Valencia College West Campus — Attraction in Orlando

Unfortunately I can’t say many positive things about Valencia West. With the exception of a few exceptionally kind and intelligent professors, (hence the two stars instead of one) my experience has been an absolute headache. For context, I’ve been a student at Valencia since 2022 and was a full time for a year before taking a gap semester.

From the very beginning, I have struggled to get help in general. From advisors to tutors, no one has a helpful attitude. I can’t count how many times I visited the advising office with a simple question, only to wait 5 + hours to be spoken with for less than 5 minutes and brushed away feeling more confused and frustrated. It doesn’t matter if it’s academic or financial, no one seems to be able to give concrete advice.

Nursing/Academic Advising: I found it impossible to meet with an advisor specific to my degree. My major of choice was AS Nursing. I was mistakenly assigned to an economic advisor. When I pointed out this mistake and asked to talk to someone specific to my major, they simply removed the economic advisor from my file and neglected to add the replacement. So, when it came time to meet with someone before applying to the program, I had no one. I went to the campus to try to meet with a general advisor, sat for five hours waiting, and was told there was ultimately nothing they could do for me and had to leave. They didn’t even pull me into a private area to speak. A man with a laptop stationed at the front desk spoke to me very loudly and impatiently over a swamp of other students waiting for help. I left feeling extremely frustrated. When I ultimately applied, I had completed my pre-reqs with straight, high As and a TEAS score well above average. I was still rejected with no explanation as to why, and was encouraged to “reach out to my advisor” which, again, I didn’t have.

Financial Advising: I found this experience to be equally frustrating and convoluted. Meeting with an advisor on campus was impossible. The wait times were equally as long. Because of this, I opted to get help virtually. Advisors don’t turn their cameras on; it feels impersonal. For the 2024-2025 school year I was awarded aid for the fall and spring. I didn’t attend classes for the Fall 2024 semester because of personal issues. Because of this, I didn’t use my financial aid. I still needed it for the Spring. When I called and asked if it would roll over, they advised I fill out a request to defer it to the spring and summer semesters. I was fine with this plan, as I intended on enrolling for the summer semester. I filled out the form and when I received the update email, my fall aid had been sent back to my loan servicer leaving me with only one semester of aid and half the money I was originally granted. Super frustrating, as I’m not someone that is able to attend college without the help from financial aid.

Tutoring: If you need help from a tutor at Valencia, forget about it. It’s a joke. You’re better off meeting with your professors during their office hours if they’re available. The one time I attempted to get help through the free tutoring department, I was connected with another student who asked what I needed help with. When I explained my confusion, she told me to “read back over the text” and call back if I had questions. Apparently my question was “too broad” and therefore not something they could help with. She didn’t ask any follow up questions, though I tried to elaborate. She just turned me away hastily and said I could call back.

All and all, I’ve had a horrible experience and would never recommend Valencia to anyone, despite any perks they may advertise. I feel like I’ve wasted so much time and money. Such a disappointing...

Don’t Go to College—Seriously, I Beg You 🙏

Alright, listen up, future scholars (or rather, hopefully not). I’m here to save you thousands of dollars, years of your life, and countless hours of soul-crushing boredom. If you’re considering college, do yourself a favor—don’t. Just don’t. 😬

College is Dead—Learn for Free Instead 💀 Everything I learned in college, I could’ve picked up on YouTube or from a $12 Udemy course. No, seriously. Why spend years listening to professors drone on about theories you’ll never use when you could just Google it for free? You want to learn a high-value skill? Watch some tutorials, get to doing, and skip the debt. You’ll learn more efficiently, and you won’t need to take “Intro to Basket Weaving” to fulfill some pointless requirement. 🧺

The “Education” That Leads to Nowhere 🚫 I spent thousands of dollars and years of my life on this so-called education, only to find myself in a low-paying job, competing with a bunch of other degree-holders in the same boat. It was like a sad game of musical chairs, but with cubicles and bad coffee. ☕️

