West Los Angeles College — Local services in Culver City

Alright, so, I attended WLAC for 2 years, and my first year was fully online, so let me start from that one, whenever I had any questions, and sent an email or just wanted to communicate with any department, I got a response almost immediately (same day, at most the next day), so response times, and “customer feedback” was absolutely on point, I’ve never had to wait a long time. Moreover, I was online, from another country, in another continent, 12 hours ahead (yeah, talk about accessible learning), but online learning was made so convenient (even though one of my math classes I had to wake up at 5am), thus they made it so that someone from literally the other side of the world could attend. Obviously I did my research before picking each professor, but overall they were all good, couple standout ones, but overall, good. Year 2, I went in person, scenery, location, campus beauty was on point, it was just beautiful, everything. The location at least in my opinion (and experience) was convenient, safe and easily accessible, I guess the only bad part was that there’s only one bus, number 4, that goes up Jefferson Boulevard, every 45 minutes, so that sucks, but if you can walk fast you can make it to the metro station before the the next bus gets there. Other than that, the infrastructure was good, I had no problem with it, but if anyone from WLAC with reading this, I’d appreciate if you guys can add some lighting to the elevator on the admissions and business building. Additionally, one thing that I’d say was “bad,” is the cell service, especially in the buildings on the west side, so MSA, MSB, etc. HOWEVER, worth noting, the Wi’Fi is lightning fast, so as long as you connect, you’re absolutely golden, though I wish we didn’t have to log in every single day, and it would like remember us for at least a week; and this was bad because if you’re running late for a bus, you quickly wanna check if your bus has arrived or not and you need to change between the two so those 5 seconds or so can be very crucial, either way, it didn’t bother me, but I’d appreciate better cell service. The bookstore is great, I’ve bought great stuff from there, prices are decent, I haven’t ate at the cafe but prices seem okay, from what my friends had told me it was good. Other than that I wish they added like an outdoor basketball hoop somewhere, that would be nice. Parking, I never drove here, but there was ALWAYS a lot of open spots, so no problem there. Academics wise, there are so many opportunities for you, I couldn’t recommend the transfer honors program enough, I didn’t know about this, but the $0 tuition is something to look into, phenomenal, many clubs, pretty active; professors want to you to succeed as well, so if you need any help from them or want to get in touch after you’ve finished their courses they’d be glad to help, maybe you want a syllabus or something. Ultimately, I loved WLAC, I’ve become a brand ambassador for LACCD as a whole, I genuinely loved my experience here, classes, people, everything, and I can’t recommend it enough. If you’re reading this, I’m telling you attend ANY LACCD community college, it’s such a convenient and incredible way to start, restart or continue your academic journey, and basically having 9 options to choose from for each class is incredible for scheduling, so once again, you won’t regret...

There are some great professors here, however, the business and admission office staff is a nightmare to deal with. The supervisor Terry in admission has a terrible attitude. She keep a frown on her face and give you a MAJOR ATTITUDE when you ask her to do her job. I've taking multiple classes here over the past few years and I have yet to see an improvement in her or her staff attitudes towards the people who keep them employed, students. This is extremely sad and unprofessional. Admission is vital to students enrollments. The other day I witness over a dozen people leave because the staff was rude and unwilling to assist them. Two people bluntly said that they would rather commute to Santa Monica than deal with this. The admission manager Terry was training a new guy name Shakeet. (He had on a wrinkled Nike teal t-shirt.) I greeted them both, neither said hello back. So I went on to tell Shakeet that when I tried to sign in to enroll in a class I couldn't and the computer showed a message to contact admission. He asked me several times, "Whats the problem" I informed him that I didn't know and that's what I am here to find out. By this time Terry left. He asked me when was the last time I attended WLAC. I told him that I wasn't for sure, but, I attended LATTC two semester ago. He said that's not the same. So I asked him could he look it up and see what the error is so I can register for class. He asked me again when was the last time I attended WLAC. I said, sir I don't know for sure. Can I just enter my student ID number and we can go from there? He made every attempt to get me to leave without assessing my information on the computer. Finally, Terry walk back over and hear me basically pleading with Shakeet to look into my student account on the computer. Long story short he didn't know how to access that part of the system. Instead of him asking for help, he rather play the guessing game and send me off on my way. Once they access my account they said that I needed to reenrolled. I went home and reapplied for WLAC. This morning I received an email stating that I didn't need to reapply. Now due to them given me the wrong information the classes that I wanted to take are now full! I missed a days of work, to get nothing accomplished at WLAC. It seems as though you have to force every one there to do their job, from the guidance counselor to admission. I feel sorry for new young students who don't have any knowledge about enrolling in college and who have yet to learn how to be an advocate for themselves. WLAC need a total staff make over, more so than new construction. I will be starting a petition to get a new crew in the admission and business department. These people will deter someone from enrolling and pursuing their...

This school is a set up for failure, especially for out-of-state students. There is absolutely no support and no knowledge in the administrative departments. The so called counselors were no help after numerous attempts to gather information. The financial aid department is no Aid at all. I personally visited the school to confirm that the school had everything in order for my daughter to attend school and get financial aid assistance to cover school. We were told blindly that everything was good and we'd here from them when funds went through. after not hearing anything we visited the school again and again and again... The school supposedly offers an Architect program through LAIAD. Los Angeles Institute of Architecture and Design, only reason why we decided on West Los Angeles is to take advantage of this Architecture program and also be covered through FAFSA. NO STAFF MEMBERS even knew what we were talking about when we mentioned this... then we were asked to speak to someone in charge of the program from the LAIAD school while that person "in charge there said talk to West Los Angeles... back and forth till finally we thought things wrre squared away. we did everything we could with no initiative from the schools to follow up on her status. Now, one year later... my daughter doesn't even have grades in the system because they won't post them without her paying off the school.. they finally said the whole process took to long and now she is not receiving any financial aid at all... nobody helped guide her through any federal loans or scholarships or anything.. they told her she had to go online and figure it out on her own because they do not have those kind of services... one year later.. she still owes thousands of dollars but has been working full time while being a great student completing her architectural projects with limited recourse and still doing a fabulous job. She pays hundreds of dollars at a time each month bringing her account down but not fast enough to able to continue with her classes.. These schools have failed my daughter and she is a hard working Hispanic American student from Arizona living working and studying in Los Angeles. Thanks for nothing West Los...