Sonoma State University

#78 My cousin recently graduated from SSU. The campus is a bit small, yet intimate and cozy. Buildings and grass are nice and well taken care of. Both new and old dorm rooms are pretty big. After attending orientation, I already knew where everything was and I felt like a student.
Their graduation ceremony, however, needs some work. It’s held in this small area near the lake. More than half the guests were standing or couldn’t get in because it was too crowded. Getting to your seat is like that awkward moment when you’re at the movies and you need to get up, but your seat is in the middle so you have to try to get by without putting your ass in their face. Except the aisles are MUCH longer. My grandma spent 10 mins just trying to get into the aisle.
More thought needs to be put into their ceremony, especially when it comes to senior citizens and small children.

This school is garbage. It has a nice look on the outside but everything else here is terrible. If you get into another school I’d advise going to that one because it is awful here. There is nobody here that will help you with picking classes and figuring out what you need to do to graduate. There is also a writing test that you have to take as a junior which wouldn’t be a big deal if it didn’t cost 45 dollars to take, and a lot of students don’t pass and have to retake it.
If you only like to sit in your room and watch Netflix and do nothing all day then this town is for you. But if you actually like to do things then I wouldn’t come here, it’s beyond boring. It also smells really bad a lot of the time.
My biggest regret in life is knowing that my diploma will say Sonoma State university on it. I feel bad that my dad bought me a 20,000 dollar piece of paper that is worth nothing. If Sonoma had good academics then I wouldn’t be so upset but, every semester I take here just proves how bad this school really is.
Please don’t come here, I was told not to come but I didn’t listen to the advice and wish I had. I hope I can save at least one kid from this «school».

I’m not a student yet, but I plan to go in Fall 2017. When I first contacted SSU, I needed help on admission requirements, the faculty were super nice and took their time on helping me! When I visited the campus, the girl at the entrance helped direct me to my destination (I was looking for the Poli sci department).
I read Sonoma State’s acceptance rate is high, I believe it’s 80% or 81%. Sonoma State’s also a pretty diverse college which is nice.

«THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE EVERT B. PERSON THEATER»
We heard that the SSU play was going to be Into The Woods and we bought tickets for a Friday evening. I admit it’s not NYC Broadway but I can say that it was a first class show.
Excellent acting performances. very good singing, serious and funny moments, this play had it all.
Very good scenery and direction. This show even had a 14 piece orchestra providing the music. The theater itself is perfect for viewing a show. It’s on the smaller side but that means literally every seat has an excellent view. All tickets are general admission, seating is first come first serve, we arrived 10 minutes before the doors opened and had our choice of seats. All this for the paltry sum of $ 10.00 making it a great bargain.
Only small quibble was there were no real signs for the theater. After parking we asked a student where the theater was. Turned out it was the building about 30 feet in front of us :).
Based on the quality of Into The Woods, I would recommend other future shows here.

Just visited the campus on 11÷11÷15 and fell in love with it. The location is a wonderful, quiet, peaceful university in the middle of wine county but less than an hour away from San Francisco. When I arrived, I had no idea where to park so I went to an information booth. The girl working there was very helpful in giving direction to where I should park and gave me a parking permit. My tour guide was amazing a had vast knowledge of the history, majors, and associations involved with the campus. The campus is super welcoming. As I was touring the campus many people greeted me as I passed by. I was surprised because I am a Pakistani-​Muslim, I thought many people would be hostile seeing as many reviews here on Unilocal suggested racism from the students. The options for freshmen dorms are amazing. Sonoma’s dorms have a considerable amount of space compared to many of the other Universities in California. Sonoma State University is truly the hidden gem of the Bay Area.

Trying to get face time with an ADULT advisor for incoming Freshman is impossible!!! We have tried several times via email and in person for my son to meet with an advisor to help with his schedule and every person we speak to sends us to another person that does the same thing! Never ended up getting help. My daughter goes to SRJC and they are the complete opposite… VERY helpful and will give you as much face time as you need.
Financial Aide office is no better. I left with more questions than answers and had to make an appointment with an advisor from another college (even though my son is going to begin SSU next month) just to get help.
During Freshman Orientation the person that assisted students with Fall schedules was a student himself and didn’t guide them at all. He was only a year older than my son and very under qualified to be in charge of such a big responsibility. They took cell phones away to make sure their parents didn’t help. I don’t have a problem with that but my issue is the appointed person didn’t help AT ALL! My son wasn’t even told how many units you need to take to stay on track to graduate in 4 years so only registered for 12.
The campus is beautiful though. That’s a plus.

