<p>I'm currently in my second semester at CSUS, and I'm open to answering ANY questions you future Hornets may have. This website helped me a lot as I was picking colleges, so I'd like to return the favor. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Is CSUS (primarily) a residential or commuter campus? Do you live on campus? What percentage of freshman, or other class, does live on campus? Please address whether CSUS feels at all like it’s in a “college town”</p></li>
<li><p>Please talk about classes or profs. Challenging? Too hard, or easy? How big are classes? Were you able to get your desired class schedule? </p></li>
<li><p>Please discuss your experience of student life or culture. Do you and your friends study a lot? Party a lot? Was it easy to make new friends?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks for any insight. </p>
<p>Thanks for your questions!</p>
<p>1) CSUS is definitely a commuter campus. I’m not sure of the exact percentage of students who live on campus, but it’s a small percentage. I’m a part of that small percentage that does live in the dorms, and I love it. Sure the buildings aren’t the newest but from my experience, it’s really not bad like some people sometimes make CSUS dorms out to be. I’ve made a lot of friends on my floor and throughout the residential area. However, Sacramento doesn’t feel like a college town like somewhere like Davis might. There are a lot of college kids around and you’ll see people around the city with their Sac State apparel, but I think Sacramento is mostly a family city. By living on campus, I feel I still have the whole college experience though.</p>
<p>2) I’m in the General Education Honors Program, something I encourage everyone to look into and see if it’s a right fit for them. Because I’m in Honors, I get priority registration (I register on the first day of registration) and smaller class sizes open to only Honors students, so the classes are maxed out at around 20-35 students. The small class size and the fact that everyone in honors knows each other make it so the professors also get to know you very well. All of my honors professors know my name, and they really encourage input from us about how to go about the class. For non-honors students though, getting classes can be tough. My roommate has had a hard time getting an ideal schedule, but she has been able to get 15 units a semester, the recommended amount for a timely graduation. If you are flexible in scheduling and wouldn’t mind taking classes that are not necessarily you’re first choice, you should be okay. It’ll get stressful, yes, but You’ll be alright in the end.</p>
<p>3) I have my two groups of friends: those I’ve met through the Honors program and those I’ve met from the dorms. I don’t want this to seem stereotypical, but this is just what I’ve experienced. Of my honors friends, I know only a handful of people who do party. However they do it in moderation and things like school and work come first to them. Pretty much everyday we’ll meet up on the honors lounge floor in the AIRC building and we’ll get some work done, eat and socialize. Sometimes it gets hard to get work done while we’re all together because we do distract each other but at the end of the day, we get our stuff done, and done well. My dorm friends, a lot of them are partiers and I only know a handful of people who do not party. They do get their work done, but they don’t take school as seriously. Personally, I don’t party. I’ve been to a couple, but I’m not a drinker so I think that’s why I don’t get quite as much out of them as others do. Yes the parties are fun and I enjoy myself, it’s just not something I would want to do every weekend.</p>
<p>I hope this helps, and please let me know if there’s anything else I can answer!</p>
<p>chelleiam, thank you for the reply. It sounds like you are taking advantage of all that CSUS has to offer and that you have found a great place to go to school. Congratulations on getting into the honors program. Priority registration, small classes, your input valued, … I hope my 11th grader finds an equally good program and institution (we’ll probably visit CSUS). Best of luck in the future. </p>
<p>Thank you jeffgordon, I’m convinced CSUS is the right place for me. I hope you and your student do visit the campus, it was a visit to CSUS that made it feel like coming here was a good choice. Even if your student does not end up picking Sac State, I hope s/he finds her/his perfect school, and I encourage you to check out as many campuses as you can! Some will definitely surprise you. Good luck to your student, and to you as well. (Being a parent at this crucial time has got to be difficult!)</p>
<p>Jefffgordan check out Chico State as well. They also have an honors program with similar perks. To me, it is a more cohesive campus and nearly all freshmen dorm. The school is smaller than Sac and is surrounded by a great college town. It is definitely worth the tour. Good luck.</p>
<p>@chelleiam Possibly me, I’m a Junior in HS right now looking to attend a CSU for undergraduate and a UC for graduate if needed. If the college group that I want to move with to a general CSU doesn’t work out + if my sister successfully transfers to UC Berkeley or Stanford, I will highly most likely go to CSU Sacramento because I don’t want to live in the Bay Area and Sac State will be the closest to where my sister might go.</p>
<p>(1. Is Honors just open to first time freshman? Or can anyone join at any time, ex. a person gets a 4.0 sophomore year and joins Honors junior year.
