Butte College

My experience at Butte College was mixed.  I was well received by my professors, most of whom were wondering where I had come from (all of the courses I was taking at this time had numerous prerequisites, many of which were taught at Butte by the same people).  Butte offers more in the way of classes than Shasta, including three “higher” lower division Computer Science courses, two of which I was able to take before transferring.  However, the uniquely liberal attitude at this campus is totally off the charts and materializes as an overly relaxed treatment of education that is, I feel, incredibly harmful to learning.  I found the general academic climate very disagreeable.  In all ways Butte College is aspiring to be Chico State Jr., which is not a complement to the institution.

I had applied to Chico State’s engineering program and was exploring the very remote possibility of staying in the area to finish my degree.  However, after spending some time in the town as a student I found that it is absolutely impossible that I would ever go to school there.  (I should note that I had lived in Chico for a year and a half back in 1998-1999, so I was already somewhat familiar with the high jinks that occur, but I was not partaking nor a student so the severity of this behavior was not so apparent to me at the time.)  During the spring 2013 semester I was spending a lot of late nights at the CSU Chico library studying for my classes out at Butte, and the average student that I encountered was a buffoon.  People would bring in Little Caesars pizzas and beverages—into a library!—to “help” them study.  And somehow this behavior was perfectly acceptable by the school. In fact, it sometimes seemed to me that this behavior was quietly encouraged, almost like university studies and partying are two things that are naturally entangled and should forever go hand in hand.

Sadly, I have nothing positive to say about Chico State University.  For Butte College, some good things happened when I was there—my professors took care of me and I was able to complete some important lower division classes that were otherwise out of reach—but I was also very relieved when it came time to move on.  From educational and moral standpoints, it’s atrocious what is going on in this town.

Fall 2012 Semester

Spring 2013 Semester

Degrees

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