Tidewater Community College

Date: Nov 19 2008
Major: Undecided (This Major's Salary over time)
TCC is great for those of you who don't know exactly what you want out of college yet. If you are still undecided as far as a major goes, try TCC for a bit. Just personally speaking, I started out looking for a photography degree, then I changed to Liberal Arts because I wanted to teach English, now I want to study film, and it's just from taking various classes and learning more about myself. My whole thing with TCC is I've found that the faculty is outstanding - I've had many teachers I can see myself keeping in touch with for a long time to come, but the way TCC runs the school can be frustrating. I don't like how they make you take seemingly pointless classes to receive a degree. For example, SDV classes. Completely worthless. Also, the computer competency classes they require seem the same way, worthless. I also don't like how they make developmental classes worth so many credits when they don't count towards your degree. It seems like they do this to get more money because they know most people, especially returning adults, won't test out of these classes, so they make them worth 4-5 credits. That's just a little unfair to me.

I'm not saying, however, you shouldn't attend TCC because of this (you may really like computer classes, who knows?). The faculty, like I said before, truly is brilliant in many cases, and I feel priveledged to have studied with them (although I go to the Va Beach campus, so I can't speak for the other locations). I'd recommend taking classes being taught by David Neff, Cheryl Cobb, Jeff White, and James Coble if possible. All highly intelligent professors. You could learn a lot from them.

Overall, I'd recommend TCC if you're undecided about a major, or looking for a cheap alternative to state universities without losing a quality education. If you do go, I advise you only stay for a bit (get about 25-30 credits under your belt) and transfer to avoid getting suckered into those worthless classes I mentioned. If you make good enough grades, not having an Associates shouldn't matter come time to transfer.