San Francisco State University

Date: Jan 12 2009
Major: Undecided (This Major's Salary over time)
I attended SFSU last year and due to my lack of motivation, I am now at City College of San Francisco where I am much more focused and where I am doing much better. I was not ready for college and the dorm experience didn't help because I felt like I was in a hotel all year and I felt like I didn't need to be going to class, especially when some of them were so large that the teacher never even took role. My advice to incoming freshmen is to not live on campus!! You will save lots of money living off-campus, even in the expensive city of San Francisco!! Even living in Parkmerced (which is right next to SFSU), I am paying half of what I paid to live in the dorms, with a much nicer place and place that feels like home. I lived in the apartment-style dorms (The Towers) and while it wasn't horrible, I really wasn't happy, which was another reason for my lack of motivation last year. I am also vegan and although the Dining Center was accommodating, I dreaded going there. The food sat in heaters all day and I was always hungry. I spent most of my money on getting food outside of campus, and I was very lucky to have a kitchen, otherwise I would have seriously died. The one big draw to the school for me was it's location, right on the edge of San Francisco. Public transportation is great and this is also a very bicycle-friendly city. I spent a lot of time out of my dorm room doing things around the city, which is another reason why I did not do well at all last year. When I transfer in a year or so, I am not going to go back to SFSU because when I went there I felt like I was just a number. If you are undecided on your major, do not waste your money at a university. I was the type that wanted to go straight to college right after high school and I am really glad I am not at SFSU anymore. City College offers courses that are just as good, if not better. Professors have time for you, it's much cheaper, and class sizes are much much smaller.

A lot of kids from Southern California come up here, which does bring some pretentiousness to the school but all in all it is still San Francisco and it is generally a liberal and accepting school. The city itself is incredible, and I am going to have a difficult time detaching myself from it if I transfer outside of SF.