Portland Community College Sylvania — Local services in Portland

I've attended sever higher education institutions, but my time on the Sylvania campus will remain the most memorable. The building is tucked away in the forest, surrounded by lush trees, and the instructors I've met along the way inspired me in ways I didn't think possible at a community college. I took three terms of American History with Christopher Shelley (when I only needed one class for my degree), because he was the most engaging storyteller I've ever come across and took us by the hand into the past better than any film, book, or play. My math instructor (whose name I unfortunately cannot remember) began his class with a quote: "Math is Queen of the sciences, yet she is the runt of the arts," and proceeded to explain his role as a Jedi in the thousands of years of accumulated mathematical discoveries that pick up on each others work. I always hated math, but I was driven and inspired and ended up acing all my math classes.

Cascade campus has all of the multimedia and film programs, which occupied the later half of my time at PCC, and while I can wax poetic about my instructors there too, I always missed the calm magic of the Sylvania campus.

One piece of advice that another student told me (this is what helped me decide to major in video and multimedia): Yes, you can skirt by, do minimal effort, and pass your classes. OR you can use each assignment as an opportunity to raise the bar for yourself, make something you're proud of, and end your time at PCC with a portfolio that will carry you into your career. I did that,...

Most the teachers are wonderful. The QRC is nice. The food is pretty okay. I like the class selection.

Dealing with the financial side of things is a nightmare. One time my financial aid was delayed due to circumstances on their end that were out of my control. They said I was fine and my registration wouldn't be cancelled. Well, I wasn't fine and my registration was cancelled. And I got kicked out automatically of two classes I really wanted to take, and they were full so I couldn't reregister. They apologized but didn't get me back in my classes. In the future I was sure to email my teachers and ask them to let me back in if I got automatically deleted due to financial aid delays.

Also now that I've graduated, they told me it would take 9-10 weeks for my diploma to arrive and it's been 5 months, and they are still telling me to expect delays. Yes I've contacted them about it, multiple times. I have literally no idea when it will arrive, but I'm not keeping my hopes up anymore. I'm disappointed, yes, but at least my credits were transferred, and hopefully the place I'm attending now won't be so...

The financial aid is good but professors here are a hit or miss. I've had some really great profs, but the ones that especially stand out are the ones that teach as if you won't put in the effort to learn. This feeling of going to class some days was so defeating, and it lowered my motivation in classes I was struggling with to reach out to professors who treats students like they are slackers until proven otherwise. I went here a few years ago now. I hope they've changed.

Also, PCC really needs to build a larger more centralized location in downtown PDX rather than have this be their primary campus. It just doesn't work of commuter students, especially the ones that do not have a car. Plus, classes at Sylvania fill up quickly and are hard to get into. When I didn't have a car I had to commute over an hour to Rock Creek by two Max lines and bus from downtown PDX. It was an insane commute that students shouldn't have to worry about. Please fix this by building a central location. Taking classes at a distal PCC is frustrating when those are the only locations that have available classes for...