How are students at colleges and universities in Palm Beach??? (Orlando: good schools, living in)

[FloGrownGrl]

I'm a Florida native, born and raised. I've lived in 3 different regions of this state during that time (Orlando, Clearwater, and Boca/Delray) and have attended two different colleges: Valencia CC, Orlando, FL; and Palm Beach CC, Boca Raton, Fl.

When I went to college in Orlando, the student bodies at each VCC campus were fairly large and faculty pretty well staffed. Valencia CC offers a variety of courses for each degree, has resources plentiful, and great professors. I was a Freshman when I started going there in 2006, and while I'm usually pretty shy and introverted, I found that the students in most of my classes were pretty openly social, open to discussing topics in class with the professor, the professors often engaged the students, things like that.

When I went to PBCC, I only took two evening classes but in both of those it seemed like the students were all very stark. I didn't even see too much socializing on campus, even when I stopped there during the day. The professors didn't really engage the students too much and the students didn't seem to socialize as openly -- although I was taking an Economics class, and an English Lit class (this professor was extremely boring).

Are all students/classes like this on PBCC Boca campus and other colleges or is this just an isolated experience? Is it because Orlando is very much a college party town vs. Boca? Is it due to the lack of variety, resources, and activities at PBCC or is this just the way students typically are at PBCC??

PBCC really blows, so I could see why students there would be slightly miserable.

Valencia CC was like
PBCC was like >

I LOVE S. Florida and considering moving back there. It's either Orlando or Boca. Living in Orlando is an absolute nightmare, but the schools are really good in contrast to S. Florida. And living in S. Florida is an absolute dream, but the schools..well, yeah.

What's your take on the student bodies there? What has been your experience?

[Tungsten_Udder]

I had some great experiences with PBCC, and when I was involved with it, it had one of the best jazz bands in the country, with a small but incredible core of music professors (including an amazing piano teacher who had played with Jaco Pastorius among others). I also had inspirational philosophy and environmental science teachers. The latter organized a lot of extracurricular activities and among other things, got me far more into hiking, canoeing, etc. than I had been previously.

In general, I think generalizing about schools is worthless--including the ever-present fretting over living in an area with "good schools" that we see in every forum on City-Data.

Every teacher is different and every student is different. What someone gets out of a school is largely a factor or what they put into it, as long as you have a bit of luck with the teachers you get. And at any school, you can get teachers who you just do not click with. Aside from a handful of colleges--mostly ivy league schools--where the simple fact of having graduated from the school can help someone get a leg up on some jobs, success is going to come from the hard work and personality of the student, not from the fact that they attended one school rather than another.

[compelled to reply]

Try Broward College. I have to agree about PBCC. I have no clue about the campus in Coconut Creek but the central one (Davie) is pretty active for a community college. The key phrase is for a community college. The buildings are older though but it seems to be a pretty decent CC, probably not as good as Valencia though.

[PBCboy]

It's not like PBCC is exclusively located in Boca Raton. You might want to give the Lake Worth campus a try.

[Tungsten_Udder]

Originally Posted by PBCboy

It's not like PBCC is exclusively located in Boca Raton. You might want to give the Lake Worth campus a try.

I didn't even notice that the OP specified a Boca Raton campus until I read your post . . . I have no idea what that would be like, although I'd guess it's pretty small. For most of the time I lived in the area, there only was the Lake Worth campus (and that's where I went), although a few years before I moved, they had added a small Northern (I think it might have been off of PGA Blvd) satellite campus. When did the Boca campus open?