The campus is very nice. They have 2 large ponds with a big lawn. Buildings were clean and well maintained. Grass was green and healthy (thought we were in a drought).
Why only one (1) star. This goes to the Student Outreach Office. YOU GUYS SUCK! We registered on March 22^nd, online to do a college tour for Saturday May 23^rd. My daughter and I were really excited to receive our email confirmation. It gave us the confirmed date, meeting location, telling us how to obtain for parking permit and it even says tour will proceed rain or shine.
2 days before the scheduled tour I called 707−664−3029, asking about the tour and how I can obtain a parking permit. I talked to a lady who recommended me to email
and they can tell me how to obtain a permit. She also told me to come early so that we can obtain a permit and find parking and the meeting location which was at the Visitor Center in Salazar Hall, Room 1010.
I emailed that afternoon and got a response the day before the tour. It just said to obtain parking permit go to information booth at East Cotati and show them the email confirmation.
We arrived at the Sonoma State by 10:45am. Got permit for a lady who was at the booth. We waited and waited and waited. By 12:15 I went back to the information booth and the gentleman there said all offices are closed and there is no tour. I showed him the email and he just shook his head. He offered to give us a mini tour and answer some of our questions. As we headed back to Salazar building we met a Geologist Professor that worked there. He felt bad and said he is speechless. He doesn’t understand why the office has scheduled a tour during a holiday weekend. He gave us a private tour of his building and showed us around. He didn’t have much information about other departments but he was able to bring us in a few buildings that were open. It was really nice to have 2 people offer to show us around.
I left a message on the voice mail that day hoping to get a response or even an apology but never got a call back. I emailed a week later and until today have not gotten a response. Your department should be more responsible and own up to your mistakes! The staff of the Student Outreach Office is inconsiderate and shows unethical behavior.

At a volleyball tournament here and the school doesn’t allow outside lawn chairs, tents, sandwiches/​snacks for the kids. They brought in porta potties all day because we can’t use their bathrooms. If we want the kids to eat they have to go out to the car. Totally classless!!! Pay a freakin janitor. I’m sure they are making a fortune on renting out the dang gym!!!

In my experience, the student body at Sonoma State are intellectually incompetent, racist and invested more in partying than academic achievement. Please avoid this school if you want a rewarding college experience.

This is for the education department. I received my secondary credential from SSU and I can emphatically assert that I learned nothing from this school about teaching.
The teachers have not set foot in a public school in twenty years if at all. Not only that, some of them are really psychotic. The ones who are not psychotic are silly and vain.
There are two professors (although they have not earned their PH’d’s) whom I call the book ends. This is a tale of the two Susans.
One Susan is a flower child and the only thing she taught us about classroom management was «the stare.» The stare was a look she developed which is supposed to instill the fear of God in her students. All it did was make these students snicker.
The other Susan is into pretty things like flowers, hearts and superfluous power point presentations which don’t teach the student anything but do afford the student a chance to catch up on some Z’s. This Susan rejected my portfolio by the end of the program because she didn’t think it validated SSU’s teaching methodology. So, I took the portfolio home in a state of confused despair. I then went to Michael’s Craft Store and bought some pretty little stickers, and jewels and beads and stuck them all over my teaching portfolio because, see? Susan 2 likes pretty things.
I did not change the content of the portfolio at all. Susan 2 loved it and said the portfolio showed great signs of improvement and it was clear that I really got it this time. Oh, and I did incorporate Susan 1’s all important stare into my classroom management plan.
This, to me, sums it all up.
I have been teaching high school for five years now and can say with confidence that I learned nothing about teaching from SSU’s education department. However, I did earn a credential and if that is all you want and expect from a school of education, then you will not be disappointed. Perhaps my expectations were too high.

Sonoma State is good college, however, if you’re looking for the college vibe and house parties, this not your school. It’s also in Rohnert Park which is not a good representation of Sonoma County’s beautiful sceneries and really doesn’t have many activities.
I’m a freshman and have lived in Sonoma County for 10 years. I didn’t have any trouble registering for 1^st semester classes but once registration for second semester began, I have never been so stressed. There was an error in Records which was failing to notify me I had to take Eng100A/​B but since i only missed it by a point in the placement test they exempted it and told me to enroll in Eng101 for 2^nd semester to remain in compliance. Yay right? NO as soon as enrollment began I tried enrolling and the system wouldn’t let me. I watch day after day more classes fill up. I’ve talked/​emailed at least 5 people and it’s been almost a week. The problem has yet to be solved and still I get told to contact different people/​departments.

