My son is a Business Administration major and is transferring fall 2020. We planned on him going to a private school and he was accepted to Chapman, Pepperdine & LMU. Now since it’s likely classes will be online in fall and maybe Covid will resurface in fall and force Spring classes to be online, we are re-thinking paying for private school. He was accepted to honors program at UC Riverside and advanced honors for San Jose State. I don’t think advanced honor’s really offers much and unsure about Riverside’s honor program. We haven’t seen San Jose State but have been impressed with their detailed online virtual webinars. Can anyone please offer suggestions. Our goal is for him to live on campus, make good friends, get a great education and have job opportunities after he graduates. All thoughts welcome!
All three of the private colleges are religious ones that differ in denominations and how religion influences student life there. How much does that matter to him?
How does cost and debt differ?
Some religious engagement and humanities courses are fine for him. It is not his focus but meeting nice friends is important. He is not looking for a party scene and is not an extemely social person but is willing to join clubs to meet people. He likes the idea of smaller class size which private schools offer and SJSU say they offer class size of 28-30 for upper division classes…Is that true? Two years of private school is affordable but paying 35k+ tuition while being taught online doesn’t seem to be very practical. Therefore, we are entertaining the idea of UCR, SJSU and Sonoma State. He turned down San Diego State yesterday because we heard it’s a huge campus and hard to get on campus housing. We are trying to compare the academics and the community on campuses. We’ve heard from several people who attended Chapman it is great for academics but you need to join a frat to “belong” and some of what I heard sounds like high school all over again. One friend who goes to UCR says it’s a commuter college and hard to meet people as a transfer student, with large classes. We have no idea what SJSU campus life is like as we were unable to tour the campus due to Covid 19…
Pepperdine is known for a relatively strong religious influence on campus life, including required convocation attendance: https://community.pepperdine.edu/seaver/convo/attendance/policy.htm .
In terms of class sizes, you may want to look at each college’s class schedule to see if class sizes are listed.
Thank you… very helpful. I will share with my son.
Honestly of the ones you list SDSU would have been my first choice. Though on-campus housing is scarce for Jrs, the campus is surrounded by student filled apartments and houses where it is pretty easy to make a connection with fellow students. Sounds like that’s off the table though.
academically, they are all fine. I am not sure how much transfer housing there is at SJ , historically it has been a commuter school but I know they have put up some new dorms recently. It puts him in the heart of the silicon valley (for better or worse) lots of good internship opportunities if he wants to work for a big tech firm.
Sonoma is a lot smaller than the others on your list and has kind of a private school feel without the big tuition bill. They have lots of nice on campus housing and they take advantage of their location by offering unique classes like wine business. They have a strong local alumni but the north bay doesn’t have as robust and diverse economy as the South bay so the internship picture is narrower.
UCR is a large commuter school with good academics. I think he’d have to work pretty hard to establish connections with fellow students.
Though formal tours are all cancelled, the campuses aren’t fenced. You can drive to all of them, park and take a self guided tour of the campus and surrounding area.
As a person working in the business world for a Fortune 500 company, my preference would be UCR over any of the above mentioned colleges (yes, even over SDSU) since it on the up side in reputation and rankings. It is a coveted UC and the price is reasonable compared to the private colleges. UCR has a very good business school offering many disciplines within the business school. UCR is a commuter school only for the segment from the Southern California areas. Even that, most may not commute home every weekend. There are still many from outside the So. CA areas who do not commute. Additionally, your son can join the many clubs, organizations on campus or meet new people in classes or his housing units.
My son attends SJSU as an Econ major though we live in So Cal. We also know Chapman’s and LMU’s environment because he was accepted to all 3 school (plus others) as an digital arts/animation major, but has since changed majors.
SJSU is a commuter school in a bad, scary part of town. The area is like the edges of downtown LA with lots of homeless who wander into the dorms and who sleep in the school library, which also serves as a public library. And there are the occasional knife stabbings at the edges of campus. Or mattresses thrown into the streets. It’s pretty scary and women should not walk around there at night. Scarier than USC because USC is fenced while SJSU is not fenced.
They have built nice large dorms and suites that face towards a quad, so maybe fewer homeless make it into the dorms. Since it’s such a commuter school, that there is no problem getting in dorms as a frosh and soph and I think there is a special section for transfer students. If you don’t get the on-campus housing, there is a nice, modern, large, privately run, suite-style apartment that has been always easy to get housing but it is pricey, and has the additional benefit of a guard in the lobby who is stationed behind glass (not sure if he is there 24/7)… There are a lot of clubs, but with not much activity, but it makes it easy to try new things. DS is in film club, comedy club, frat, and has done acapella and choir which is the first time that he has ever sung so it’s nice to be able to try new things without it being super competitive.
As for education, all of his upper division and most of his lower division classes have had 40 students or less. There are a lot of business classes offered. Another difficulty with SJSU, and probably all CSUs, is the number of GE class requirements are staggering compared with the GE requirements at LMU and Chapman.
