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My Review: Miami Dade College
Personal relevant info - I attended MDC from Fall 2010 to Fall 2012, when I graduated with an AA in psychology. I earned the degree through a mix of peak time, weekend and evening classes, split between the Homestead and Kendall campuses, and a handful of online ("Virtual School") courses. As someone going back to college at 29 after screwing up/dropping out as a 19 year old with a baby, I had a lot of red tape to cut through - academic probation meant having to come in and see an advisor every semester when I registered, and having to take a BS "student life skills" course. There were financial aid blocks on necessary courses due to just never coming back to them and thus getting Fs rather than Ws, a decade ago. I had several appeals to be filed with attached essays and many many phone calls, as well as quite a bit of in person convincing of individuals, that I was serious about this or that. I was also pretty math challenged and had to take a remedial algebra class before I could get to "real" algebra. Ultimately, I ended up on the Dean's List and graduated with a 3.1, which I'm happy with considering that I started (for the second time) with a 1.4 or something horrendous like that, and was not able on my timeline to replace every old F on my transcripts.
First of all - Miami Dade is a BIG community college. I've been shocked when seeing a couple of others IRL and online, because MDC was all I knew - they've seemed tiny by comparison. As the hold message has told me 70984350912340982435 times, MDC is "the biggest institution of higher learning in the United States, now serving over 170,000 students." They aren't even really a community college at all anymore, since you can now get bachelors degrees in half a dozen subjects, which is why the name was changed from MDCC to MDC. I mean the Kendall campus - which is one of 8 campuses - has 15 big, multi-story buildings, an olympic pool, a full gym with locker rooms, a track, 4 soccer fields, a baseball diamond, and 11 parking lots+1 garage. There's also a whole adjacent environmental center with nurseries, trails and so forth. And ampitheaters. The Kendall Campus is deeply enmeshed in the community - I've seen plays there, they are a voting location, and Ananda goes to the orchestra rooms to practice with GMYS on the weekends.
Things I hated about the Kendall campus (aside from having to drive to it, which was after all not it's fault):
-EVERYTHING is hideous gray concrete. There's a lot of funky architecture, which is ok I guess, but ALL GRAY CONCRETE, and with tons of times when you are "half" outside - blocked in by some walls but still technically outdoors, i.e., not air conditioned yet suffering poor or minimal air flow. When it's sweltering out - which is often - it makes it seem so much more stifling and hot.
-Speaking of which, they don't bother to air condition elevators or bathrooms at Kendall, GAH.
-parking is terrible...TER.RIB.LE. Plan to get to school 30 minutes before your class if you even want to think of being on time, during peak times (normal "school hours") because your choices are to park half a mile or more away, in areas you might get towed from, or to drive around slowly, trailing after pedestrians with two dozen other people who are all hoping to nab their spots when they leave. It doesn't help that there is nonstop construction/expansion.
-They do not hesitate to schedule your classes 15 minutes apart without regard for the first being in a former storage area UNDER THE POOL, and the second being on the third floor of a building as far across campus as possible, and things like that. You can't make it without running - through dense crowds? Forget trying to go to the bathroom or make a phone call to check on your kids or something.
-They want to try to make you spend time in their learning labs, outside of class hours, for reasons that must be about funding because there's nothing else to explain why logging on to online portions of courses from any other computer wouldn't be just as good
-they have a totally different book system, meaning you can't buy, sell, or even ask questions about books for Kendall courses at the Homestead campus bookstore, even though it's, you know, THE SAME SCHOOL
-personally, I am not into the ultra bitchy, typical Kendall, Miami attitudes that you get at this campus (in students and administration)...everybody's got the Miami accent, too.
Good things about Kendall are fewer, but are each pretty significant:
-you feel like you're really at college - there's a ton to do, so many people to meet, so many cultural events and so much art everywhere
-the bookstore is way bigger and cooler than Homestead's, and has a lot more non-book stuff
-in general, people who are actually college aged and excited about their futures choose this campus (over Homestead, at least) because they'd rather drive and feel like they're really at college.
-also, Kendall offers everything - you sort of have to go at some point to complete an MDC degree because you can't get all the classes you need in your available time slots elsewhere.
Homestead Campus is 6 buildings, arranged in a big triangle that surrounds a lot of green space with a volleyball area, tables and chairs, walkways, etc. It's SO MUCH NICER IN SO MANY WAYS, even though it's small - the two largest buildings and the administrative building are completely enclosed and air conditioned (as are all bathrooms and elevators, which are impeccable), but mostly it's just a lot newer and much prettier all around. There's a lot of big open space inside of buildings, floor to ceiling glass, they did a lot of bright colors - it's a way better feeling, for me at least, going from class to class on 95 degree days. There are only two parking lots but you won't have to fight for spaces, and you aren't going to be late to one class because the professor before held you for 2 minutes over when you were supposed to get out. The library, computer courtyard and tutoring labs are really spacious and always have a lot of available centers and people whenever you go in. Some of the tutors are awesome. You're less likely to catch their administrative or bookstore hours, because they are fewer, and more likely to get an adjunct professor - Homestead has actually been in danger of losing their accreditation over miminum required numbers of fulltime faculty. However - three of my very favorite professors, including my 1st english teacher who had just completed her PhD in literature and was basically passing through on her way to a job at UM, were adjuncts and taught me a lot.
