Let me just start off by saying that while i used to believe college is "what you make it" i have never had a worse experience then my two years at sonoma state. I have met a few great friends and had some good times at this school, but if you are looking for a real college experience or a place to grow, this isn't the place for you.Greek Life- If you aren't going to join, LEAVE. bottom line. As a guy, you won't do anything but sit in your dorm and smoke weed until you fail out (which at least half the freshman class does every year) because you will not be allowed into a single party without TKE or SAE letters on your shirt. As a unaffiliated girl you will be reffered to as a "muggle" and will occasionally be let into parites, but only accompained by evil stares from sorority girls. Trust me, i was a evil sorority girl so i know.
If you do join a sorority, be prepared. You are encourgaged to drink and smoke and party until you hit the floor, but punished for all of the above due to the the insane bullshit greek life rules that have kept my lame sorority on probation for the past 2 years. You will also be subject to the 3:1 ration of girls to guys that causes every girl in sonoma to throw themselves at every square bear loser that managed to get himself into a decent frat. the "sonoma standard" is the rule that you lower you standards by at least half to find anyone managable to date, if they are even willing to date you or just want to run around screwing the many slutty soror-whores with their mouths open.
If you're a guy and rush a frat, hey this might the school for you.
As far as Rohnert Park, the town is about as exciting as a ghost town, cops love to run around and give MIPs and break up parties, usually before they really get started. The town HATES the school and is full of hicks and crack heads that harass you on the streets. It rains constantly, and is probably one of the worst places in the world to put a college. All of the parties are far enough that you have to drive, and drunk driving is all too common at school. The frats usually do a good job of making they have DDs, but you better be a groupie or a brother to get one of them to take you home.
As far as the surrounding area, good luck on finding something to do other then smoking weed or checking out the local cannibis clubs. I was a seasoned stoner in my two years at sonoma, almost every other person has a club card or smokes weed, and the main social scene is going to peoples houses and smoking with them. There are also quite a bit of raver kids, drugs are abundant because the place is so damn boring, anything from xanax to coke to oc is easier to get then some alcohol if you arent 21. Also, If you don't have a car, you better make some friends.
Academically, the place is alright. Classes are small enough, my biggest lecture class had 200 people, my smallest class had about 20. Most of the math/science teachers don't speack very good english, and like most state schools, you can slip through the cracks very easily if you don't try to stay up on your work. TAs teach a lot of the classes, and i'd say about 40% of the teachers are caring and willing to help with questions. As far as teacher, Stay away from Helmut (philiosphy) ichuwu (english) or subbaram (statistics).
The campus itself is nice, its very modern and the library is big and has a cool book retrival system that i've never used in my two years. The library is a social spot for the greeks, and is where a ton of gossip and greek type discussion goes on. It is not a good place to study, and during finals you're better off locking yourself in your room then attempting to squeeze between two greeks at the tables in the lib.
The dorms are the best part of sonoma, and the reason i decided to go there. You can get a single room with your own bathroom, or share a double with one other person. Sauv is where its at, but verdot and cab still outrank other school dorms 10x. If you get bad roommates its also very easy to move which is nice.
Overall, my experience sucked. I did all the right things, joined a sorority to get invovled, made a bunch of friends, went out every weekend and still did my work. This place just bored the shit out of me and turned me into a person that i wasn't proud of. The majority of people here are very self centered and surface deep, everyone is only interested in what they can get from you. Almost everyone is from california, and about half from so cal.
This school wouldnt be so bad if there was something to do other then sit around and smoke weed or make fun of the few gross hippies, but if you are looking for a REAL college with actual fun parties and somewhat of a college experience, look elsewhere.
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