(Photo provided by NBC Bay Area)
To give a brief explanation to my situation, at San Francisco State, most majors are impacted. This means that there are too many students applying to the few spots available in their respective majors. Essentially, there are too many students at San Francisco State than the school has the supplies for. Just recently, I applied to my major and heard back my results. I have been accepted into my major, but I cannot begin taking the sequenced classes until Spring 2018.
After hearing this news, I looked into the amount of classes being offered for my particular major. The answer? Two. There were only two classes offered of the classes I would have taken. This meant that I did everything right along the way to apply to my major, but there were just staffing issues to supply the classes I needed.
I would give San Francisco State three stars. One star is deducted because they are understaffed, which makes it hard for me to get classes which then makes it harder for me to graduate in four years. Whether this is because of lack of funding or just that simply no one cares, I do not not know. But either way, the problem should be fixed.
Another star is lost because the administration does not seem to care about their students. However, they do care about making sure their salaries are high, which does mean cutting the salaries of the professors. The most basic thing a school needs is professors, so without them or with too few, the school will not be efficient.
Lastly, although this does not have to do with the educational aspect of San Francisco State, another star is deducted because they do not meet the needed amount of housing for students nor do their meal plan options come up to par. Many students would prefer to live on campus because it is easier and more convenient. However, once you leave your freshman year, the chances of you getting housing become smaller and smaller. For food, there is one option, a medium sized cafeteria with terrible food. The food is often bland, the meat is questionable, but one thing is for sure, that a microwave was somehow used in the food preparation process. This terrible food is not cheap either, you end up paying thousands to have a meal plan than you will most likely never use.
San Francisco State can keep two stars because when you do get a class, chances are you will get a really great professor. The campus itself is not an eyesore either. However, I would say my experience up to being a sophomore, does make me rethink going here, and definitely makes me want to speed up my time here. Even if I will have to spend breaks still in a classroom, I will be graduating in four years.