Foothill College

Date: Oct 09 2005
Major: Chemistry (This Major's Salary over time)
Foothill Community College is in Los Altos Hills, a sleepy bedroom community not far from the mountains. The location is idyllic, with a view of the mountains; at all hours, you can hear unseen owls hooting. Many students are out of high school, hoping for a transfer to a UC or a State school; in the sciences, everyone who made it through organc chemistry did transfer to a UC. There are usually a few post-baccalaureate folks as well: during my years there, there were a few Stanford students and a Cornell student, all of whom were brushing up the science requirements they needed for professional schools. The instructors in biology, math, and especially chemistry are very, very good, but very, very tough. You will work your butt off if you want As. The physics is only so-so, but I didn't take the true engineering physics. I took courses as a post-bac with hopes of getting into medical school, and the coursework there (along with a good MCAT) was taken very seriously by some very serious schools, both in California and elsewhere in the country. It is certainly not a social school. There are team sports, but I know little about them. Mostly it is a place for a focussed student throughly to learn lower division coursework with a great deal of individualized attention, often by Ph.D.s who love teaching and bring everything they have to it. I had a great experience there and after transferring to Berkeley found myself missing it very much. Highly, highly recommended.