(2. How is the life on campus as a whole and how much students get involved & push their limits, because I hope Sacramento isn’t one of those dull commuter universities where they just go to class and commute back home.
(3. Sacramento has a football team, how are the games if you’ve been to one?
(4. How bad or good is the city of Sacramento, is there a lot to do? Is it ghetto or high tier?</p>
<p>Thanks! :)</p>
<p>I graduated from there a LONG time ago but still live in the area and own some rental property that currently houses students. I go to a few campus related events each year and a few of my son’s friends attend Sac now. (He is a sophomore at Chico and went to HS about 30 miles from SAC)</p>
<p>(1. Is Honors just open to first time freshman? Or can anyone join at any time, ex. a person gets a 4.0 sophomore year and joins Honors junior year.
<a href=“http://www.csus.edu/honorsprogram/About%20Honors.html”>http://www.csus.edu/honorsprogram/About%20Honors.html</a>
Read all about it there - The program is targeted to incoming freshmen. They replace many of your GE courses so, you’d be doing some coursework over joining later. </p>
<p>(2. How is the life on campus as a whole and how much students get involved & push their limits, because I hope Sacramento isn’t one of those dull commuter universities where they just go to class and commute back home.
Most of the 30k+ students commute. Some further than others. There are thousands dorm beds on/near campus and lots of student housing nearby so, there’s no shortage of young people around. If you are looking for really busy, residential campuses, try Chico.</p>
<p>(3. Sacramento has a football team, how are the games if you’ve been to one?
D1 team in the Big Sky conference. They are about a .500 team most seasons. Never in the running for national champions but, students and alumni show up for the games (sell outs are rare). As you might expect, the big rivalry is UCD, about 30 miles away. </p>
<p>(4. How bad or good is the city of Sacramento, is there a lot to do? Is it ghetto or high tier?
Sac is an up and coming town. The location is great, at the confluence of 2 rivers, The American River Parkway (and ike trail) is adjacent campus and is routinely written up in road and mountain biking mags as AWESOME. Golf courses and other outdoor recreation, fishing, wakeboarding, etc. is plentiful. The city is building a new downtown stadium for the Kings (NBA) and are home to the Giant’s AAA affiliate. The pro soccer team is the talk of the town and on the cusp of moving up to MLS. There’s a happening night life and vibrant live music scene, particularly down-town, Great restaurants and breweries. There’s the state capitol, Old Sac, Railroad museum, aviation museum, a great car museum and, even an art museum. SF and Tahoe are both about 100 miles (in opposite directions). For California, it is downright cheap to rent apartments/condos/houses. </p>
<p>As with all 1M+ metro areas, some parts of town are really nice and others aren’t. If you live on campus or on nearby off Carlson, University Ave or LaRiviera (though the further you get from campus, that gets mixed) you’ll be fine. You need to be more to the north (Fulton and Hurley) and south of campus (most of the Avenues and Florin). Most of the areas that look OK are OK.</p>
<p>Lots of employment opportunities as well. Intel, HP, VSP SMUD, Sutter Health, Kaiser and several other healthcare providers. Not to mention ATT, Apple and of course, city, county and state government, all have a thousand or more employees nearby.</p>
<p>post back or PM me if you have a specific question</p>
<p>@NCalRent Thank you so much. :)</p>