I was on campus a couple of times the past month for a sporting event, i.e. volleyball tournament. The campus is a bit «in the middle of no where» and away from any businesses to speak of. However, it’s a beautiful campus, spacious, well landscaped, and easy to walk around and enjoy.

The school Per se is nice. However, some of the administration, financial aid staff, and every other staff are rude, and will try to pass you around when you need help, or blame you for their incompetence. This school is not a student oriented school, I feel that some of the faculty members & staff here thinks that they are celebrities. Meaning, when you need help, they will try to avoid you like a plague and have someone else filter you out, so you can’t get in touch with them. There are also nice people that work here, but very few and they know who they are. The campus could use better quality professors because they can’t take what they dish out to the students. Some professors will require you to use a text book but doesn’t actually teach out of the books. Meaning, they want you to use the notes you take in class because they don’t want to review the proper material. It sucks how one professor will teach a specific class, so you’re pretty much stuck. Another issue I faced was the lack of online classes, not everybody has the same schedule. Every semester that passes the professors become more and more childish to deal with. Most of them expects you to do everything, including teaching the class when you are the one paying.
The food selection is sub-​par. I find it stupid that you can’t bring your personal items or backpacks into one of the schools places to eat. The location of this school is in the middle of nowhere. It can be good or bad depending on your situation, but at least it’s in a safe location. I like the fact that it’s near Bodega Bay.
The dorms here seems nice, but I have no real input on it. I decided to opt against it, I find their parking space inadequate in my situation. I have two cars and a Sport bike, and the school cannot accommodate that.
Every school have all types of students BUT MOST ARE RUDE WITH AN ATTITUDE. It’s up to you, to work it in your favor. The little town here is cool. It’s definitely not a fast pace city or even a city, but if you like a slow quiet town away from the city, this is it. There’s nothing up North past Healdsburg, except Lake Sonoma. Personally, I don’t like being packed like a sardines can like some other schools in busy cities. Again, if you want to enjoy the quiet scenery, this is the area to be in.
Just like any other school, this is a place of business, so expect a bunch of none sense baloney fees. There are good teachers, but most of them are lousy just like any other school. Since the school is impacted, the classes fill up quick. It’s irritating that some professors will wait for the last minute to select a book for the class, making it hard to outsource a cheaper alternative, instead of having to go to the overpriced book store. If you can see past the stuff I mentioned about this school, you will like this place.

I was in a pickle between ASU, SJSU, Sac State, and Sonoma. I had made both the SJSU cheer team and Sac State cheer team before I had even been admitted to either of those schools (because tryouts happened during application processing). I thought from the beginning I would be going to SJSU for sure, until I didn’t get into the school, I was able to appeal my application and get voted into the school because I would have been cheering but knew it wasn’t meant to be.
So I had been deciding between Sac State, which is close to my home town and ASU. I still did not hear back from Sonoma because I was waitlisted.
I then decided that Sac State would have been perfect, I was already on the cheer team, it was close to home, and the campus was almost as beautiful as Sonoma States.
In the middle of summer at the end of my senior year of high school I heard back from Sonoma and found out I was accepted. I figured it was meant to be. I then declined my acceptance to Sac State and ASU, which was the best decision of my life.
The people I have met here are amazing. I liked how big the Greek life was here and decided to head in that direction instead of cheerleading in college, and the dorms are to die for. My first year I was living in an apartment style dorm with a kitchen and my friends from high school awe-​d over it. I am currently a second year here and I can say I know most the people that go here and my counselor remembers my name and does a lot for me.
Because its a small school its difficult to get classes but its hard to get classes anywhere. There are good and bad professors at every school. *Rate my professors is very helpful when looking for classes.*

I LOVE Sonoma State. I came in as a transfer student in 2009 and attended two years and lived on campus. Campus housing (at least for juniors and seniors) is amazing. Own bedroom and bathroom. Pretty spacious living areas and newer appliances in the kitchen. A lot of cabinet space. Beautiful area. Pools and laundry rooms are not far away.
I was a psychology major and thoroughly enjoyed my education there. Professor’s were always willing to help. I was so amazed by how intelligent some of the professors were in this department. I learned so much from them. I was academically pushed here and I’m so glad I was. It may not have been the HARDEST school but it wasn’t easy either. It was just enough to really teach you and have the knowledge stick.
Registering every semester was a breeze. They are organized when it comes to paperwork and those types of administrative stuff. I never had any issues applying for graduation or picking dorms, classes etc.
I do wish they still had a football team, though. But if I could go back, I would! I miss it! Stayed living in Rohnert Park after I graduated due to getting a full-​time job right after graduation and meeting my soon-​to-​be husband. :) I love living here.

