Pasadena City College

If you are thinking about entering a community college first before transfering to other university, i will recommened PCC, sure soem classes are going to be super easy and some are going to be challenging. and if you want to make friends, it's up to you, it what you make it out to be.

2nd Year Female -- Class 2008

Perceived Campus Safety: A+, Useful Schoolwork: B

I'm from the area so when i told people that i was going to go to pcc upon graduation, it was kinda taken as an "oh, you're one of those people", meanning that i'd probably end up slacking and transferring in 5 years. look at me now, two years later and well on my way to a 4 yr. u (i haven't gotten all my admission notification letters yet). i can honestly say i've learned a great deal that is incomparable to what i perceived it would be. the school is not a joke and the faculty WANT you to get out of there and pursue that life you want or go to that top tier university you want. yeah, everyone in my latin class is either married/engaged/over 30, but wow, the classes are full of people who are really competitive in getting the hell outta junior college. i'm tellin you, it's a crap of a lot more competitive here than it is at many universities that aren't princeton and caltech. btw, caltech is one block over. we also have guest speakers and professor from caltech who teach part time at pcc. the campus isn't as grandeur as say ucla, but what do you expect from a jc? but the school is in the plans for a new renovation from a new HUGE parking structure where we won't have to play bumper cars in, new buildings, etc. My dad came here for like 20 yrs ago and at that time it was nationally ranked 6th best. i bet pcc isn't far from that now. we've had MANY famous alumni including jackie robinson (whom our football stadium is named after), the entire van halen band, nick nolte, one of the guys who played a trekkie on star trek, lisa (from saved by the bell), the black guy from american dreams (very recently), and a whole lot more. just check out our alumni page. we've got excellent faculty who have regular office hours and if you've really got lots of problems with your work, you can ask them to go get coffee with you and chat about your paper in the beautiful city of pasadena (home of the rose bowl, rose parade). the MARCHING BAND at this school is even considered better than most neighboring universities! the people here are level headed, practical, focused, mature, and competitive. of course there are the occasional idiots you'll run by who can't tell a protractor from a compass, but those are usually the fresh out of high school kids. you'll find many older students returning to school to complete their associates degrees or completing pre req work for additional degrees. many of our students transfer to ucla and my friends say the quality over there can't compare to pcc's. we don't have stadium seating for 500. our classes average 35 and people always drop due to slacker problems, or deferring education to take care of their kids. you'll meet so many people from all walks of life and you'll be really proud to attend a nationally top ranked junior college. itll prepare you for transferring to that 4 yr. u. and perhaps life (a little vague, but you should know what i mean). the racial breakup is really diverse here. you're talkin about an almost even distribution of all races here. although there is a large asian population here there's an equally large hispanic one. african americans and caucasians are equally populated and i really cannot tell what race is the majority. to sum up my experience here, i love it and i might even shed a tear when i graduate because everyone knows once they leave here they'll miss it because you'll never be able to come by a deal this good ever again. oh, and tuition is damn cheap. its only 18 bucks a unit here compared to east coast jc's (around 120 per unit). gov. schwarzenegger's tryin to hike it up but it's already a damn good investment. also, i wanna add that you are in charge of yourself. no one babies you or warns you about anything. if you aren't self motivated, you'll just end up wasting your money and time for staying there for 5 years. trust me, its not rare. the parking lot has cars that range from 80,000 suit up hummers and convertible benzs, porsches, bmws, to ratty ol 8 toyota camrys. we have a lot of rich kids from neighboring cities who come here but its just already an all around wonderful community so you'll have no problem finding friends. allright i'm tired. email me if you need more insight. sorry this review is so jumbled.

2nd Year Female -- Class 2004

Education Quality: A+, Social Life: C-

I've only finished my first quarter here at PCC, but I can already say that it is an outstanding school and it fits me perfectly. I am actually a college graduate, and graduated from a very prominent university here in L.A. (hint: that small one Westwood), and am taking pre-req's to pursue another degree. And I can honestly admit that the teaching here in PCC is comparable -- probably even better-- than that at the university level. Finally, professors who can teach and who care!

The only drawback is that PCC's facilities and learning resources are less well-developed and less sophisticated than at bigger universities and institutions. Yet that is to be expected at any community college. But the professors, counselors, and most introductory classes here at PCC are practically the same as you would take in universities. I just wanna say to all the students at PCC, that you're getting a excellent education here... take advantage of it while you can, because once you leave here, you WILL be prepared at the university-level and go on to higher things... Believe me, I know -- so take advantage of it!

1st Year Female -- Class 2002

Education Quality: A, Social Life: C