BIG differences

Now that I have been here for a few weeks I’ve started noticing big differences between here and WOU.

I am so glad I got my Bachelors Degree at a smallish university back home because CSUF is the BIGGEST university in the state of California. It has around 37,000 students total. I’m glad I got my bachelors degree at Western because I liked knowing faculty and staff on personal level and that I built relationships with some of them as well. Here the university is so big that as an undergrad (working on receiving your bachelors degree..) there are waitlists to get into classes; the buildings are far apart I couldn’t imagine having 10 minutes to get from Mihaylo business department to the Kinesiology & Health Science which are on opposite ends of campus!

Now that I am working in academic advising I am noticing big academic differences as well- for example, here if you do bad in a class and want to retake it they average the grade between the two for the final grade whereas at WOU whichever class you do better in is your final grade. Here you can only retake three classes whereas at WOU you could retake as many as you would like to pay for. That would have been really unfortunate for me if WOU would have done that… at one point I had three D’s on my transcript that was really bringing my GPA down and it would have been unfortunate to have to have it averaged as opposed to just changed.

This place is so big that they have three parking structures that update all day online where you can see how many spots are open in a specific structure. My coworker told me that the drivers are so crazy here that sometimes they’ll follow (in their car!) people walking towards the parking structure, roll down the window to ask if they are leaving and ask if they want a ride to their car! That way they get a spot! WHAT THE HECK! Thats scary! I’m so glad I do not have to worry about parking… lol

A big difference that is a plus from WOU is that there are actual restaurants on campus… the ONLY Starbucks on campus is in Mihaylo business hall… which is like a 2 minute walk to my work! 😉

So far, I’m really enjoying this place.. Its starting to grow on me.. I have a schedule now so I know when I should be leaving for work. Its so dang hot that on Mondays my dear friend Susan picks me up before our 6 hours of classes because where I live is on the total opposite end of campus from the parking structure that is near our classroom. So she picks me up so I am not sweating bullets by the time I get there and then she gives me a ride home since we get out at 10pm. So great. Its on her way to and from school so it works out great. 🙂