Hi so which csu is large and not a commuter school, i want to experience the real college
If you look in the Campus Life tab of each collegeâs entry on http://www.collegedata.com , you can find out what percentage of frosh live in the dorm. This can be a reasonable proxy for non-commuter students.
From personal experience, Chico is THE classic college town environment. In Chico, the town and the university blend right together. Most students live within one mile of campus. There are multiple fraternity/sorority houses in close proximity.
Rohnert Park (Sonoma State) is not a college town. Itâs a commuter suburb posing as a moderately size city.
(Be careful what you wish for. I started in Chico, but finished in Rohnert Park. I came to truly appreciate the focus on education that I was able to maintain at Sonoma State)
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a nice college town. A bit more upscale than Chico. My son heads there tomorrow. My whole family fell in love with the place on a visit.
Of the schools we toured, more of them were commuter, isolated, or after thoughts in big cities than âcollege towns.â
CSU Monterey Bay, Cal Poly Pomona, and Sac State are NOT traditional college town experiences.
Humboldt state might be another so called âcollege townâ CSU.
Although San Diego State is not a traditional college town type school, a high percentage of students live on or near the campus.
Letâs face it: most CSUs are commuter schools. The principal exceptions, in my opinion, are Chico State, Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo, and Humboldt State. In those cases, there are enough residential students and faculty living close to the campus area to create a distinct âcollege townâ vibe. You could also make a case for the âCollege Areaâ neighborhood near San Diego State.
I canât say that Iâve visited every CSU campus, so maybe there are others, but I havenât heard of any. I know a guy who claims that Turlock (home of Stanislaus State) is up-and-coming as a college town, but I am not sold on this yet.
Note that âresidential / non-commuterâ and âis in an interesting locationâ are two different things that are not necessarily connected. Sonoma State (90% frosh in the dorms) and CSU Monterey Bay (86% frosh in the dorms) are more heavily residential than most CSUs, but comments above indicate that some find their locations to be uninteresting. CSU Chico has more commuters (62% frosh in the dorms), but some here find its location to be more interesting in terms of being a âcollege townâ.
Sdsu, Sonoma, Chico, Cal poly, Humboldt.
At Sdsu and Chico, especially if you can get into the Honors program.
Sonoma is more undergraduate-focused and has nice residence halls.
Cal poly is as hard to get into as UCs, so if you have a 3+ GPA look into UCR or even UCSC.
great list above⊠I wouldnât put a lot of stock in the published % of freshmen in dorms, Step foot on campus at Monterrey on a Saturday and you wonât find a bustling community. SJSU is the same but, SDSU and Chico are always active. Visit the campuses
Iâm not buying Turlock as a college town either.
One additional thought - you can still get the âcollege experienceâ at a commuter campus. You have to work a little harder for it but, it is certainly there. The more established campuses have frats/sororities club, Competitive and IM sports and areas of student dense housing. My son (currently @ Chico) has several friends who attend Sac State. Two live in suburbia and commute - the show up just before class and leave right after. They say the school is âboring and deadâ and there are never any parties - so they go to Chico for fun a couple of weekends most semester. The others live near campus and have really engaged in the campus. They are in IM sports, go to football and basketball games and other on campus activities one is in a social frat and the other in a Biz frat. They are both busy all the time and have a large group of friends at college. They know where the parties are and say it is a blast⊠they havenât visited Chico since freshman year.
The same is true at LB, Irvine, Northridge, SF and
My assumption is that when people ask if School X is a âcommuter schoolâ, they arenât literally asking about the percentage of residential vs. commuter students.
They are really asking if there is lively social activity in the campus area in the evenings and on weekends. Are there interesting student-oriented restaurants, bars, stores, etc. in the campus vicinity? Or does the campus area go dead after classes end, in the manner of a school attended mainly by commuters?
Under this definition, a primarily residential campus could still have a boring, âcommuter schoolâ-type atmosphere. Suppose the campus is located in a isolated area without an adjoining student-oriented off-campus neighborhood. Some newer CSUs, such as CSUMB or CSUCI, are like this. Granted, they may have a lot of housing on-campus, due to the lack of neighboring off-campus development, so they may not literally be âcommuter schoolsâ. But the isolation still means that the residential students have little to do in the campus vicinity on nights or weekend. So the campus area is socially dead at those times, in the same way that a literal âcommuter schoolâ would be.
To elaborate: most CSU campuses are boring places to be on nights or weekends; they resemble stereotypical âcommuter schoolsâ in this respect. In many cases, this is because the CSU literally is a âcommuter schoolâ. But even if a CSU is largely residential, there may be little or nothing to do in the campus vicinity, in which case it may feel just as boring as a literal âcommuter schoolâ.
