Cuesta College

This is the worst school I’ve ever attended!
Only had 2 – 3 great teachers, but everything else is below acceptable! Horrible staff, expensive, doesn’t keep track of billing/​payments, charged me twice in 20mins for a parking without a permit (and never cancelled one), and most teachers are not caring if you have to miss class due to family emergencies!
You better hope you don’t need help picking classes or guidance from the counselors in regards to your degree. I told them I had classes being transferred from another school and they still insisted I take specific classes. After attending those classes they then said I didn’t need them and the classes from the other school completed my requirements to get my AA… Awesome, way to scam me for more $! Speaking of which, they also said I owed $$ (for I don’t know what because
They didn’t specify) but they sent me the bill 2years later. Only two letters in, and they said they would send me to collections for not paying. When I went to pay, they said they don’t accept credit cards and only cash, check, or pay online. IF you pay online, that’s an extra fee, If you need cash, there’s an ATM on campus– that charges you a fee. Ok, so it’s 2015 and you don’t have a square or any way to take a credit card?!
After all of this, I said I still haven’t received my diploma for my AA degree. Cashier said they don’t send it right after you earn it, you have to request it… And to get a physical copy «that takes a really long time».
I can’t believe this school is still functioning with incompetent personnel and accreditation issues.

I’m surprised by how accurately most of the previous reviewers have summed up the inimitable Cuesta experience.
Let’s start with what everyone loves to hate, the parking situation. It’s true that cowboys and cowgirls with their big-​ass trucks always take the spots reserved for compact cars only. Many is the time during my lunch break when I had to crawl into my car through the passenger side door because I’d been blocked in.
Now, on to what you really care about. The professors. They are good and bad at Cuesta, like everywhere. But the mix here is highly unpredictable. In general, the humanities instructors are not as great as the science professors, though of course it varies by individual. That said, my speech professor liked to regale us with stories of getting arrested while drunk, and my psychology professor wanted to teach us how to channel the spirits of dead relatives. In contrast, my anatomy professor was so challenging (in a good way) that his class is (in)famous statewide. My chemistry professor was available all the time online for help and to answer questions, and is a campus leader in reforming Cuesta’s teaching standards and overall performance.
The campus is gorgeous, and easy to navigate except for the parking situation. Though Cuesta isn’t the most supportive of nontraditional students, Susan Gossard in the counseling department was fantastic and the pre-​nursing counselor, who is always overbooked, is very knowledgeable.
I’m thankful to Cuesta for helping me get grad school prerequisites out of the way. Now that I’m in the Bay Area, I realize there are far worse community colleges out there. Cuesta is a place to start your educational journey, especially for allied health majors. But don’t forget to set your sights higher and move on. Think of it as a stepping stone, not the finish line.

My experience with Cuesta College has been a «50÷50» experience. It was not a terrible experience, but it also wasn’t the best one neither.
Good:
–I’ve had lots of WONDERFUL professors throughout my time at Cuesta.
— You save TONS of money going to a community college then transferring. Even though the prices nearly doubled from 5 years ago, it’s still a really great deal since average CSU/​UC/​private universities costs about about 5 – 10 times MORE EXPENSIVE than attending community college.
— Beautiful scenery as you drive on either Hwy 1 or O’Connor Way.
— It’s a decent sized college and the classroom sizes are appropriate in regards to size room and population; in basic terms, no overcrowding. This results with a lot of «one to one» with your teachers during office hours.
— The library is top notch. Great place to study while you wait for your next class or look out the window at the views of the mountains.
Bad:
— Long commute if you’re not a San Luis Obispo resident and even then, the commute can still be pretty long if you don’t live in Mustang Village or any surrounding areas near Cal Poly.
— It’s a commuter school so it may get difficult to make friends here unless these friends either live in SLO or they live within the same region you do (ex: north or south county).
— Parking is a nightmare. Too many kids double parking their big trucks or luxury cars, and too many kids going too close to the white line. It doesn’t seem like campus police does much for these people, especially the ones that double park.
— Along with great teachers, I’ve also had some bad ones and some bad ones that had no business in the teaching profession whatsoever.
— The Student Services Center is a JOKE! You better hope that you will never need the assistance of these people because if you do, expect a lot of rude and angry people working there pretending like they have something better to do than their job! The answers to my questions might be obvious to them, but they weren’t to me which was pretty much why I needed their help to begin with!
— Budget cuts. As a result of budget cuts, a lot of classes either had to be cancelled or not be available until the next semester. They have these cuts yet they upgraded one of the big auditorium classrooms with new seats, a projector, and a top of the line JBL sound system (which I’ve NEVER SEEN USED ONCE when I had a class there). Seriously? This was how they chose to spend the money? No wonder why they’ve had so many threats of losing accreditation.
— Speaking of accreditation problems, this school was under constant pressure, since 2009, to make improvements or else they lose their accreditation.
Bottom Line:
Had some really great times at this school, I have met many wonderful people, and have had lots of wonderful memories at this school, but despite all that, I am RELIEVED that I left that school and am glad that I don’t have to «Goo Gone» my window because the parking permit left gunk on my window.

Wow how this place has grown. being a graduate from the 70’s to see it now is amazing. I just attended a play in the performing arts center and it is a fabulous facility. with all the modern equipment to make the theatre come alive. If you have the chance to see any of the events in the Performing Arts Center (PAC) is is a real treat.

Great location for a junior college has been wasted. They have almost lost their accreditation several times. Time to grow up Cuesta and become something the Central Coast can be proud of. Rent a cop parking staff are bottom feeders that prey on subsidizing their bare bones budget with bogus tickets. Shameful. Hard to believe a world class University is located right around the corner. Your grade for this year is a D+.

