Orange Coast College — Local services in Costa Mesa

Great school, the best available. Lots of caring professors with real world experience of their respective fields. It is a large campus with lots of parking, however in the first month or so of any semester, parking is scarce and overflows to the OC Fairgrounds.

Parking is only free the first 2 weeks of the regular semester and first 1 week of accelerated semesters. Otherwise, you must get a parking pass from the Adams lot in the back corner close to gym and baseball fields, or the lots located along Fairview off Pirates way and over by the Theater and Campus Safety office. You can get one citation forgiven, after that don't count on it, even if you had a parking pass and forgot to put it on. Campus safety aggressively checks cars like clockwork throughout the day up until the last class let's out at night. If you have car trouble, they can and will help, though. They can also escort you to your car if you are still on campus late. Parking is physically tight for larger vehicles and most people park badly and make spaces even more cramped. The widest spaces are located by in the parking lots by the library and arts buildings.

The library is top notch and there is a full Starbucks located next to it. The cafeteria offers great and reasonably-priced choices. There are other student ran food stands over by the foreign language building as well with some healthier options.

Counseling appointments are hard to schedule, but can be booked easily every Thursday morning on the school website, or you can book in person in the Watson building 3rd floor. You will need to see a counselor to set and change your major, and also to find out how to graduate or transfer. The school has great relationships with many top universities, local and in other states. The honors program is a great opportunity to get a leg up on transferring to a top university. The honors courses are not really harder, you just have a little extra work than the normal course does.

No matter what your interest is, OCC has something that will interest you. They have great vocational and certification programs, and can help you with job and internship opportunities. There are many highly successful OCC Alums looking to hire and know that the students got top notch education. Some very famous people and brands got their start at this school. My best advice is to make as many friends as possible and network always. You are at a school with a very large international pool of students and you can get some very great first hand cultural experiences if you are open to it. You never know who you may meet at OCC, it could be a future CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

These are the best tips I can pass along after my 5 years at OCC. I went at my own pace and learned invaluable skills for all areas of life, I hope you to too!

Orange Coast is a decent community college with an impressive faculty, but its quality of education is curtailed by mediocre management, sub-par curricula, and a depressing absence of passion for education.

When I first arrived at Orange Coast, it seemed to be one of the best community colleges out there- they had a relatively prestigious history, efficient transfer programs, and were well-connected with higher education and employment institutions. But these benefits have turned out to be mostly fluff, as they lack the robust educational programs to prepare the students for these opportunities.

If you are a self-learner and don't need a strong social network to propel your education, Orange Coast is bursting with opportunities. Their textbooks aren't pretty, but the library is rich is academic treasures that can fill the gap of their failing curricula. If you're looking for excellent job-preparation programs, Orange Coast is one of the best-connected and vocationally-oriented colleges I've seen, and will amply prepare you for a $15/hour job to get you by.

But if you're looking for a real college that provides a comprehensive and in-depth education, Orange Coast is not the correct choice. This college may be good when it comes to certificates and job training, but it's a bad choice for anyone looking for anything beyond an...

September 9, 2025 , Now please read and especially if you are attending one of the Best Orange County Community Colleges. Being a Former Graduate student Orange Coast Community College and several more ,this is week 3 of the fall semester and price gauging has reared its disgusting face again ,but the Orange Coast College Book store are not following in there steps , i went Educational shopping yesterday i was greeted by the exceptional Bookstore employees and students ,was happy to see the many options that Orange Coast students have to choose from when purchasing educational materials and the prices are reasonable ,thank you Mr. Jason (OC Bookstore on site Manager ) and his outstanding team players ,Mr. Rust and Mr. Aron and the support employees and students ,they all need to have the SHINE on them for dealing with us students who need someone to listen to what are educational needs are and buying the correct merchandise and books ,i genuinely appreciate these exceptional team players at the Orange Coast Bookstore !!!. Stay in School Young Generation. Thee...