<p>Anyone got CSU LA admission for fall 2011?
as a freshmen.</p>
<p>I got mine around December-ish.</p>
<p>Seems like quite a few people got their decisions already… wonder if they’re releasing by majors/colleges</p>
<p>Yup, I did last Friday!</p>
<p>Hi Guys! I currently attend SMC, a CCC, and I was wondering that the GPA requirements are for CSULA for a transfer student. Does anyone know?</p>
<p>yep, i got in around 10 days after application deadline…</p>
<p>yup got one on feb 17th 2011</p>
<p>can smbdy plz tell me more about CSULA …</p>
<p>First off if you’re a freshmen I would highly recommend you go to a community college first, it will save you much time and heartache, and frustration. </p>
<p>Rundown of the dynamics of CSULA…</p>
<p>The Campus…</p>
<p>The campus is a commuter campus, so therefore if you’re coming there expecting to have a real college experience then you will be highly disappointed. Since 90 % of the people commute there, there is no virtual no campus-life and the place is dead after 4pm. As someone else said many of the students are zombies and just go to class and leave. No one hardly attends the few campus activities that they have on campus. Parking there is horrible to say the least, I did not have to worry about parking because I made the terrible, horrible mistake of living on campus, which I will address soon. One would think with it being a commuter campus it would be easy to find parking but not so much the case, then again there is enough parking but the problem is that many people are either too lazy or they usually running late for class cause of the horrendous traffic around the area. The parking passes cost around $90 per quarter as well. </p>
<p>The campus itself is small, hardly any places to relax and chill. I had the fortunate pleasure of having my criminal justice classes over in the new forensics building which was located on the complete opposite end of the campus near Salazar hall, and on top of that students who didn’t have a special parking pass couldn’t park there before 4 pm. I promise you the only redeeming quality of the campus was the scenic views of the San Gabriel mountains and the weather. That’s all I could think of seriously the campus is pretty crappy. </p>
<p>The Food and lack thereof…</p>
<p>There is a crappy food-court near the student union building. There is a carls jr, El-pollo loco, Johnny’s kitchen, a Chinese restaurant, and a small Japanese one as well. All these places are horribly overpriced, with the exception that you can get a $1 taco at El Pollo Loco, the two Asian restaurant would be great but a small plate at the Chinese restaurant will be around $6.00 and it doesn’t include a drink. The only place I frequented was Juice it up, cause you can buy a $1.00 drink and get .50 refills. You will often need this for the commute to and from your classes and your car. There are other places to eat on campus a few places located in Salazar Hall, a coffee shop and a small sandwich shop, and there is another small convenience store inside the Forensics building as well. They are all over-priced, and lack plausible choices as well. I forgot there is another very small restaurant located across from the horrible bookstore, the name escape me at the moment but its small and the food choices are much better and healthier, but it’s smaller and much more expensive and it closes at 2pm. </p>
<p>The Professors and Academics… </p>
<p>I cannot say much for the professors there, cause I was a graduate student, and didn’t receive my undergraduate from this school thank goodness. I took one undergraduate class, it was a Korean class, it was wonderful my professor was engaging and insightful and she cared for her students. My graduate professors were ho-hum to say the least, I honestly felt they were both pretty non-chant about their students and their progression. But, from what I have heard there are many professors at CSULA that really don’t seem to care for their students simply cause many of them are tenured and/or probably in the works of being fired or laid off. </p>
<p>I’m not sure if many people are aware of this but this school alone with all the rest of the CSU schools are losing funding and thus that means tuition is going up and many of the programs are being suspended, while I was there, there were students protesting the possible suspension of the Asian studies program. So be warned that there is a possible chance of whatever program you are in, being suspended. I found out at the end of first quarter last fall that my graduate criminal justice program was being suspended 
</p>
<p>The Bookstore</p>
<p>The Barnes and Noble bookstore is adjacent to the Juice it up. This bookstore is as sorry as a bookstore can be. There is a small section to buy horribly over-priced items such scantrons that you can get for free at the ASI in the student union, and note-cards, and cds, paper, and various other items that you can get for a 1$ at a local store. Of course there is food choices there, but with that being said it is overpriced as well, even more so than the food-court, a simple half-turkey sandwich was $4.00! There is an upstairs with the books you can need for class, but me being the cheapskate that I am never bought nor rented my books from them seeing that I could get them cheaper online, well that and seeing the bookstore frequently runs of the textbooks you need I chose the latter and got all my books online. </p>
