Safety:
Parkland cops have guns. You will be safe
attending school and commuting to and from here. Living: The
majority of property theft and homicides occur in the housing
south and east of Parkland's campus (off-campus, as their is
no on campus housing). Find housing on U of
I's campus and commute: it is worth your gas.
Academics:
Read the fine print of the academic program you
are taking. Then talk to a counselor at the
four-year university you are trying to transfer into. Parkland's
academic counselors, although friendly, are not knowledgeable about what courses
will transfer to other Universities- this is your responsibility and
is where you will most likely (like me) get screwed.
Focus on your per-requisites here as your upper-division courses
will most likely NOT transfer. Courses are straight forward
and I never took one that required an excess amount
of work- as this is a community college and the
demographics don't allow the school to waste ppl's time.
Social
Atmosphere: There is none here. People are approachable
in class but no one goes out partying with each
other on the weekends unless they came here from high
school together. That's why you should be living on
U of I's campus as close as possible to Green
Street. Keep in mind their are a lot of
north shore (of Chicago) suburban kids at U of I
so keep an open mind and a 'don't give a
fuck attitude' and just keep being persistently outgoing. It'll
help a lot if you live with someone going to
U of I. From my understanding, Parkland does a
lot for their students than most community colleges in terms
of events- but the student body here is comprised of
a lot of students who are working full time, have
kids already, or are older and returning to college in
their 30s+... kind of like a true community college (sarcasm
intended).
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