Meanwhile, my friends who skipped college and learned actual skills online were out there making money and traveling the world. Within a year of escaping the matrix, I was making 10x (yep) what I did at my post-college job—without having to endure a single PowerPoint presentation. 💸

The Entrepreneurship Path—Freedom Debt 🗺️ Here’s a crazy idea: Instead of wasting time and money on a degree, use that same energy to become an entrepreneur. When you build your own thing, you have actual agency. You’re not shackled to a 9-to-5 in some overpriced city, living for the weekend like it’s a jailbreak. 🏝️

I started learning high-value skills online, got clients, and suddenly, I was working from anywhere with Wi-Fi. While my college friends were stuck in rush hour traffic, I was sipping smoothies on a beach, doing what I love, and not answering to a boss named Karen. 🌴

Doctors and Lawyers—Are You Sure About That? 🏥⚖️ “But what about becoming a doctor or a lawyer?” Glad you asked. Doctors: Years of school + insane debt + brutal hours = constant exhaustion. Most of them are just one cold cup of coffee away from snapping. 😷 Lawyers: More debt + arguing for a living + working 80-hour weeks = burnout central. Enjoy drafting endless documents at 3 AM. 📑

And what’s the reward for all that? A fancy title, a mountain of debt, and a spot in a broken system. Even the doctors and lawyers I’ve met regret it—they’re too tired to spend all that money they’re supposedly making. 😴

College: The Ultimate Marketing Scam 🎯 Let’s be real—college is just a big marketing campaign with a campus attached. No one cares about your GPA in the real world. Employers want to know what you can do, not what grade you got in “Philosophy of Star Wars.” 🤖

It’s all designed to make you think college is necessary. Spoiler alert: It’s not. What actually matters is the kind of person you are, your skills, and whether you can figure things out on your own. You can learn everything online for free, build your own projects, and skip the debt prison. 🏗️

Final Verdict: Skip College, Save Your Life 🚀 Unless you’re 100% set on being a surgeon or a Supreme Court Justice (and even then, maybe reconsider), don’t waste your time and money on college. Invest in yourself, learn online, start something of your own, and build a life of freedom. 🌟

Trust me, your future self (the one not drowning in debt or student loans) will...

I haven't been to a lot of community colleges so its difficult for me to compare with anything else but my experience so far has been less than satisfactory. Trying to juggle work and this place is extremely difficult because the classes offered are extremely limited and don't ever seem to work around my schedule. They also have a habit of changing things year after year, for instance the development math classes. This year instead of letting them be a 16 week course two days a week, its an 8 week course 4 days a week! And the problem with this is that you are REQUIRED to take them if you havent been in school in a while and are trying to go back to better yourself. Im 29 and its been a while since ive been in high school so math was something I needed to brush up on, but this entire fall semester the required math class for me is 4 days a week! Since my schedule isn't your normal 9-5 this poses a serious problem for me. I am also required to take a computer class that is mandatory in order to be able to access other classes but there are only 3 classes available throughout the entire school! The only online class offered is a combination of 2 classes, one of which i finished last year. So no online classes for a simple computer A+ (Hardware) Class. Also trying to get your questions answered is like pulling teeth out of a pissed off shark. I keep getting emails stating that I need to complete 'loan exit counceling' and when I asked the college about this, they stated that I was 'required' to be enrolled in the summer and because I hadn't enrolled my loans went into repayment! I contacted my loan officer and was told this is ENTIRELY untrue and that my loans are not going into repayment as we are not required to attend the summer semester. And yet there is still a Financial Aid hold on my record! Also if you plan on going to the answer center to get your questions answered, expect to be there for a few hours. I literally stood in line for 2 and a half hours waiting and watched a couple of staff members just get up and leave because they were off of work, leaving a line that stretched all the way out the door. The reason I didn't give this school one star is because its priced extremely well. 100$ a credit hour (as of 2014) is very reasonable, but if you do plan on going to this school, make sure you have a very open schedule, don't expect a lot of online classes, and expect to jump through hoops to get your questions answered. Also don't necessarily believe everything they say, as the financial aid doesn't always know what they are...