Oakland Community College - Orchard Ridge Campus — Local services in Farmington Hills

This school has very incompetent financial aid advisors. They do not explain or try to help you at all. They do not care about the students they care only about their job which is doing nothing but confuse you more or give you minimum explanation with no solutions. And any advice they do give you is redundant. My advice to people considering coming here is to not simply because of this issue. Do a trade or consider a different college that doesn’t make you pay for your classes before you even get any financial aid support because this is what OCC does. Then they refund you which is definitely an inconvenience having to wait for that money to be reimbursed to you. Since covid, this school has went to trash. No one to speak to in person, less bookstores and no in person counseling. Of course, again, last but not least is there are no financial aid advisors that actually help you and they simply don’t care to help. I’d say the best thing about this school is the taking the classes, most of the professors and some of the counselors who actually care about THEIR students future. Anthony and Renee are the best counselors. And as for teachers I’ve only ever had one real bad professor. It was a Spanish professor who literally made a “slow jokes” to the class and was very aggressive when engaging with the class as well. It was online, but that is still no excuse to be frustrated with your students. He said he was going to retire too, so I don’t know if he did or not but honestly, hopefully he did.

What this school could do to better for its campuses would be to start allowing in person visits again, and maybe give better training to those who are working in the financial aid offices. That, or hire non-students to work their financial aid office who may actually know what their doing and how to explain/guide people on what to do and how to fix certain situations instead of grazing over the issues. People that will provide actual help and understanding even if it takes a full 30 minutes on the phone with someone to make sure they are understanding.

Despite the financial aid advisors, I enjoy coming to this school for the education and the professors who teach these classes. I truly just wish they had better people working in their Finacial aid department and the fact you can’t speak to anyone in person on important matters is a con as well. That’s it. I still plan to finish my education here since I only have one main Gen education class to finish. But, I’ll just have to deal with multiple headaches. As for the program I want to get into I may transfer somewhere else, but we will see. I just don’t think I can do another two years with the...

I look at all these 5 star reviews, and I know that these people must either work there, or just enjoy the budget of spending half as much money for tuition than any other university. I tell you guys, I've been attending classes for about 5 years (I'm a full time manager elsewhere) and I will tell you some important advice EVERYONE should know, because I had to figure everything out on the way:

1st, this is a "Community College" which means You Have to put in all the effort of knowing why you are here, how you are going to accomplish your credits, associates, or certification. The counseling department has flawed me more than once, and I didn't realize many PROGRAMS CHANGE EVERY TWO YEARS to adjust to the demands of the population.

2nd, trust Only the classes you are required to take and do NOT waste your money. If you paid for the class and do not attend its like paying for a vacation to Florida but decide to watch TV instead.

3rd, trust your friends and classmates opinions about anything here. I saved so much time and money by abiding by rumors and chatrooms about anything on school grounds. Like about renting your books instead of buying them.

4th, look up your teachers and professors as soon as the first class begins. With a community college, you have less than a %50 chance, I'd say, of attending a class of a respectable one. I've had too many of my share of disrespectful, careless, or professors who needed anger management.

5th, RENT your textbooks and take care of them! Remember when Blockbuster Video was around? Sometimes the DVD won't play or the VHS tape was jammed because of the previous user. Don't be worse than the other guys and you'll feel better...

I love OCC - just not the Orchard Ridge campus. This is OCC's "international" campus, meaning the classes here are VERY generalized toward an incoming populace from around the globe.

In every class I've taken, there are a good number of students that aren't native to the USA. Not that there's anything wrong with that - it just means you shouldn't expect to find highly-specialized courses here. Many of the classes are geared toward easing foreign students into an American academic life.

This campus also lacks clubs and student community. It's one of those places that you go to to strictly get to class and get out; the school life doesn't flourish here like it does at the Auburn Hills and Royal Oak campuses.

I can't give it all bad marks, however. There are a lot of good teachers at Orchard Ridge and I've learned a great deal in my classes. My major (CS), on the other hand, doesn't fit with what this campus offers. If you're looking to pursue a technical field, I would highly advise you to check out the Auburn...