As for religious requirements, LMU is pretty accepting. DD friend went to LMU and he is Muslim and felt fine and comfortable. The required religion classes at LMU can be quite broad, I’ve heard. At Chapman, it does not seem to have any religious impact, seems like a secular college to me; not sure if there is any required religion classes. Pepperdine is much more strict with religion; I think that they are supposed to have a dry campus?
FWIW, DS has wanted to leave SJSU and transfer to LMU or Chapman because he wants a residential experience in a more comfortable, less tense environment.
Chapman may feel a little stuck up, probably because many kids who attend might have went to private HS. My son feels very comfortable there, though, but he attended private K-12.
And an additional FWIW, my husband and I worked at KMPG in accounting for a few years before moving into industry, and we mainly see UC grads, but maybe it’s biased because we were UC grads and LMU/Chapman/Pepperdine has fewer students by an order of magnitude.
An additional FWIW, my bro-in-law went to Sonoma, and he is a CEO, and had high ranking positions at Sports Apparel companies like Addidas.
I would definitely go with UCR if he wants a solid business education, friends, campus life, good post college job opportunities for a more affordable than private school price. The commuter aspect is one aspect for those tempted to go home in Southern California not the whole campus. Plenty of students live on and around campus and stay there on weekends. He needs to get plugged in with other transfer students, campus clubs, a fraternity perhaps, and the residential life/campus programming
I’d vote for UCR too.
Another vote for UCR. My daughter attended UCR and we didn’t see her that often even though we live 90 miles away. She had a mix of friends from Southern and Northern California and even a couple of internationals.
I appreciate all comments very much. One of my son’s objections to UCR is the class size. He knows a transfer student that attends now and has commented that some of his upper division classes are huge and the only access to help are T.A.'s, which are not always helpful because they can each have 50+ kids to help. Can anyone speak to this issue? He likes the idea of a smaller class size, feeling connected and getting to know his professors. We are weighing the pro’s and con’s of each college as there is no perfect fit. He is waitlisted at Cal Poly which seems to be the best fit for him, but that is not a very strong possibility…
I would still attend UCR for the reason that UCR’s business school has a very good reputation.
@YoHoYoHo your omments from above:
“And an additional FWIW, my husband and I worked at KMPG in accounting for a few years before moving into industry, and we mainly see UC grads, but maybe it’s biased because we were UC grads and LMU/Chapman/Pepperdine has fewer students by an order of magnitude.”
Many years ago, I worked at a Big 4/Big 8 (old days) too and Big 4 firms hired more from the UC’s than most other schools. Big 4 firms like to hire from prestigious and top tier schools. If someone had an Ivy League degree and interested, they would hire that person in a flash if the price is right. As you know, the Big 4 firms have more slots available for high rated schools. Older S is at a Big 4 firm after graduating from UW Foster Bus. School. At the summer intership and new hire staff training, he tells me in the West Coast, there is an overwhelming number of hires from the UC’s (especially UCB, UCLA and UCSB (econ accounting)), UW-Seattle, and USC. For that reason and job prospects, I would pick UCR.
“SJSU is a commuter school in a bad, scary part of town. The area is like the edges of downtown LA with lots of homeless who wander into the dorms and who sleep in the school library, which also serves as a public library. And there are the occasional knife stabbings at the edges of campus. Or mattresses thrown into the streets. It’s pretty scary and women should not walk around there at night. Scarier than USC because USC is fenced while SJSU is not fenced.”
I have not been to the SJSU area in over 15 years when D was deciding on the school, but as I recall, the area is a little seedy and therefore somewhat agree with your comment there. However, the comment re: USC is exaggerated. S currently attends USC and as an alum, I know. The campus is not fenced. About 3/4 of the campus has a nice gate and/or red brick wall around the campus. Outside the edge of the USC campus, in the vicinity, there is a 24 hour vehicle patrolled area by security guards about 1 to 2 miles radius from the campus. Closer to the campus where students would walk to their dorms or apartments, there is a security guard stationed at almost every block, day and night 24 hours. Students also get free Uber rides in the patrolled areas. I would feel very safe walking in the area around campus at night, even feel safer than the UC Berkeley campus area at night. Despite that, I tell my son, when walking, to stay within the walking perimeter surrounded by Adams, Exposition, Vermont and Figueroa Streets. Otherwise, use a car or Uber. Further, the new recent constructions, the University Village (has shops, restaurants, residential units, etc.) that opened in the past few years ago make the campus area much nicer.
https://registrationssb.ucr.edu/StudentRegistrationSsb/ssb/term/termSelection?mode=search indicates that fall 2019 upper division business courses had the typical large lecture with smaller discussion format (enrolled/capacity for lecture, discussion sizes):
100W: 289/300, 17
101: 286/286, 48
102: 264/298, 50
103: 288/295, 50
104: 278/300, 50
106: 255/300, 47
107: 288/291, 50
108: 283/293, 50
109: 92/100, 50
However, elective upper division business courses appear to be 80 to 100 students.
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