College of Marin — Attraction in Ross

After having read the other four reviews, two of which were scathing, I felt compelled to add my own experience. Mine has been much different.

As a quick background, I've attended University of Oregon, Virginia Tech, Sonoma State, University of Phoenix and College of Alameda. I've had a large amount of experience dealing with Universities and Colleges.

I've taken classes at COM in Real Estate, Automotive, Electrical, Biology, Ethnic Studies, and PE. Most of my classes have been in Real Estate. I refuse to berate individual teachers and faculty unlike some of the other reviews. In general, I've found COM to be an extremely great place for education at the price. As it is a community college, they offer undergraduate general education classes which can be used for transfer to UC's and CSU's. I had already obtained a BS before coming to COM so I did not need to take any of those classes. They also offer a wide array of technical and professional classes, of which I've taken. I thoroughly enjoyed my classes in Real Estate and Electrical. They do now have a student website (MyCom Portal), which is a little tedious to work with, but you can still get what you need from it. The counseling department has always answered my questions straight away and if it was something needing an appointment, I've found I could get in within a week (at latest). COM does offer some classes in the evening and on weekends, but it's probably only 15-20% of their catalog and only in certain subjects. I would agree with the other reviewer that I do wished they offered more classes at night. One other thing: getting in to impacted classes can often be challenging at COM. Anything pre-nursing or nursing is that way. But, with that said, I doubt you'll find any community college in California at this point in time that doesn't have some problem with impacted majors.

A note about price: As of this semester, I believe each unit of study is around $40. That price is still extremely better than any UC or CSU, where every unit is between $300 and $400. So one class taken at COM will cost you around $120 (3 units) versus anywhere from $900 to $1200 at a CSU or UC. If you can transfer those units, think about how much money can be saved! That's one of the main reasons for going to school there - I can learn everything I've wanted to know about the world (generally - ha!) at a...

I have to completely agree with the last review. CoM was one of the worst experiences I've ever had. I went there so I could take classes to transfer to a UC from 2005-2006 and they were about to be discredited by ACCJC/ WASC. I foolishly joined the student gov't body to try and make a difference, instead I witnessed teachers being vindictive, particularly from the English dept. I took a class with a teacher-- Rollins (can't remember his first name right now) and when he found out I was in student gov't my grades immediately and sharply went down. I was a 3.7 student and in honor society getting C's from this guy. There is definitely a culture of favoritism and snobbery at this place. Another piece of work is Thoedora Fung. This woman is actually the head of the counseling dept. When she found out I was talking to the Berkeley recruiter she came into the room and asked what my GPA was and then told me that it wasn't good enough and I wouldn't get in. What kind of guidance is that?! And who walks into a room and interrupts someone like that?! Again I had to believe this was a result of my involvement in student gov't. The teachers there live a very posh life. Tenured faculty are making anywhere from 110k-160k and don't keep accessible office hours. God forbid you have a job and want to take classes at night or on weekends b/c you can't! No night classes & no weekend classes. Let me say that again. This is a community college with NO weekend classes. The teachers fought tooth and nail during their strike so they wouldn't have to teach on wkeds. Yes, you read that right. People making well over $100k/ yr went on strike. I'm all for collective bargaining, but you can see why unions are losing their influence when you see this crap. I will say that I met a couple of extremely helpful teachers like Yulanda Bellisimo and Kathy Freschi; I truly felt sorry for them b/c they were actually caught up in all the political tug of war that the teachers were playing. I could literally go on for pagesabout how terrible this place was from top to bottom but to summarize: Looking for a community college where you can use a modicum if modern technology, explore your options, and meet dedicated educators? Then STAY AWAY from CoM!! The positive reviews HAD to be written by the well paid faculty or one of...

After the two flakey reviews on here, I had to write something. CoM is simply an old, run-down, too-small, substandard community college. The non-teaching staff are mediocre at best, and won't ever answer their phones. They are also behind the times technology wise. Warning: if you later need transcripts from this school, you will have to either go there IN PERSON, or fax your request, and they take FOREVER to mail them out. They refuse to get up to date, computerize, and create a student web portal like other colleges. On campus, everywhere is a sense of odd shabby-chic snobbery. They put on airs of excellence merely because the college is situated in a "rich" area of California, but clearly the hippies still run this joint. Just walking around the campus, a visitor will be struck by how broken down everything is. Little work has been done on maintenance of this facility for decades, possibly since the 60's when it was last rennovated, and there is a general feeling of trashiness and a broken down atmosphere. As for the teachers; some are decent, I had a good experience in the science department. Most teachers are a bit on the pompous or sleazy side including Bill Albright, unofficial king of the Art Department, who rules his little ceramics class roost with an iron fist and tends to choose favorites - everyone else in the class he ignores. He also focuses entirely on wheel throwing and teaches almost nothing else, ironic since there are not enough wheels in the classroom for everyone to participate in this building style. I've attended four community colleges as an art major, and I have to say CoM had the worst art teachers of them all (except for maybe San Francisco City, which was dismal). Far, far better were Butte and Solano in every way. By the way; this school received a warning on Feb 9, 2012 from the Accrediting Commission (ACCJC/WASC) because of its deficiencies; in other words, if the school doesn't shape up, it will actually lose its accreditation. That tells...