<p>The Library…</p>
<p>I honestly cannot say much for the library, expect that it was often and always the 1st floor was always crowded and noisy. It was easy to find books, if you simply followed the instructions via their online catalogued system. The people that worked there were pretty helpful for the most part. The only thing that I enjoyed was that I got to keep books longer cause of my graduate student status and that sometimes you can request books and materials from other libraries and campuses. But, here’s the but cause of budget cuts the library doesn’t stay open pass 8 or 9 pm I believe, closes much earlier on Saturdays and it’s not open on Sundays. During finals it stays open longer and it’s open on Sundays. </p>
<p>There is one computer lab open on Sundays it’s near Salazar hall. The labs are often crowded and noisy as well. If and when they get crowded you have to take a number and wait your turn. You also have to sign in to utilize their labs. Goodness one of the most ridiculous and hilarious I came across at CSULA was their labs use of dot-matrix printers, those printers that print line by line and have the paper that you have to tear the extra paper off the sides. I thought that was the most archaic and nonsensical things that I have yet to see at a college campus. The funny thing is that many people used these printers, I did understand why cause printing laser printers caused .10 a copy but still printing on a dot-matrix printer is quite hilarious to say the least. My advice have your own pc and printer this saves you frustration, time and money. </p>
<p>The Administration…</p>
<p>The Administration, whether it being the Financial Aid Department, Business Office, Enrollment services, and even the college departments themselves are absolute the worst. CSULA has some of the incompetent people working there that I have ever seen in my life! Not to mention as others have said lazy beyond belief, many of them give you the run-around, and you’re often kept waiting in line and/or put on hold for long periods of time if you call. I had two incidents were housing called me a week before I was suppose to move in to tell me that I needed more money for my deposit and then once I paid this, once I moved to LA they didn’t even have a space for me ready yet, they called me on the start of the first day of class to tell me that they had a space ready for me, and they had the nerve to ask me was I even in California yet?! Then during the quarter I was told that I couldn’t register for the next quarter cause they didn’t have my transcript from my undergraduate school. Turns out after a quick phone call, to the admission department that they not only had the missing transcript but it had been sitting on someone’s desk since June seriously…since June! Just one of my many examples of the laziness of the people working at this joke of a school. </p>
<p>Activities…</p>
<p>There is no football, which blew my mind a college with no football team. What blew my mind even more was the sight of cheerleaders and a mascot as well. I was told that they are for the basket-ball teams. Go figure! I guess I’m just spoiled cause I was always under the notion that most major universities have at least a football team. I never attended any of the games, cause my graduate classes were at night and I made it a thing to not walk around that campus alone at night as well. They try and hold activities to try and engage students but the turnouts are pretty lackluster, cause most people really don’t give a damn, and/or people usually leave immediately after their classes. If you want to make friends good luck you may luck up and meet people at some of these activities but other than that good luck! </p>
<p>Housing…</p>
<p>My experience with housing was one of the most horrible experiences of my life! I asked housing to place me with other graduate students, and my request went unheeded. They allowed a person under the age of 21 to move into our apartment while the rest of us were well over 21. The apartment itself was horrific, the front closet doors were broken, my room door had a huge gaping hole in it, the bathroom door had a hole into as well, the sinks were old and cracking, and one of the outlets was hanging from its socket, the kitchen was dirty and disgusting, the previous tenants left food there, thank goodness it was unopened, the many of the window locks and hinges didn’t work, the carpet was stained and filthy. We had to put in several maintenance requests to fix all the crap in our apartment. Living with strangers is bad enough but you would think that people in college would be adept to living with others but the people I lived with were not. I had to go through boyfriend living in the apartment, to finding out that other was a chronic drug user and abuser, and had been frequently doing drugs within our apartment and place the icing on the cake, had criminal record as well. Certain members of Housing were quite helpful with me and all the frustration and pain I went through, but everyone could have care less, all they cared about if they got next months rent. I forgot to add that housing had a meal plan too, but it was over $700 per quarter and you could eat there once a day and certain hours per week as well. It was hard getting hold to the right people in housing to take care of problems with roommates. My recommendation would be skip housing and find something around the area. </p>
