Berkeley City College

Berkeley City College Campus is so gorgeous. I have seen students, staff, and teachers in friendly communication. I felt comfortable in the college. I took ASL classes and digital photography classes for my major. Good coffee shops and restaurants are close to the Berkeley City College campus. I took the Bart from San Leandro to Berkeley College, and it's easy and fun.

Thank you!

Get a better gate keeper. Everything Seems so irrelevant to him. Get someone wants to actually help people.

BCC is awful. I gave every one of my teachers a 1 star rating on Rate My Teacher .com. Administration has a policy of not hiring teachers with a good educational background. BCC teachers do not have doctorates even though UC Berkeley is right up the hill and full of professors who have doctorates and need the money from teaching. I believe Administration maintains this policy because they themselves have such a low bar for their administrators that they are too stupid, uneducated, and lazy themselves to be able to handle real professors at the college raising the bar and making the school a better place to learn. BCC is simply a holding pattern to screen students for UC Berkeley. BCC isn't there to help students learn. Each class is like sitting through detention. I will never attend BCC again even if my life depended on it. BCC SUCKS.

Classes are fine. I am rating most of their administrative staff from all 4 colleges. Everytime you call they have such an attitude. I swear! Why take a job you hate and just be plain neutral and so careless to questions asked. Others don't have a clue and wonder around ignoring you. Of course I've met a few nice people who deserve their job bc they know it is a job and they represent their job therefore respect it.

But come on fix the people on the desk bc their phone etiquette and service sucks. They give such an unwelcoming vibe, such a ghetto like atmosphere. I work administrative in a hospital and I would have been fired a looong time ago if I ever answered the phone like these people do. Every single time I call someone answer with an attitude. Leave the ghettoness at home be thankful you have a job, do it right.

If I were to review this based on my class experience with my professors they would get a five star. The problems I've had are actually with financial aid this would get a single star and only because they fix it. I have never had to chase a financial aid office down to receive my aid. This has happened every semester so far. They miscalculate my aid and are off by thousands of dollars. When the attention is brought to the situation it gets resolved, but I am forty seven and can do this. If I were a student in the average age range of 18-24 I might let this slide but don't!! I'm writing this review for students that aren't sure if they are getting the right amount ASK EMAIL AND CALL!! The beginning of your college education should not be a financial catastrophe. Good luck on your education goals and get that money! You should not go hungry or be stressed about books or rent you deserve an education!!

This review is solely and specifically in honor of a fabulous lady named Paula Coil, who works at the Transfer Center at BCC and pretty much saved my life today. I had left her a voice message this morning after reviewing transfer requirements from Assist.org and ending up thoroughly confused. My mind started going where it always goes when I can't figure out stuff regarding my education: I envision myself in my late 30s, turning a Vanagon or Astrovan Camper into an illegitimate and dubious ice cream truck with spray painted images of the sub par treats I offer.

A few minutes after I called, Paula called me back and started telling me she was pretty sure the classes I had mentioned in my message were actually to be taken at CSUEB, not the Peralta Community Colleges. Like a fool, I doubted Paula. She informed me that her computer wasn't working and the cord attached to the telephone she was on couldn't stretch to another computer. Frustrated with myself and slightly embarrassed that I was probably frustrating her too, I told Paula I wasn't sure but that I would figure it out myself. There was a certain sadness in my voice that is definitely not suitable for operating an ice cream truck, ever. When we got off the line, I was convinced I was engulfed in an educational system that had no desire to see me succeed.

And then... Paula called back! And had found out the information I needed to know and even discussed my options in another area that I hadn't mentioned to her. It was seriously amazing and by the end I was thanking her profusely and really grateful for professionals like her, that make the college experience that much more productive and personable.

I've taken a couple of classes here and enjoyed my experience here even though it was for a short time. The school is located down the street from Berkeley High School l, which makes for a great transitional school for high school graduates from that high school. The college is in one whole building which makes it easy to find all of your classes. They have several floors of classes which are all decent sizes. They have a large library/studying area on the main floor which is great for quite time to catch up on work of studying. As far as the professors and classes, they are definitely better than most other community classes I have been to and they have much more variation of classes here which is great for students of different majors. As far as parking, there is a huge parking structure across the college which is super convenient! Come check this place out!

BCC is full of annoying 18 year olds that remind me of myself when i first graduated from highschool. and that doesn't do anything other than make me walk around pissed off all day and angry at myself for ever being such a stupid little punk.

thanks BCC.

I wouldn't have given BCC any stars (it's not an option, I know)... but counselor Noel (or however you spell his name) saved it from that. I met with Noel to discuss waiving prerequisite classes for a Spanish class. Making the appointment with a counselor was fast and easy, and he was friendly. He reviewed my high school and college transcripts, put in the request, and I was good to go.

However, the same cannot be said for the Refunds Department. They canceled said Spanish class due to low enrollment and promised a refund "soon." Now, I understand that refunds don't happen overnight and that mistakes do happen. However, after two months of no refund, three phone calls all spaced out several weeks between each other and an e-mail threatening to get the Refund clerk's supervisor involved, the clerk refused to help me and then had the audacity to dare me to get her supervisor involved. So I did.

To the supervisor's credit, she actually tried to help. However, it turned into an even bigger mess and I ended up having to go all the way to the Peralta CC District Office's accounting office to speak to that supervisor to get my refund. The DO's supervisor told me that while most of the Peralta CC District processes refunds promptly, all of the refund problems have been with BCC students. I consider myself warned now, and please do yourself a favor and learn from my mistake.

So, that is it. Admittedly, I can't rate the quality of the professors or class because that Spanish class was supposed to be my first class. A friend recommended the class to me because he had previously taken it and enjoyed it. He obviously didn't have to deal with the Refunds Department. Bottom line: BCC really likes your money. They just might keep it, even if they give you nothing in return. Make sure you are okay with the possibility of being parted with your money for a long time if you are owed a refund. I could make jokes about the impact of reduced state funding on education, but this wouldn't be appropriate.

My name isn't Arnold. I won't be back.

I'm not sure why there are so many negative reviews. BCC is far from perfect, but most of my professors have been wonderful. I will be transferring soon, I have paid nothing, and I have learned quite a lot. Many of my classmates are brilliant, interesting people and I've made some good friends. It can be difficult to figure out the peculiarities of the system, you have to be persistent, but the staff always tried to help me as best as they could. The Peralta board is corrupt and underpays the staff while lining their own pockets, so sometimes things work slowly. But I previously went to a community college in another state, and compared to that place, BCC seems like Harvard haha.
A tip for new students: spend as much time as you can in the Learning Resource Center. Work on your homework, get the free tutoring, but also, talk to people! Ask them what their experiences were with professors that you are considering taking, and check rate my professor too, there are a lot of duds.