Palomar College — Local services in San Marcos

I've been a student (intermittently) here since 2010. As someone that loves learning and the overall "school" atmosphere, I feel extremely fortunate that I get to be a student at Palomar College; "lucked out", I would say.

The teachers are magnificent and have the potential to change your life forever (I know a few that have for me already*).

You can get help with enrollment fees with through the BOG Waiver - all my classes end up being free because of it. Parking permits 1/2 off also.

The school is modern and always improving. Their buildings are stylish and unlike anything I've seen anywhere else. Each is unique, yet somehow they all come together to form a beautiful campus.

I truly look at this campus like a second home. I love going here.

(Parking can suck, that's a big reason why I try to only stick to night classes 🤓) ➡️ HOWEVER! They now have a brand new parking GARAGE! I haven't used it yet, as I am only doing evening classes, but I can only imagine how much it helps everyone be able to find parking! It is nice to know that they actually do care about the problems we face throughout college life & do what they can to help make it as comfortable & as enjoyable as possible! UPDATE (3/19/18)!! I started using the parking garage and it is AWESOME!!! Security cameras coming soon! This school keeps on getting better and better!!

'Safety' is also another big thing here that they take seriously. They make sure to inform us students on a regular (& when, if necessary) basis all the details regarding our options when it comes to being and staying safe throughout our education at Palomar. They have their own (actual/legit) police force that is on duty 24/7 & a direct emergency line to call any hour day or night. They provide free escorts to anyone needing or just wanting a little extra piece of mind walking to their car or anywhere around campus. Every class locks from the inside by a button next to the teacher's phone that keeps anyone from getting in in case of an active shooter or anything else putting students at harm, & when they lock, it sends a signal to the Palomar Police with the location of the room, etc. etc. I could go on but you get it, they care & work hard to keep us safe! 🤗

AJ Professor Jack Hook, AJ Professor Leeyann Chapman, COMM Professor Wendy Nelson & LS Professor Lisa Burns; just to...

Just started going to school online here..first semester and I'm already considering going back to Miramar College. This is the most confusing system I've ever seen and there is ZERO support from anybody and nothing on the websites to help you figure out how to take your classes. First of all, they make you give them your email address, but for some reason they send nothing to it, they assign a student email where all official correspondence is supposed to go, but you have to log into a DIFFERENT account on a SEPARATE website before you can get into your student email.

After enrolling and adding the courses I need, this school can't even do something as simple as email you a confirmation of your classes. But that's just the beginning...as a brand new student who is working online, they need to make things easier for us. I'M A WEB DEVELOPMENT MAJOR SO ITS NOT LIKE I DONT KNOW HOW TO NAVIGATE THE INTERNET AND LOOK FOR THINGS...they literally just DO NOT know how to organize stuff. When you add the courses, I expected a confirmation email to my student email, showing my schedule. Then I expected some sort of correspondence from the professors telling us where the course will be located (At Miramar College, they sent a confirmation email, then shortly after, you'd get emails from the instructor, telling you Welcome to the online course, and for this course what website they plan on using...like Blackboard or Canvas and whatnot). I got NOTHING from the school or from the instructors. It took a few days just to figure out that the courses were even ON Canvas. Now that I'm in there, I'm STILL lost. There's instructions for little things like where to download books and other things from your instructors, but even then...I'm taking SIX classes and all SIX instructors have their little online instruction forms worded in such a way as if you've already taken their class and know what they're talking about. They talk about the online platform as if NO ONE is new to it and everybody is supposed to know...ZERO support for new students like "Hey, you'll want to go HERE, HERE, and HERE for these things...and if you don't know where to find HERE, HERE, and HERE...this is how you do it:" NONE of that. You have to figure out EVERYTHING on your own. And God-forbid, you get into a class after its...

Awful experience from the start. I do not reccomend this college to anyone attempting to go back and try and better themselves. The people located at the admissions office are rude for absolutely no reason. I have been out of college for over 8 years and i just moved out to California with the attempts of bettering my life and building a life in California. I chose Palomar because it was the closet college to me that offered courses in Political Science. However the entire process has been a nightmare. I scheduled a day to go in and speak with an advisor about the best course of action regarding which college i should transfer to and was told that i needed to complete a math & english assessment, but!....before that i needed to order another official transcript from the previous colleges i attended so they can tell em which classes i need to attend. I already had a transcript with me which was opened that showed my courses.....Fine...whatever. The advisor sent me an e-mail stating that i needed to take the math english assessment and when i e-mailed back exactly what i needed to do to complete that process i got no response. Then comes the financial aid, i was told by an member of the college that i was good to go and that all i needed to do was to go in register for my classes (which i had already done) and pay for them. The employee stated that he would send me an e-mail with the specifics of what i needed to do in order to pay for my courses. The e-mail i got was for a workshop that starts on Feb 9th when classes begin in 3 days. I then called the college to see if they could attempt to help me with this. Upon discovering that in 2014 my salary suggests that it was to much for me to qualify for finiacial aid... Im not sure how that exactly works but that is new to me. I thought anyone could qualify for aid if they wanted to go back to school? I mean all you hear about on the news is reports of people having ridicusoly high loans that they have to pay back but because i made 50K last year i do not qualify? Whatever.... the lady on the phone says i need to complete another form and drive it to them. If you do not want a run around do not waste your time. A very rude staff and it appears that no one is willing to help you in the process. As if it isnt...