[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!