What are the pros/cons of living in humboldt county, CA?
My husband and I are thinking of going to Humboldt University for grad school, besides the awful state of California’s economy, what are the pros/cons? What’s it like there?
2 Responses
ThomasC
27 Feb 2010
John S
27 Feb 2010
Humboldt County in general, and Arcata in particular (where Humboldt State is located), tends to be progressive/liberal, like most college towns. You can determine for yourself if that is a plus or a minus. It is a good base for camping and fishing, if those are things you like. There are some fine Victorian homes in Eureka and Ferndale. The area among the redwoods is beautiful.
However, it is very wet and not very warm. It is a long way from any big city, so the cultural events tend to be those that come to or are presented by the college. Sports, ditto, though there is a semi-pro baseball team.
Humboldt State is directly across Highway 101 from Arcata, a small liberal town of about fourteen thousand people. Arcata has a Safeway and Longs, but you won’t find any chain clothes stores or the like. Most of the stores in Arcata are pricey one-of-a-kind stores that generally close at 6pm. A disproportionally large amount of "transient" people (grubby, slightly creepy, will ask you for change or weed money) can be found in Arcata and at the town square. Personally, as a college student who does a lot of walking into Arcata (it’s a very short walk, maybe 15-20 minutes to get to the town square) having to walk past these people bothers me, but they’re pretty harmless for the most part. Personally, I think driving in Arcata is a pain because there a ton of stop sign intersections / pedestrians / one-way streets, hence I walk into Arcata.
Eureka, population of about 28,000 is the "big town" near HSU. It’s about a 20-30 minute drive or so south down the 101 from campus. It has a mall, a movie theatre playing current movies, Costco, Target, Safeway, and just about everything else you would expect in a decent size town. It would probably be a lot easier getting a non-minimum-wage job in Eureka than Arcata.
I live in a single apartment on-campus, which has it’s own bathroom and shares a kitchen with two other people, but for your situation you’d probably want to rent an apartment. Arcata has a fair amount of apartments and houses available, but for best results I’d recommend getting a place in late spring / summer, that way you won’t be stressing out about where you’ll live when school is starting. Expect to pay $400-700 per person per month or so. I think the cheapest single person off-campus apartments are in the $500s per month.
That’s my take on the "What’s it like there". About 25% of the campus does/tries drugs, if you associate with non-druggie people, it doesn’t really change/affect your life very much, if at all.
Class sizes are small (30 or less for all but the most basic classes) and all professors know my name and encourage their students to visit with them during office hours. There are a handful of really boring professors, but the large majority seem very interested in their chosen fields and are very willing to share their enthusiasm with their students.
I hope this helped a bit