Santa Barbara City College

Let me just be candid with you, I was never good at school. I got kicked out of my junior high and three high schools. When I took the GED in 2002 I literally had 15 high school credits, so I was very intimidated by the thought of going to college at 28 years old, but let me tell you I quickly became spoiled because this is hands down one of the best city colleges in the country. The campus is beautiful from one end to the other, the professors are amazing and many of them are UCSB professors that teach at SBCC on the side, so you are getting a top notch education at a city college rate, which for me was free because I sadly was making under 11,500 a year when I enrolled so I qualified for the Board of Governor’s grant, which is a simple one sheet paper that you get at the financial Aide office that takes less than 5 minutes to fill out! The school president and dean has an open door policy that shocked the hell out of me and there is just about every kind of assistance available to you and internships around town that are awesome. You can also sign up for a transfer agreement that all but gaurantees your enrollment at UCSB if you keep a 2.5 GPA over the course of your studies. If you are considering going to community college and this is one of your options, don’t even think about, this is the only spot! Oh, and if you like jogging and running, the stadium is amazing, and the steps are perfect and as far as girls go, man let me tell you, you better put your contacts in and stretch your neck muscle cause you ain’t seen beautiful ladies until you get to this place, and girls yeah I am sure there are good looking guys or whatever but you know I don’t focus on that sorta stuff, as far you know ;P

Kind, helpful, intelligent, positive, cool, relaxed, and cosmically attractive! The staff, the architecture, the beach, the mountains, it all works and is the Cali. of myth and legend. There are good reasons this is community college #1.
So far, so good…

Dont come here if you are international student! The international student office worker SUCKS! They’re soooo lazy and dont care about us. Things supposed to be easy and fast. Also hard to meet your advisor. They wont allow you to meet your advisor with no reasonable reason. Especially the asian lady that work with the international office, she’s really mean! I’m offended by her. SBCC should hire someone who respect their student not because we’re young and student, they can talk whatever she want. I really REGRET coming here. The school is a A+. The lecture is A+.

I am only giving this school a bad review due to its staff in the admissions building and some counselors. I think that a school with so much integrity should have a much better and friendlier staff. For example, i used to attend SBCC and I needed an Academic Renewal to be reviewed which it did :). I called the school a few times until they directed me to someone but since they were not there I had to leave a voice message. I expected a phone call possibly the next day or within the week the latest. Well I got NOTHING. I called again and left another voice message. I probably left like 4 within a period of 2 ½ weeks. I even told her that it was urgent because I needed my transcripts since I am transferring in the spring well she could care less. Also the funny thing is that her voicemail says that she will get back to you as soon as she’s in her office. WELL it sounds to me like this lady never works. I finally got a call within the month but I was in class so couldn’t answer. I called her literally ten minutes later and she didn’t answer ant it started all over again until finally I looked up her email and she finally responded but this woman who her name is JAMIE RICHARDSON was even rude over email. I am a student who had slight confusion and all she was short handed and very unhelpful. I dont know what she does all day but it seems to be like she doesn’t do her job which should be helping out students. I honestly want to make a complaint to the school but dont know how to !

I’ve gone to this school 4 years now ok
You’ve probably read it a thousand times, but it REALLY is a beautiful school. I took an 8 am class and wasn’t even upset about it because there is nothing like standing on that campus with few people around looking out on the harbor, and the water and the sky and its all really just too much.
West Campus is my favorite side (sorry not sorry east campus) :3
I’ve only had ONE less than preferable professor amongst many others.
(
became my best friend js)
Classes are interesting, they offer a wide range, especially PE. I’ve had a fun in each course I’ve taken one way or another.
Food in the Café on the west side of campus is sort of expensive
Food in the Cafeteria on the east side is ok.
Library: A+ and they have a computer/​tutor center right across from it.
Tutorssssss. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ALL THE WONDERFUL TUTORING THIS SCHOOL HAS TO OFFER.
They have a comm lab (its beautiful), math lab, tutoring center and other such things.
The Administration staff:
I have never had such a great deal of pain in my life, like trying to plot my academic path with the counselors at CC. However, I’ve been told that this is a common theme amongst colleges so I’ll just say «Dude prepare for frustration» and leave it at that.
–Financial Aid office, always nice and helpful.
–If you need DSPS, which is a service offered to those who need special amenities or have some sort of disorder that hurts your academics (I have bad anxiety) this is such an amazing program. Ex: I can take my test in a different room and be given more time. Eases my anxiety so much!
Parking.
The amount of parking here is insane, but the amount of people that need that parking is of greater insanity.
between the hours of 9:30 — 11:30 parking is the fevered dream of a madman.
You can find it sure, but be prepared to fall quickly to levels of desperation you never dreamed possible.
–looping around a lot over and over again
–sitting in a lot waiting for someone to leave
–stalking people by driving slowly behind them, with your fingers tightly crossed that they’re leaving
–parking very far from where you need to actually be.
Well that’s all I have to offer. I’m really sad to be leaving here. It’s beautiful ok.
c:

Can’t beat the view when you walk out of class around sunset… This gorgeous view fades in the rear view mirror as your suddenly thrust into traffic only one way streets and an over populated downtown area can create. Don’t dare park anywhere without wearing the red Parking pass stitched onto your dash, parking fines are only payable by Capital punishment or eating sugar free gummy bears (which is basically the same thing). Ron Paul 2012!

Great teachers and staff. I only had one or two bad teachers in my entire three year stay there. The parking situation is crazy but everything else especially the view is amazing!!! Love it and miss that school

I received my associates degree in political science here. Making sure to take advantage of everything the school had to offer I participated in everything from the Model UN, being a tutor, to several internships.
Avoid Financial Aide if you can. Only had on experience there over one star.
The cafeteria and restaurant were great after the first couple weeks. They are student run and they need a couple of weeks to learn proper food prep.
The library has computers, is up to date and has a friendly vibe.
I had the chance to see how competitive the hiring process for professors is. When a slot opened up in the history department teachers came from Arizona, and even on the other side of the Mississippi. One of my professors was a Sorbonne taught Iranian Prince.
SBCC is extremely competitive. You can’t snooze through your classes and expect to pass. I was an honor student and struggled for each and every A.
I also saw Barack Obama when he said he would have liked to attend class here. He would have been an ideal student. Yes it is that high quality and competitive.

Graduation Ceremonies
Scene spectacular. There are not many stadiums that have as beautiful view as does City College. Thus ends the good…
While waiting we were entertained by a small band. Some of the song selections were very poor considering the day. Some of the playing was as bad as a high school band.
After the graduates sat down, the college leader/​president/​whatever, gave a 30 minute marketing speech. A little bit would have been fine, but it droned on and on and on and on and on, well you get the picture. I still wonder who she was trying to market to? The graduates know where they have been and those of us paying the bills also know, so who was in the audience that she was speaking to? Next came another speaker that didn’t have anything to say, but at least he was quick about it. Lastly, was the graduating student speech. At least he had something to say of relevance, but it needed an English teacher to correct some of the errors. All in all, one hour of speeches — my butt was numb.
Next, came the 1000 graduates. Each handed the spokesperson a card with their name, graduating degree and where they were heading next. It took 1.5 hours to get through all of them. I think it was nice to let us all know where they plan to head next, but we really didn’t need to know the specifics of their Associate degree. Some even went out of control trying to make their degree sound prestigious.
After all that was finally done, all 1000 graduates and their faculty headed into the parking lot, where people were trying to exit with their cars. It is absolutely amazing that nobody got hurt and no horns were being blared. Perhaps in the future, if you are going to dump your graduates into a parking lot, maybe you should close it off. Or, perhaps you could wait until there is an accident and then consider it.
Anyway, been to a lot of graduations. This one was the worst. Oh hey, Ms. SBCC president. Next year, you can say your college is #1 in that too!

best campus view.

The campus is breathtaking and I think that’s why it received the high reviews that it did but honestly it doesn’t deserve 5 stars. Here’s a few reasons why… First the bathrooms are gross. They do not get cleaned enough. The library is dirty too. They don’t seem to vacuum or clean the study tables. The school has some very old buildings that need remodeling. My biggest beef with this school is that they cater to students that do not work during the day. An example — they only offer morning & afternoon Anatomy classes and only an online lecture class for those of us who work during the day. Another example, they only offer one Chemistry class at night & five morning and afternoon classes. It’s ridiculous if you are a full-​time worker because you will hardly find any night-​time classes.
Also the Financial Aid folks are pretty rude. There are a few nice people but count your lucky stars if you get one of them. The best departments are DSPS (Learning Disabilities) & Career Counseling. Both departments have great staff and they are always willing to go the extra mile for you.
Overall it is a good school but it does not cater to working adults. This campus caters to the real young folk.

Beautiful view!

