The College of Marin

Date: Jul 03 2006
Major: Business - Management and Administration (This Major's Salary over time)
I'm a middle-age man returning to college to study business, and I just spent two years at COM as a part-time student. I got almost all A's.

COM is a very small school in a very wealthy suburb, but there are a growing number of Hispanic students beyond the Caucasian student base. It is very much a commuter school: There is no school housing and students mostly drive in, go to classes, and drive out. That means there are very few social activities going on at the school although there are occasional events on the lawn, or the main breezeway. There are a number of clubs to join (although I suspect they are rather small), and I think that would be the best way to socialize at COM. It's not going to happen hanging around the student union.

I do not think the students, who are mostly young, are unfriendly at all. They're just a little shy because they're not in high school with all their old friends anymore. The best place to make friends is in your classes where you automatically have something in common to talk about. I'm old, but the kids in my classes were almost always friendly to me. But you must say "hi" first; don't wait for them to speak to you.

Night classes are a little different. This is when most of the adults show up for classes, and they're the ones who are really self-absorbed. Try to avoid the night classes especially if you're young.

Once you get past the ugly parking lot the campus is really quite pretty and maintained fairly well. The local voters just gave the school some millions of dollars to spend on renovations over the next few years, so once the construction ends it should be even newer and better.

Like all schools, choosing your teachers is key, so look on the web (try Rate My Professor), or talk to other students once you get here. Doing this, the teachers I've had here were either good, or really excellent! Even the teachers I didn't think were excellent (three of them) were pretty good teachers who were trying to do a good job, and were friendly and helpful. And the teachers I really liked were really special: Smart, helpful, friendly, and inspiring.

Five of my fourteen teachers at COM have a PhD. In other words, they are highly educated people who love to teach. Try getting that as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley! Overall I am very happy with my educational experience at COM.

There are some big advantages in going to a small school like COM. When I left COM I transferred to a much larger community college nearby for some classes I needed (City College of San Francisco). That's when I realized how good I had it at COM. The bureaucracy at COM has its rough spots, but the people there are mostly very nice and very helpful. The financial aid office does an especially good job. The bureaucracy at my new, larger school is full of pitfalls, unhappy and disinterested workers, and the financial aid office is particularly problematic. So for administration, financial aid, seeing a counselor, you'll never have it any easier than you have it at COM.