Shasta College

Shasta College is actually a really great community college. Redding is the largest city in California north of Sacramento yet for some reason or another it doesn’t have a traditional university. Your typical academic type who moves to the Redding area wishing to teach higher education in a conventional environment really has only one place to go: Shasta College. As a result, it may be that the level of academic pedigree at Shasta is in some ways higher than it is at most community colleges. As an example, my Mathematics/Physics professor for four semesters graduated from Oxford in Nuclear Physics and went on to teach and work at MIT and Stanford, respectively, before moving to Shasta County for a slower pace of life. Her refined approach to instruction definitely had an impact on me. There were also a few Berkeley graduates in mix as well who were instructing some of my Biology, English and Mathematics classes. Perhaps this is normal in the current day and age given that increasing numbers of people are pursuing higher education and then finding teaching jobs at community colleges, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the faculty at Shasta was at lease a little above average.

Redding also has Simpson University, but it is impossible that it will ever attract people who thrive in the sciences, and it is also very limited in the types of programs it offers. So if you want to pursue most flavors of higher education in Redding, Shasta College is the only place to go, and then after a couple of years you must transfer to another institution.

One particular shortcoming of the school while I was attending is that it had almost nothing in the way of Computer Science classes, which is really inexcusable in the second decade of the 21st century. The school had a legitimate problem, however, in that when it offers the classes the rosters do not fill up enough to justify allowing them to continue—as a result they are canceled shortly after the semester begins. For some reason Redding is not producing Computer Science majors, which is probably not a good thing for this community given where the world is heading.

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Well-Intentioned Dawdling

• ANTH2 – Cultural Anthropology
• CIS10 – Excel for Windows I
• CIS11 – Excel for Windows II
• CIS12 – Excel for Windows III
• CIS60 – Visual Basic Programming
• ENGL1A – Reading and Composition
• ENGL1C – Critical Reasoning, Reading and Writing
• GEOG8 – World Regional Geography
• MATH1 – College Algebra
• MATH2 – Precalculus
• MUS1 – Music Fundamentals
• MUS11 – History of Rock and Jazz
• POLS2 – Introduction to American Government
• PSYC1A – General Psychology
• PSYC17 – Abnormal Psychology
• SPAN3 – Intermediate Spanish

Fall 2010 Semester

• CIS61 – C++ Language Programming
• CHEM1A – General Chemistry I
• CMST60 – Public Speaking

Spring 2011 Semester

• CHEM1B – General Chemistry II
• MATH3A – Calculus I
• HIST2 – World Civilization to 1500 CE

Fall 2011 Semester

• BIOL1 – Principles of Biology
• CHEM70 – Organic Chemistry I
• CHEM70A – Organic Chemistry Lab I
• MATH3B – Calculus II

Spring 2012 Semester

• CHEM71 – Organic Chemistry II
• CHEM71A – Organic Chemistry Lab II
• ENGL13B – Survey of English Literature from the Romantic Period to the Present
• MATH4B – Differential Equations
• PHYS4A – Physics Mechanics

Summer 2012 Semester

• ENGL1B – Literature and Composition

Fall 2012 Semester

• MATH4A – Calculus III
• MATH6 – Linear Algebra
• PHYS4B – Electricity and Magnetism

Fall 2017 Semester

• JAPN1 – Japanese I

Spring 2018 Semester

• JAPN2 – Japanese II

Spring 2019 Semester

• JAPN19 – Japanese Conversation I

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Degrees

→ Associate of Arts in University Studies: Engineering