Best Non-Commuter University (San Diego, Long Beach, Fresno: home, dorms, neighborhoods)

[lvkewlkid]

in other words, I am looking for a state university (already applying to USC, which is private) that has a dorm life...I would prefer Southern California and I am from Las Vegas...I just don't want to be at a university where after 6 PM the place is dead...I also would like to know which ones have a strong business school program...

Thank you for the information in advance...

[kettlepot]

Sounds like you should look at San Diego State University (SDSU). It is well known for having a strong business program, and the social atmosphere of the campus is conducive to networking and developing contacts. While it is true that a significant portion of the student population commutes from home or lives in off-campus housing, given the large size of the student population (35k+), even if only 20% of the students live on campus, that means there are still 7000 people around in the evenings. Add in a couple thousand more that live in the surrounding neighborhood, and you will have an active on-campus social life.

[lvkewlkid]

thank you, i was interested in San Diego State, now what about Long Beach and Northridge or Fullerton? I heard that Fullerton was highly commuter but what about Long Beach or Northridge?

[BRinSM]

my wife's much younger brother is entering his senior year in high school, so we took him on a tour of a bunch of the public colleges in socal a couple of weeks ago. the only schools that we saw that really have a significant dorm population were UCLA, SDSU, and UCSD. UCLA and SDSU are well intergrated into their neighborhoods making it easy to walk or bike just about anywhere you need to get. UCSD is a bit secluded on an old military base, but is literally on a hill overlooking the ocean. You could also add USC to that list, but it is obviously private as you had mentioned. Outside of those 4 schools, every other university in the region that I have seen is a commuter school. Other than that, you'll have to look up the central coast and into northern california for non-commuter schools. I've heard good things about both UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. As for the northern CA schools, I don't really know anything except that Cal Berkeley and Stanford have good sports programs and are in the Pac 10 conference.

[BRinSM]

Originally Posted by lvkewlkid

thank you, i was interested in San Diego State, now what about Long Beach and Northridge or Fullerton? I heard that Fullerton was highly commuter but what about Long Beach or Northridge?

I went to Fullerton and know people who went to Long Beach and Northridege, all 3 are definitely commuter schools with a very limited number of dorms. Fullerton and Long Beach are very cool cities with lots to do for college aged people as far as night life goes.

[veg8]

UCI is becoming a lot less commuter and most student live close to school in Irvine.

[sav858]

pretty much most CSU's are commuter schools. SDSU does have a lot of dorms a nd good campus life but not all freshman are able to live on campus b/c of overcrowding. It's still somewhat of a commuter school but less so than any other CSU in SoCal. SDSU would be your best bet for a typical college experience in SoCal.

The best CSU to go to for that real, typical college experience would be Chico State. It's a real college town and everything revolves around the school. And I've heard Chico State has one of the best business programs around so you should check into that. I had a lot of friends go to Chico and I always had a blast visiting there b/c it showed my what a real college town was like rather than the commuter school I went to, UCSD.

[SHNYROQ]

Cal Poly SLO and UCSB are both just finishing large on-campus housing projects which will bring many more students onto campus, so less commuters.

[bhcompy]

SDSU is an okay choice, but it's one of the top party schools in the nation. Hard to work through that.

Your best non-commuter schools are the ones not in major metro areas. Chico(another top party school because there is nothing else to do in that armpit), Fresno State, Cal Poly SLO, etc

CSULB has less than 1500 dorms and they have well over 30000 students. Probably the most commuter oriented school in the CSU system

Since you're from Vegas, I take it heat isn't an issue. UC Riverside riverside may fit then. Lots of dorms and only about 1/4 commuters according to wikipedia, 1/4 on campus dorms, and 1/2 near campus apts