Housatonic Community College

Date: Jun 21 2012
Major: Other (This Major's Salary over time)
After one year of a disastrous high school freshman experience, I transferred to Housatonic as a part-time student at age 15. I am almost 17 now and will be graduating this winter. I can honestly say that despite the reputation attached to community colleges, this is a great school.

Campus: the campus is very small (two buildings) but very pretty. Beacon Hall is newer and nicer. Overall it's a very nice campus, as well as very safe. I've never felt unsafe crossing campus at night.

Classes/faculty: the workload is manageable, but expect to work. The 101 and 100-level classes move a bit slowly and the students aren't always bright, but the slackers (mostly) get weeded out by the time you get to the 200-level courses. Make friends with the professors - 90-95% of the ones I've had have been very approachable, friendly, and helpful. If you're really passionate about a subject but feel you aren't being challenged enough, take the initiative to do more on your own - that's a good lesson for college and for life. The professors will be willing to help you with that. One word of caution is that they aren't always available in their offices and you might need to be persistent in tracking them down.

Social life: because it is a community college, there are no dorms or residential life. You can make friends at this school, but you need to get involved and be outgoing. Join clubs. Talk to people in classes. Participate in events. HCC does a LOT for its students, from college fairs and seminars to Movie Night, Halloween parties, festivals on the quad, etc. Get involved.

As an HCC student you will find a lot of diversity. The stats just came out and it's about 33-33-33 white/black/Hispanic with the rest being a mix of races. Some of the students do have a "ghetto" attitude but if you're a middle-class white kid like me, you'll still find people like you. Expect to broaden your horizons and make friends with people of different nationalities and ages as well as races. I have friends at this school who are 18 and friends who are 40, friends from Bridgeport, from Arizona, and from Beirut (Lebanon). There are some kids who are lazy, but get in with the right people and you'd be surprised how competitive a community college can be.

Take Ryder for math, Koch for history, Scott or Krill for criminal justice, Meyrick (tough) or Russo (easy but awesome) for economics, and Amico for psychology.

If you want to transfer in something other than nursing, think about majoring in General Studies. Some 4-year schools (other than CT state schools) want you to complete the higher-level courses there. Get your English and math and social studies out of the way.

One word of advice: BE PROACTIVE IN YOUR OWN EDUCATION. The advising department definitely leaves something to be desired. Take matters into your own hands. Think about what you want to do, study the catalog, figure out which classes you need, pay attention to when they're offered, use Rate My Professors to find the best profs. You might make a mistake or two but make the best of it.

Go there to learn, not just to tick off the classes you need.

Explore Bridgeport and southern CT, all of B-port isn't bad despite what people say.

Get involved in extracurriculars.

Think about taking a CLEP. It will save you some time and money. They don't always transfer, though.

Get in with the right people. Be friendly, and you'll find them - they'll jump right out at you.