I must preposition this with the fact that I am a Psychology major and therefore my rating is based off of my experience with SSU through that vein.
Pros:
Open-​minded
Cheaper than UCs
Beautiful Campus (fishing pond!)
Quite a bit of options in classes/​course content
Cons:
Repetition
Relatively Easy/​simple (some may view this as a pro)
Some inconsistent teachers
I am in my last semester and I am completely done with school because I feel like we are beating a dead horse as far as what I am «learning»
The SRJC had a solid psych program, but it is an associate’s program so when I came to SSU I expected to learn and be challenged more. Instead, I found it feeling as though I was just retaking classes I had already done at the SRJC. Guess that is what happens when your JC is a relatively good school.
I think I will be going somewhere else for my master’s just to get a different experience. I feel as though I have got all I can out of this school.

The only thing that pisses me off about going here is I went too long ago to enjoy all the beautiful new buildings and spaces on campus. I was there in the 90’s, it was more «rustic» then. Still, I loved my time there, got a great education, went on to meet all the career goals I had in mind. I was a Biology major, it got me to med school just fine. Sure, there was drama, but that’s college, and I didn’t always get the classes I needed, and due a terrible car accident, it took 5 years to graduate since I had to drop some classes. I am really happy with SSU. It doesn’t hurt that I paid about 490 bucks a semester as a freshman, about 1000 bucks when I was a senior, and left undergrad debt free! It made the $ 250,000 med school debt a little more bearable (although not by much).

I loved, LOVED going to SSU. I had the best years of my life there and chose the most perfect school for me.
It saddens me that some former or current SSU students are giving my dear alma mater 1 or 2 stars on Unilocal.I am willing to bet that the people who are doing so did not thoroughly research SSU before accepting and attending. I did my research and found out all about it before I decided to go, so there were no surprises.
No one should give Sonoma State 1 or 2 stars because they’re not happy with the size of the campus, the demographics, the extra curriculars, or competency of some professors. Every single college in California has both outstanding and mediocre professors. If I didn’t care for a professor or like the class, I took it anyway and did my work. The experience and skills of the other wonderful professors far outshone the incompetence of the bad professors. I don’t even remember the names of the awful professors I had; I only remember the good ones.
The school’s information is readily available to any prospective student, plus you can tour the campus before applying or accepting. It’s not hard to find out the demographics of the school. Don’t want to attend a school that’s mostly female and mostly white? Then don’t go to SSU!!! Don’t attend and then complain that there are too many girls. The male to female ratio is stated on multiple brochures and pages on the website.
It’s every high school senior’s (or community college transfer student’s) responsibility to thoroughly research and tour schools. It’s not like high school where you’re kind of stuck with whatever high school your family’s home is zoned for. You get to choose your college! I toured every college that I got into and none of them felt right until I stepped on the SSU campus – I was home. It was perfect for me.
Sonoma State is a wonderful place to spend your four years. Go Seawolves!

SSU is the hidden gem of Sonoma County.
I grew up in Sebastopol, and I could think of nothing but getting out. SSU is a breed all of it’s own. It is beautiful serene campus that has many lush gardens, and a student population that out number men 3 to 1.
I graduated from there last year and moved on to SFSU, thinking it was the best change, I can’t help but miss the place. Thank SSU, for all that you have done.

I’m a current student at SSU and I’m loving my time here. The only reason that I’m giving four stars and not five stars is that the school can’t afford to hire enough great professors. Overall, the teaching has been excellent, but it’s obvious that the departments are underfunded and that’s hurting class selection and the quality of the instruction.
The campus is beautiful. The administrative staff is on top of things, friendly and very accessible. One thing I love is that you can call your department and speak to a human being really easily. I worked with the University of Texas prior to making my decision to attend Sonoma State, and I found UT’s administrative bureaucracy to be sprawling, impersonal and arrogant. At Sonoma State, it’s the opposite. The school just isn’t too big, so that makes it personable.
I think SSU is a great place to do an undergraduate degree.