Orange Coast College

Date: Mar 17 2009
Major: Biology (This Major's Salary over time)
[I attended a Cal State in the past and went to OCC while waiting to transfer to another 4-year school, so I already have some experience with different types of schools and how they compare to each other.]

I loved my time at OCC. Sure, it's kind of like high school all over again and everyone commutes, but it's a community college… what else would you expect? It's the perfect size—not too tiny where you'll run into the same people in all of your classes but not big enough to feel like just a number. The classes are small and you can get a lot of individual attention from your professors, something that you definitely don't get at a 4-year school. I also found that most students are pretty friendly and the faculty are very accessible and have a lot more genuine interest in their students' success.

The campus is really nice and a lot of the buildings are newly remodeled—the Art Center is impressive and the Lewis Science building even has its own mini-aquarium! Most classrooms have updated technology and there are tons of computers all over campus for students to use. The cafeteria serves full on restaurant-style food and there's a Starbucks on campus as well.

All in all, I found OCC to be worth every penny of my tuition. I saved a ton of money knocking out a bunch of lower division classes and boosted my GPA as well. If you're part of the small percentage of students that already know what you want to major in and are thinking about grad school, you'll easily succeed here. Take advantage of the lack of competition and get involved in clubs and other extracurriculars because once you transfer, you'll be fighting with hundreds of other like-minded students for president of club such-and-such (looks good on resumes) or TA for your favorite professor (they can write awesome letters of recommendation).

It's a perfect transition between high school and "real college," and in retrospect I wish I would have started at OCC for all of my lower division courses and then transferred to a good 4-year school. Forget the stigma about going to a community college first, it's totally worth it and you'll probably have a better chance of getting into a top university than if you go straight from high school (assuming you're not one of those freakish geniuses that got higher than a 4.0 and took 9 AP classes, of course). Good luck!