@NCalRent, you make a great point about Sac State. My sonâs two finalists for college were Cal Poly and Sac State (local). My wife is a Sac State alum. She lived at home and commuted from Roseville. However, we have lots of friends in the area who attended and had great âcollege lifeâ experiences. When she toured Sac State with my son, she made the decision ON THE SPOT that if he chose it, we would have him live on campus rather than commute from our house 15 miles away. The tour guide emphasized the activities that are available on campus and around town. We felt he could have an awesome âcollege lifeâ experience even in a moderately large city just a few miles from home. Ultimately, he chose CP, but it was close.
@corbrtt that is a really astute observation.
Not really. Look, for example, at the way the OP phrased the title of this thread:
The clear implication here is that a âcommuter schoolâ is one that lacks âthe actual college experienceâ. And if thatâs the case, then the term has a broader meaning than âschools with a low percentage of residential studentsâ.
There are nuances: Grinnell and Kenyon are in the middle of nowhere, yet they are NOT dead at all on weekends, because the school provides tons of activities for the students. So, if the college is commuter, one may want to see 1° whether there are residential halls with residential programming for the weekends AND 2° a dynamic college town or city OR good on-campus opportunities.
It seems that CSU CI for instance lacks both college town and on-campus activities on weekends, whereas Sac State lacks on campus activities but has a city where students can âcreate their own funâ.
Sorry, i should have been more specific - i meant the point about the buffer space around some campuses that might drive a high% in the dorms but, result in little to do on and around campus after hours.- probably driving kids away from the campus quad and recreation areas, making the student experience very different than a school with established neighborhoods surrounding campus. This is something that would be tough to pick up, even on a campus tour (other than where is everyone?). Iâve observed it at CI and MB and to a lesser extent Sonoma but, hadnât really linked the cause/effect in my brain.
Okay, I think I can do a quick âcollege townâ list for Nor Cal and some of the central schools. Anybody want to try So Cal?
HSU: Yes, but itâs waaaaay out there. Arcata has made top 10 lists for California college towns.
Chico State: Yes. Easily the most college-y college town in Nor Cal.
Sac State: not really, but a good city and lots to do. Plenty of college student friendly activities.
Sonoma State: Not really, but their lifestyle and learning communities in the dorms help students find a lot of activities and people to share them with. They are making an effort. Parents that like wine will LOVE visiting.
Maritime: Nope, and I grew up near Vallejo. NOT a college town in any way shape or form.
SF State: No. Itâs more in Daly City than SF, but itâs really close to San Francisco, so there is a ton to do.
Stan State: Nope. I wonât bad mouth Turlock, but itâs Turlock, not Corvalis.
East Bay: Nope. They had to change the name from Hayward State becuase no one wanted to go there. Good school, though, and Hayward isnât THAT bad.
San Jose State: Not really. San Jose is probably more about the Tech World than anything else.
Monterey Bay: No, but a lot of students live on campus and there is a lot to do in the surrounding area. This is my high school daughterâs #1 choice and my wife and I are cool with that. Good place to visit.
Fresno State: Kind of. Lots of student housing around campus and some of the biggest sports crowds in the CSU system. However, according to our tour guide, FSU students tend to road trip to SLO for bigger parties.
Bakersfield: No. Just no.
Cal Poly (SLO): Ranked one of the top 50 college towns nationwide and certainly top 5 in California.
Cal Poly (Pomona): Nope. Suburb city, but close enough to L.A. for anybody to find some trouble.
^ out if curiosity, what makes Bakersfield the worst from the whole list? Pollution?
@MYOS1634 , honestly, mostly just a weak attempt at humor. Itâs a small campus located in a town without a lot of âWowâ factor. As one website said âItâs more West Texas than West Coast.â And yeah, the air quality is measurably poor. Iâm not really knocking the school or the town. Itâs just not a âcollege townâ in the traditional sense.
However, one of my daughterâs best and favorite teachers proudly wore her CSUB sweatshirt every âCollegeâ wear day at school.
honestly, none of the remaining 9 or campuses would be characterized as âcollege townâ
SDSU CSULB, LA, Northridge, DH Fullerton, San Marcos and San Bernardino are all located major urban centers. Of them, SDSU has the most residential feel because there are so many students living adjacent campus. Long Beach and the others, a mile from campus, youâd have no idea itâs there because student population is so spread out.
Channel Island is different, not unlike Monterrey, it is new campus and kind of set away from Camarillo and Oxnard. Great location - but, not a college town.
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A sign that you are in an actual West Coast college town environment is one that says âWoodstockâs Pizzaâ.
Locations: Corvallis, Chico, Davis, Santa Cruz, SLO, Isla Vista, College Area of San Diego.
OK, thereâs one in Pacific Beach too, which isnât near SDSU or UCSD or USD, but lots of students live there anyway.