California State University-Monterey Bay Top Questions

There may be many things that are unique about USU, but the one thing that I love is the clean cut atmosphere and the positive attitude of the USU employees and students. Both those things have made my experiences more enjoyable.

CSUMB is a great school in prime location!

Our school is located in beautiful Monterey Bay California. They also strive to provide hands on experience with much of the student population, however, due to budget issues are unable to.

I am currently a freshman at CSUMB. DO NOT GO HERE! I came here planning to attend for only a few years to get my GE's out of the way easily (I knew the classes would be easy) and then transfer to a UC. Little did I know that it is IMPOSSIBLE to get out of this school, especially with the current state of the CSU system. CSU schools are not accepting lower-division transfers. Basically the only way to get out as a lower-division student would be to transfer to a community college. But what college likes to see that you dropped out of a CSU to go to a community college? When I asked my advisor for help on transferring to another school she simply showed a me a website (asisst.org) where I could see if my CSUMB classes could transfer to other schools (none of them did). She then proceeded to write down classes for me to take that were CSUMB specific and could not transfer! I checked out the website and barely any (four or five) of the classes at CSUMB actually transferred to other colleges. DO NOT GO HERE IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON TRANSFERRING TO ANOTHER UNIVERSITY, EVEN IF IT IS WITHIN THE CSU SYSTEM. The social life here is a joke. No one is friendly and no one wants to be friends. There are never any parties worth going if you can even get to them! The campus is really isolated and you need a car to get everywhere. The closest store (Target) is about a forty-five minute walk from campus. And the bus system is horrible, there is a bus about every four hours, not convenient! The surrounding cities are ridiculous, if you enjoy being stared down my creepy men then go to Marina (the closest town), and if you like being surrounded by old people go to Monterey. There is literally nothing to do. The beach is too cold. There are never parties. Since it is an old military base there are good off-roading trails, but try and find a broke college student that is willing to risk their car for twenty minutes of fun. The only thing to do and the only thing that anybody ever does is smoke weed. The dorm halls smell like weed and Febreeze 24/7. The classes here are ridiculously easy, I literally felt like I was a freshman in HIGHSCHOOL instead of college. I’m not entirely sure that any of the teachers are actually professors than just regular teachers with teaching credentials. The classes are boring, easy, and filled with people that are seriously dumb. I have no clue how many of the students actually got into college. Most of the people in my math class couldn’t even solve simple algebraic equations. And some people in my English class could barely write a high school level essay. When people ask you where you go do you really want to have to say you go to CSUMB with all these dumbasses? The dorms are constantly having problems. The hot water in my building has been out five times in the last semester, once for three days straight! Once our shower drain was clogged and it would overflow if we had the shower on for more than two minutes, we put in a work order to have it fixed and the maintenance people said it would take five to ten days before they could come out and fix it. Five to ten days without a shower? Yeah right! I had to call them and bitch them out for half an hour before they sent someone out that day. A student shouldn’t have to do that. The heater in my room has been broken all year. They sent someone to get it fixed and it still doesn’t work! To get inside the dorm halls you need to scan your student ID card. Does our scanner work? NO! Anyone can get into our dorm, that’s a little scary. The only good thing about the dorms is that each room has their own shower, sink, and toilet. I’m begging you, please please please take my advice and do not go here, you will regret it! I'm not just saying this because I had a bad experience, I know lots of people who feel the same way as I do about CSUMB. If you’re a stoner and you don’t care where you get your degree and you want hella easy classes, then go to Monterey, it’s the place for you. But if you are serious about your education and you might want to go to grad school, do not go to Monterey, you will be screwed.

My school is very environmentally friendly and is trying very hard to be sustainable. I thought the Environmental major matched my interest perfectly because I want to work in the marine science field.

The small classrooms and student average in the classrooms is a positive that i finf unique.

The size is the overall thing that distinguishes us from the other schools in the college. Along with that would be the class sizes, which help with this unique educational process.

It is very diverse, laid back and fun! But if you want a challenege you can find it with the right professor's and classes.

Its on the beach, it had a beutiful, small campus and a brand new library. It is also very diverse, culturally and artisticlly.

Compared to the other schools that I looked into attending, CSU Monterey Bay offered a great program for Computer Science. Inside the labs there are top of the line computers, computer software, hardware and a server room where networking students can perform hands on experiments. After visiting other colleges, it seemed as if they really weren't putting the money or effort into creating/building a top Information Systems, Computer Science college; department.

It is very diversified and a beautiful campus

This is a small, liberal school built on a large former military base. The result is interesting.

Its fairly new and overlooks the gorgeous Monterey Bay!

It is very small and the classes are small enough for the student to get to know his or her professor.

It's a small school that focuses on the individual. The classes are small enough that the teachers actually remember who you are and care about you, all of which really contributes to the feeling of a small, close community.