Community Colleges in SD (San Diego, Oceanside: transfer to, school, income)

[gnatbugg]

My husband and I will be relocating to San Diego next year and I need to find a community college in the San Diego area. First off, what parts of San Diego are good and which ones are bad. I tried looking for a post that had this information listed, but couldn't find it. Thanks

[socketz]

90% of the areas in San Diego are fine and I'd personally walk through them at night and not think 2x. Really. Some of the stuff about 'bad areas' on this forum is a bit comical. UTC/Poway/Mira Mesa....that's nuts.

Southeast San Diego is tough, as is parts of El Cajon and City Hieghts, but even then, none of these are war zones - just lower income and undesirable places to live.

I moved out to San Diego from Washington DC in the 90s and thought it was amazing that there was actually an entire city where you could go anywhere you wanted and not really have to worry about getting jumped/mugged or shot. In DC, there are streets you don't drive down.

Now, if you have kids, this is a different discussion. The school systems in San Diego are either very good, or abysmal. Be careful there.

I went to the following Community colleges and liked all of them: Miramar JR. College in Mira Mesa, Mesa Junior College in Claremont and San Deigo City college downtown.

I never went there, but Palomar college out in San Marcos/Vista is a huge campus and has alot of cool programs. Large community college.

[LivingLikeAGradStudent]

Daughter goes to Palomar and likes it. Big campus with a lot of programs, and there are branches throughout North County.

[Sassberto]

Palomar and Mesa are the large campuses, Miramar and City have fewer courses which may be important if the student is planning to transfer to a specific major at a CSU or UC school. My wife and I met at City College in downtown SD so I have fond memories of the place. In recent years they have put a bunch of money into upgrading facilities in the JC's.

[thuongn]

hey i really want to know some informations about this college. I like to study psychology but i do not know if this college have any classes for this area or not. thanks.

[thuongn]

i'm a senior now. I would like to study college in San deigo but i do not know this college has any classes for psychology area. Can you give me some information about those. Thanks

[TristramShandy]

I've taught at both MiraCosta and Palomar and both are quite good. You're not going to find a better community college area than MiraCosta at San Elijo - - it's the smaller of their two campuses, but I still think you can get any class there (the times offered may be fewer than at bigger campuses, however). Many of the students go there for a couple of years before transfering to four-year colleges and their program is very reputable in SoCal. Palomar is much bigger and more inland and to the north of San Diego county. MiraCosta's Oceanside campus is well-sized as well, but can be a 45-minute drive from downtown.

What I would recommend would depend a lot on what you are going to a community college for. You can get good classes from any of them. MiraCosta is probably the best if you ultimately want to transfer to a four-year school, but you could do that from any of them (while teaching at SDSU, I'm pretty sure that I've had students from each and every community college in San Diego county).