
3.0
20 Nov 2013

Stayed too long.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

If you can work with the students, you are so lucky. This school attracts truly wonderful souls for an education. Excellent colleagues - a lot of really smart people work here and I miss working with them.

Cons

The administration is just plain odd and very insular. Communication is weird; a lot of management is fear-based. If you didn't graduate from here, you will not be able to advance and if you are quirky, you'll be bullied and/or eliminated. Top talent is expected to work non-stop and for below-scale pay. One person is running 3 departments, so the college is saving a lot of money by not hiring 2 professionals. They do not have a cash flow problem, so this stinginess is puzzling. The cost to top-performers is high in terms of health issues. They are very slow to adopt new ideas, like distance learning, which will have serious consequences in the long run.

2.0
30 Sept 2016

Politically riven

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Students are great, a lot of peers were great.

Cons

It's a political nightmare. VPs lie to you, the president overreacts to things. Ignore the star ratings in Glassdoor -- they're generated by students, who are treated pretty well. They could offer me a million dollars and I'd never go back to work there.

1.0
4 Feb 2014

Not what was promised

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Salary is reasonable, some excellent colleagues, some truly bright and engaging students, a teaching load that is "good" for liberal arts colleges

Cons

An ethos of coddling certain students; location; lack of student. faculty, and staff diversity; lack of scholarly resources outside of the sciences; an exceptionalist narrative that celebrates parochialism; nepotism (comparatively high percentage of alumni on faculty)

Viewing 1 - 3 of 165 Reviews

Glassdoor has 184 St. Olaf reviews submitted anonymously by St. Olaf employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if St. Olaf is right for you.