SBCC is the best thing I could have done coming out of high school. My time spent here helped me learn who I was, and what I wanted to pursue academically. Hell, even after I got my degree from UCSC, I still try to find excuses to go back to SBCC, so I can take more classes.

You will NOT find a more beautiful junior college campus. The classes are well-​priced and from my experience the teachers are well-​worth it. Some of them have taught at UCSB or are teaching there at the UC as well at the city college. The school itself has so many resources! There’s a center to help with writing skills, a gateway program that has student tutors helps other students, and fancy computer labs. When you see brochures of colleges looking sunny and beautiful, most of the time it’s because it was taken on rare nice day but Santa Barbara is sunny almost all of the year. The Luria Library is great and was even named the «National winner for the Association of College and Research Library’s.»

Totally awesome community college. Reminds me of Santa Cruz or Cabrillo college. There’s always something happening and it’s a great place to learn. If I lived in the area, I’d totally be going here.

This place is FANTASTIC.
Fun fact: Barack Obama visited here while campaigning and made a joke about how if he went here, he’d get no studying done! And it’s pretty true, it can be hard to stay focused when you’re located across the street from Leadbetter Beach (pretty much the most popular beach as it’s right near downtown, is clean, and has lots of things to do, like volleyball and whatnot).
The teachers that I’ve had were all very good. This is a great place to take introductory to intermediate level courses for the first time or as a refresher. The courses are very cheap and you meet a very diverse student population.
There are frisbee and soccer games on the track, or the field above the track so keep an eye out for that — Saturday evenings is a popular time for pickup.
Overall it’s a great place for those who are looking for a stepping stone toward a four year or other degree, or for those who are just looking to learn something interesting!

I came to SBCC after I graduated from UCSB. I gotta tell you, I like the location of SBCC more than I like the location of UCSB. From almost anywhere on campus you have a breath-​taking view of the ocean… that’s all I needed.

I transferred here from my local city college for my sophomore year. I was accepted into the dorms over at Tropicana Gardens who house half SBCC and UCSB students (if you are looking for housing Trop is ok and gives you the experience of dorm life). There is nothing bad I can say about this place. The location is great because it is pretty much right on the ocean with crazy views. All of the buildings are relatively new or updated. The faculty is on par if not better than those at UCSB. My classes were a lot harder at SBCC than at UCSB. They really put you to work but are their to support you to transfer to which ever school you want to attend.
When I was going there they did not have online registration; you actually had a time slot to go to the registrar and sign up but I believe they have solved that problem. Parking was cheap when I was attending, about $ 30 each semester compared to the hundreds at UCSB. Although there was a bit of a parking shortage during the late morning/​early afternoon times. But I would recommend the bus because it is free to students.
This school is great because they want to help their students get to the next level. They have great counselors who help you with you’re requirements and they also have free tutoring available. I was studying business/​accounting there and although it was tough, it was also getting me ready for what I would see in upper division classes. They offer a wide variety of classes and most of them are transferable. My sister is currently attending because the foggy SF State school she was at was not for her. It doesn’t get much better than studying in Santa Barbara.
If you are someone interested in attending SBCC I highly recommend checking out the campus and talking to someone about attending because you will have a great college experience.

I had a great experience at SB-​double C! :) it’s an awesome school with intelligent, helpful, warm and friendly professors. most of the professors have phd’s and are grads from UCSB. they are all highly motivating, know their subject matter, and actually care about how the students perform. most of the instructors i had took roll… so if you want to get a good grade or know what’s going on in class you better go to class. i was a biology major so my work load was pretty intense. i totally enjoyed my bio classes — larry friesen, cummings and armstrong (he’s no longer there), chem was tough — but dr. brennan is amazing, physics — simpson is great — a real person. bio is a tough major, but i feel like city college really prepared me. i really feel like i learned more there than anywhere. the teachers pushed me and challenged me — i never knew i could do it until i actually did it… with a lot of hard studying.
by the way… the campus is AMAZING — breath-​taking! it seriously is the most beautiful campus in CA sitting right on the bluffs overlooking the harbor and the ocean. much better location than UC, which is kinda in a fog bank. my bro graduated from UC and we ended up taking all of his grad pictures on the city college campus! go figure! :)

I never bothered going to school here, but damn, is their track amazing. It’s rubber, open to the public, and when you jog to the top of the stairs you get the most breathtaking view of the town and the ocean. Don’t waste your money on a gym in SB… just use the SBCC track!