Universities in California where you don't feel like another number? (Riverside: home, top schools)

[Spudcommando]

To make a long story short, I spent two years at ASU an absolutely gigantic party school with a student body in the tens of thousands completely lost half the time only to end up enlisting in the Army because by that point I was just throwing away money. Now I'm a little under a year away from my ETS date, needless to say I don't want to make the same mistake of attending another school where you're just another number in their computers.

Why go back to Cali one might question of me? Because regardless of the state's numerous faults, it still has a university system that other states can only dream of with some of the top schools in the nation. Is there a more...lets say personalized school where you the faculty aren't too busy dealing with 500 other students to help you out? That's the kind of college experience I'm now looking for? I'm starting to do some research and maybe applications soon, but I'm really only somewhat familiar with the gargantuan UC System and I am basically willing to move anywhere in the state.

[sadie123]

Tell us what kind of career you want and I will see if I can help with the school choice. You were in the military. Will you have military funding? Will you be able to use the yellow ribbon award?

[Spudcommando]

Trying to finish my degree in Finance, I'll have access to the Post 9/11 GI Bill along with the little perks that come with it like a housing allowance based on CA BAH rates. And I have no idea what the Yellow Ribbon Award is...

[WesternPilgrim]

I doubt that you'll find any university in the UC or CSU systems where you don't feel like another number. Even the smallest of the CSU campuses (Channel Islands in Camarillo) has more than 3,300 students. The word college means a "community of scholars", which seems impossible to realize at any school that is larger than a small city.

Fortunately, California is home to one of the best colleges in the entire country, one of a tiny handful where a truly classical education can be obtained - Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula. It's a Catholic college devoted to the Great Books and the Socratic method. Enrollment is just under 400. Faculty to student ratio is 1:11. There is one degree, so everyone on campus is a colleague. The professors are brilliant and generous with their time. From the website:

"Thomas Aquinas College defines itself in terms of liberal education and is concerned exclusively with such education. That phrase itself may suggest different notions to different people, but there is one traditional meaning thereof that the College intends to signify, and to which it adheres when it identifies itself as dedicated to liberal education.

According to this understanding, the term liberal in the context is derived from the Latin adjective liber meaning free. Used substantively, liberi signifies free men or the sons of free men. Clearly, then, education denominated liberal will be so named because of some connection seen and implied between such education and human freedom.

What is here implied by the adjective is, however, not education denominated liberal because it flows from a spirit that is free in the sense of uncommitted, unbound to principle, approving everything and excluding nothing; rather, it refers to its end, or purpose. The kind of education here envisioned is called liberal because it is ordered to freedom as to its goal; it is called liberal, in other words, because its intended effect is the genuinely free person."

[EdJS]

I went to Caltech. I highly recommend it. I think there were only 200 people in my graduating class.

[jaijai]

Originally Posted by WesternPilgrim

I doubt that you'll find any university in the UC or CSU systems where you don't feel like another number. Even the smallest of the CSU campuses (Channel Islands in Camarillo) has more than 3,300 students. The word college means a "community of scholars", which seems impossible to realize at any school that is larger than a small city.

Fortunately, California is home to one of the best colleges in the entire country, one of a tiny handful where a truly classical education can be obtained - Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula. It's a Catholic college devoted to the Great Books and the Socratic method. Enrollment is just under 400. Faculty to student ratio is 1:11. There is one degree, so everyone on campus is a colleague. The professors are brilliant and generous with their time. From the website:

"Thomas Aquinas College defines itself in terms of liberal education and is concerned exclusively with such education. That phrase itself may suggest different notions to different people, but there is one traditional meaning thereof that the College intends to signify, and to which it adheres when it identifies itself as dedicated to liberal education.

According to this understanding, the term liberal in the context is derived from the Latin adjective liber meaning free. Used substantively, liberi signifies free men or the sons of free men. Clearly, then, education denominated liberal will be so named because of some connection seen and implied between such education and human freedom.

What is here implied by the adjective is, however, not education denominated liberal because it flows from a spirit that is free in the sense of uncommitted, unbound to principle, approving everything and excluding nothing; rather, it refers to its end, or purpose. The kind of education here envisioned is called liberal because it is ordered to freedom as to its goal; it is called liberal, in other words, because its intended effect is the genuinely free person."

Imagine if all educational institutions in this country (beginning with grade school) were similarly oriented.
Now that would be cool!

[Spudcommando]

Originally Posted by WesternPilgrim

I doubt that you'll find any university in the UC or CSU systems where you don't feel like another number. Even the smallest of the CSU campuses (Channel Islands in Camarillo) has more than 3,300 students. The word college means a "community of scholars", which seems impossible to realize at any school that is larger than a small city.

Fortunately, California is home to one of the best colleges in the entire country, one of a tiny handful where a truly classical education can be obtained - Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula. It's a Catholic college devoted to the Great Books and the Socratic method. Enrollment is just under 400. Faculty to student ratio is 1:11. There is one degree, so everyone on campus is a colleague. The professors are brilliant and generous with their time. From the website:

"Thomas Aquinas College defines itself in terms of liberal education and is concerned exclusively with such education. That phrase itself may suggest different notions to different people, but there is one traditional meaning thereof that the College intends to signify, and to which it adheres when it identifies itself as dedicated to liberal education.

According to this understanding, the term liberal in the context is derived from the Latin adjective liber meaning free. Used substantively, liberi signifies free men or the sons of free men. Clearly, then, education denominated liberal will be so named because of some connection seen and implied between such education and human freedom.

What is here implied by the adjective is, however, not education denominated liberal because it flows from a spirit that is free in the sense of uncommitted, unbound to principle, approving everything and excluding nothing; rather, it refers to its end, or purpose. The kind of education here envisioned is called liberal because it is ordered to freedom as to its goal; it is called liberal, in other words, because its intended effect is the genuinely free person."

This school looks interesting, but one degree? I'm going to have to find out what that entails.

[Dean Trails]

Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name?

Go to a trade school...become a plumber, auto mechanic or electrician,,you will earn way more money and have a deep sense of accomplishment and have job security and probably make more money over a long career.

Cheers!

[1200RT]

I went to Univ of Redlands and had a very similar experience to what you are looking for.

[Spudcommando]

Anyone have any experience with UC Irvine or UC Riverside before? I've been looking into the UCs and they seem to have a good student to faculty ratio. Having never been to Irvine or Riverside, is it a place where a young single guy can do well in? Or are they more of a more family oriented town?