I recently posted about Cuesta College for Kids and my concerns about the kids getting around the campus during the 40 minute lunch break without adults around to watch out for them.
I expressed my concerns to the director of the program and he has addressed the issue. There are more helpers around the campus, especially during the lunch break that are available for the kids should they need them.
I do recommend walking around the campus a couple of times for them to get to know it.
This is a wonderful program for kids. My son is really enjoying the the classes and his instructors.

I signed up for two architecture classes back in, oh, fall 2010. I attended the first class and realized that it wasn’t what I was looking for. I dropped the classes so that students attempt to crash the classes could sign up. This was my only interaction with Cuesta… ever.
Until.
TWO YEARS later, without any prior warning, I received a notice to pay Cuesta $ 120 for fees incurred, or they would report me to the California Franchise Tax Board.
WHAT.
I contacted Cuesta and asked why I had these fees when I had dropped the classes almost immediately. They refused to redact the charges.
Rude.
I received no correspondence prior to this letter threatening to report me to the CFTB so Cuesta College gets ONE star. In the end I wrote them a check and in the memo line I wrote EXTORTION.

As community colleges go, Cuesta consistently ranks among the top in the California state system. I attended Cuesta for several semesters to complete General Ed requirement courses.
Pros:
+ The price/​value of taking college credits here is still much cheaper than private schools or even the UC or CSU system
+ Large computer lab attached to the library with plenty of study rooms
+ Only a short drive away from the ocean and set is a picturesque valley
+ There are several professors who are top-​notch, favorites would include (Kent Brudney, James West, Matthew Fleming, Jeff Grover), can’t go wrong with any of these guys
Cons:
— Bookstore prices are insanely high, use online outlets instead
— Parking is an exercise in madness, the campus police need to do a better job of ticketing people who straddle multiple lines
— Webservers that handle registration crash constantly on the first day of enrollment, you may or may not be able to register for the classes you need depending on if the servers play nice, they desperately need an upgrade
— A lot of the students are working on the side or travel from a distance, not as easy to make friends as it is a commuter college
In all, I joined the student government as a senator and made some friendships via that route. Most people attend Cuesta for a short time before transferring to Cal Poly or elsewhere. You won’t get the same sense of community as with a four year school, but then again you don’t have to take out massive loans to finish your AS or AA degrees.

The online Library/​Information Technology A.S. program is pretty cool. For the most part the instructors are accessible, involved, passionate, current and across the board smart librarians. The older staffers on the LIBT team are the coolest though and I hope as they retire they will be replaced with just as informative professors because they are the ones that really make the program special.
I’ve visited the campus and took online classes outside of the LIBT program. I didn’t have trouble parking like the some of the other reviewers. I don’t have trouble using my legs and following clear directions though so people that are challenged might take issue while an able bodied person wouldn’t. As a leftist I was startled by some of the right wing extremist bumper stickers though. I don’t see too many of those in Los Angeles.
Like any college though I’d avoid the bookstore. College bookstore prices are criminal. The food is pretty icky and unhealthy at the canteen there but that’s state wide as far as I can tell. I found some of the labs and the counselors really helpful. The counselors would even make telephone appointments with me since I live in Los Angeles.
The library is great, the campus is serene but I didn’t have a good experience with admissions staff the one time I dropped a class. They were full of misinformation. There’s no need to go to admissions because their online admissions is super easy to navigate, clear, intuitive and helpful. All the California community colleges should mimic Cuesta’s Student Portal. It’s perfect.

I must admit that I have a love hate relationship with Cuesta. I went here during the times when it was 11 dollars a unit and when professors seemed to be excited to teach.
I came back to finish up my AA and transfer to CSU and I feel that there is something different about Cuesta. I am not talking about the lack of parking and the large amount of rude students, but rather the professors. They seem like they are just not into it. They are taking roll at an alarming rate and actually dropping students. They also seem to take more and more time to remind us campus policy. I feel less of an adult at Cuesta these days and more like a child in high school.
I do have to admit that there are still some really great professors at Cuesta and I hope that they can keep their heads up and know that there are some people that really enjoy the knowledge that they give us.

Cuesta is one of the best jc’s in the state. I enjoy going here (planning on transferring to SFSU) for the most part there are some really cool teachers. The counselors are also pretty helpful (although if you plan on transferring out of state — kinda on your own) The campus is easy to navigate, clean — the bathrooms aren’t bad, lots of grassy areas to sit as well as benches. As for the students who attend… My biggest pet peeve with them is that they DON’T KNOW HOW TO PARK!!! the parking spaces are so close together and made for compact cars, yet these jerk-​offs park CROOKED!!! and its always some douche bag with a huge truck that does it too. fuckers. I hope you all get tickets, you know who you are! AND STOP DOING IT!!!
Then you have the crowd that is there simply to keep their parents happy. Don’t do anything in class, always want to copy off your work blah blah blah. Then you just have weirdos. But, what school doesn’t?
Anyway, also like the first reviewer noted the campus is safe, a majority of my classes have been at night and I have never felt unsafe — they have plenty of campus police, and if you call them they are more than willing to escort you.

When I compare City College of San Francisco to my old jc Cuesta College, I realize that Cuesta doesn’t have shit on my new school. Cuesta was fine and all for the first two years I attended right out of high school but in the long run there is no way in hell I could be there for longer than that. If you are looking for some diversity here you better move on and look elsewhere because this place is full of snobby people living off daddy’s money who are too good to talk to you. The plus side is the campus is very clean and very safe even when taking night classes. I came across some good teachers there for sure, notably Mrs. Moore for nutrition, along with some really bad ones too but my overall experience with the academics was good.