<p>Around the campus, Alhambra, Pasadena, El Monte, San Gabriel </p>
<p>I cannot speak much for the areas around the school, because I was an out of state student, with me not knowing the local areas this is why I chose to stay on campus. If I were from the area I would have opted not to only not live on campus but I would have chosen a different university to attend as well, but that’s just me. Alhambra is a semi-nice area, plenty to do around the area, shop and eat all down Valley as well. If you live by then it’s great but from what I heard about the commute its terrible and in my opinion CSULA is not worth the hassle or gas to go there. </p>
<p>I’m happy and proud to say that I am no longer a student at this horrible excuse for a university. I decided to drop out for several reasons. The raising tuition, as an out of state student is outrageous we’re talking over $5,000 per quarter just for tuition alone. The fact that my graduate program had been suspended. The lack of contact with my department and the horrible various administration. My experience with housing was terrible this aided my choice as well. The lack of a real college atmosphere and environment. I attended a commuter school during my undergraduate as well, but there were tons of people that lived on campus and/or around the campus all my friends lived on campus. There were tons of activities to do, we had a football, and plenty of places to eat around campus such as an actual campus cafeteria. I took for granted were I graduated from, but after attending that crap-tastic university it made really appreciate my alma-mater very much, and all it had to offer! I never for the life appreciated the semester system…I hated the quarter system with a passion! I hated everyone’s excuse that it gets you through school quicker, last time it checked you are suppose to learn and absorbed the material presented to you, not speed through everything to forget everything that you learned the previous quarter. The upside to it is that CSULA is converting to the semester in a few years which is good in my opinion, I couldn’t understand how getting out of school in June was such a good thing, when many people lose job opportunities and miss out on summer school. </p>
<p>I would like to also add that as I had mentioned previously about not going around the place at night. The campus is deserted after 6pm expect for those like myself who attended night classes. It was hella scary just walking back to my apartment at night. The campus had good security but they moved the security building away from the campus, it will take the police longer to get to you in an emergency. I also learned that gang members frequent the campus, they particularly enjoyed hanging out on the hill that is next to the film and radio department. Then I learned on top of that there have been students that have committed suicide recently on the campus as well, and random acts of violence have happened in housing as well. Apparently the campus is smack in the middle of rival gangs territories as well. Don’t be too surprise if shootings and other gang type of activities happen there. </p>
<p>You guys have been warned! </p>
<p>The few positive aspects were some of the school activities, some were good and I enjoyed myself, and I learned some things. The food trucks, they were amazing, the Nana Queen, the Don Chow’s tacos, the famous Kogi truck, whenever they came to campus my day was instantly great! The friends, I did make a few good friends while on campus, I meant them in class, and through on of my roommates and I meant one friend while in line for one of the food trucks. The views and the weather were often-times really nice and my friends were what helped me keep my sanity while at that crappy school. I forgot to include that I really enjoyed attending Korean class very much, more so than my crappy criminal justice classes.</p>
<p>I know I cannot obliviously speak for everyone, but it was a mistake going to CSULA! I don’t know if you guys are native Californians but I were I would never attend CSULA, I would make the effort to go to USC or UCLA or even CSULB instead. Trust the extra time and effort will be worth it…sure schools like UCLA and USC may seem overrated which I thought too, but after going through hell at CSULA it would have been worth it to attend one of those school, especially for all the funds I was shelling out for CSULA. If you’re looking for a true college experience and just want a quick-college run through with incompetent professors and administration, and crappy campus then by all means attend CSULA. </p>
<p>As I said be careful and don’t go out alone at night.</p>