Positive: I really do love this school because of many reasons. I have tried many other schools and this one just stands out to me overall.
For one, they try VERY hard to reach out and involve all of the students, no matter race or color or sex, gender, anything. They hold many different events and there are a lot of student-run organizations. The student life (especially for a community college) is very lively and healthy, surprising for the serious atmosphere that NSCC is known for. And yes, we do work very hard when it's time to concentrate on academics, but boy do we know how to relax, kickback and have healthy fun too!
As for the staff and professors, in my experience they are ALL (except for like ONE) very kind and open to all, but don't get me wrong, they're not pushovers. They will push you to BE the best you can be and DO the best you can. They do all they can to foster the maturity of your personality and help you realize who you are, including your social styles, your learning and productive styles and really give you a piece of themselves in order for you to learn from that, picking up the pieces, seeing how they fit with your own and ergo, creating your own morals and defining your own artistic muse. Though they promote a serious work environment, they do it in a cool way which makes you want to do well. SO! If you just want to slack and hope to pass because you show up, stick headphones in and doodle on the page, this is not the school for you! :)
That being said...
Negative: Throughout my whole two years here, I've accumulated really only two things that upset me about this school. The first is that I have experienced two teachers that work both in the Math department that honestly are great at Math, but have teaching skills that are much less than up to par. I mean, their ways of educating were not only unconventional, but boring and confusing. Then, instead of trying a different method of teaching when the class didn't understand, they would just write the subject off as our incompetence and move on, leaving us with a gap in our consecutive ladder of knowledge. When that came up in my next class, I needed that information, but the previous teacher had just skipped it and told me I wouldn't ever need it because it was easier for them to overlook it than make an effort to change their teaching style for the overall good of the students.
The last negative thing I had to say is about their Financial Aid office. I applied for Financial Aid and completed my FAFSA probably about two weeks after the opportunities opened. That meant there was MONTHS upon MONTHS for the F.A. department to get the forms, calculate my financial aid and receive it from the government. Of course, I go in there about a week before classes start because I'm all registered but they DROPPED me due to lack of tuition payment--something that should have been handled by the F.A. dept. When I get there, they say, "Oh that's weird. You should've gotten a letter denying your scholarships this year due to a withdrawal last quarter." So I explain that I had some traumatic incidents happen to me during that quarter and needed to withdraw due to personal life stuff and that I had a psychologist who could furnish a doctor's note basically excusing me from that course. "Oh, I'm so so so sorry, Miss but it's too late. The grades are already posted and therefore you're screwed. But just pay the $2,000 this quarter out of pocket no biggy and when you pass, you can get aid again!" Gee. That's so easy. As for the form deadline, I wish I'd known there was a problem in the first place so I could've taken care of it myself! Obviously, they don't want to go above and beyond to help a single, unemployed 21-year-old Mother get through school when all they have to do is enter some information and push a button...... read more