There is a higher proportion of bullshit time wasters at Homestead, though. You will sometimes have classes with people who goof around in a distracting way reminiscent of middle school, or get paired up for group work with people who are totally lost and don't even understand the assignment. MDC is very accessible, as my sister puts it, and so anybody can pretty much get a Pell grant and make a free attempt. More than once I was shocked by people asking what fairly common words I was using meant, and things like that - which is partially about language barriers as much as intelligence, in this area. Some of the teachers cater to this and dumb down their requirements, and others absolutely do not, are extra bitter because slackers are wasting their time, and fail damn near everyone semester after semester. My speech teacher, a seriously type A tenure track guy at Homestead, was constantly barking "work harder" lectures at us and giving us lists of exacting, detailed requirements for every presentation we had to do. Seven page synopses of speeches had to be approved with the learning lab and signed off on as to his formatting standards before he would even look at them for grading. I felt lucky to get a C from him, since he could be arbitrary as hell and several people dropped out of school altogether in the middle of his class.
Then again my mandatory "student life skills" class was like, group discussions about our week and watching The Secret on the projector (which I actually thought was interesting, in a gimmicky woo-woo way), all led by someone who sat on her desk in flip flops, sometimes texting. I will not bore you with the details of her best friends' love triangle or what her problem with Eminem is...but I could. I COULD.
The most deadly serious and on point students I encountered at both campuses were 15-18 year olds who were at Miami Dade for dual enrollment, on their way to being high school valedictorians with half their AAs already done. Sometimes it's kinda disconcerting just how many minors you're sharing space with, especially when you're, you know, 30 and running into your kids' friends in the halls O_o
But, there are also plenty of 55 year olds around on evenings and weekends, and they tend to be far more lost than I, whether we're talking math or technology or current events :p
There is also a small minority - under the dominant trifecta of older people, dual enrollment teens and 20somethings just "hanging out" on the 7 year AA plan - of young adults that are in the honor societies, running the paper, organizing events and advertising them all over, etc. That group is much more represented at Kendall than at Homestead.
Homestead has a significant showing of 20somethings who just got back from Iraq and are there on the military, too. They're often asked about their experiences overseas in the middle of class discussions, which can get pretty heavy.
It was easier for me to make friends at Homestead, because you end up having the same people in multiple classes semester after semester, and running into them often in the halls.
The MDC Virtual School classes surprised me by seeming like actual college classes and not a cop out. I realize that sounds terrible, but I think I went in seeing them as a bit of an easy way out for busy people without time for "real school". But, for example, my online Humanities course required me to go visit a museum and submit sketches and interpretations of exhibits, go watch a play and review it on specific criteria, and write poetry for the bulletin board as well as critiquing my classmates' poems. I actually had to really study for the (many) tests, because the guy - a hilariously passionate professor who seems to LIVE for the subject and had pictures that screamed, "hippy" in his "about" section- went all out and made them 60 question nightmares that covered huge time periods in art and philosophy, with multiple choice and essay portions.
Academic High Points (not previously mentioned):
-Gen Ed biology and earth science were both intense, and required whole spiral bound notebooks of notes, which I am now using in our homeschool, with the kids. Those notebooks have led to some great discussions and supplements, with the older kids.
-My survey of world religions class was taught by an amazing (Catholic) woman who is a life coach and runs an eclectic "spiritual center," and her curriculum actually changed my life. Note: that was a Kendall adjunct
-Abnormal Psych was taught by a woman who was in practice for a long time with schizophrenics and the homeless, and then addicts at local crisis centers, after an internship with family counseling. She had SO MUCH TO ADD to the text and I feel like I will be referencing back to things she told us - specifically about ethics and perspective - for the rest of my life. I have different ideas about areas I want to explore professionally, because of her. I could have taken that class 8 hours a day for years.
-I love writing papers, and got to do that a lot :) I was also praised lavishly for my papers, as a big fish in a small pond, and ended up friends with my english teachers after class was over. Like, we email about my book and aside from writing my recommendation letters we run into each other at the bookstore and sit down to talk for an hour.
-My spanish classes emphasized points of pronunciation and grammar that I'd never grasped before, and skipped me light years forward towards, "bilingual."
Academic Low Points (in addition to those listed above):
-My algebra and statistics courses were taught by adjuncts who only come in on Saturdays, and are busy with their fulltime jobs all week. Both were totally inaccessible by email or phone, and obviously harried and disorganized during class. There were errors on the board and in the study guides and just, gah. It was not the ideal math experience for someone with my math issues.
-the mandatory computer competency course was the most tedious lot of garbage EVER
Last - Admin. WHERE DO I BEGIN?
The registration and financial aid windows - at both campuses - are almost exclusively run by work study students who have no idea what the hell is going on. Those windows have 30 person long lines winding around the building before semesters start. The people who answer the phone for registration and financial aid are actually at their houses half the time, with no access to the computer system, and only able to answer generalized questions like, "What is a fafsa?" They tell you to call back, sit on hold again, and then maybe next time you'll get someone in the office. You have to reconcile yourself to a 30 min-2 hour wait to see an advisor, ANYTIME, assuming you don't just get told they're at a meeting all morning, or everyone went home for the day (that is startlingly common). Logistically, dealing with administration is just a fucking nightmare. People tell you what you need to do, but you don't realize it's only a tiny portion of what really needs to be done. So you come back with, say, your tax return and an electric bill, only to be told you're actually also gonna need an auto title and $20 and, oh yeah, now they don't do tax returns and you need a special tax report from the IRS. So you leave, and come back, and WAIT, again, and it's some other thing. It's like nobody talks to anybody else or makes any notations on your file when they talk to you. Clusterfuck, Incorporated.
HOWEVER. If you are smart and ask around and play your cards right, this disorganization and inconsistency means that you can manipulate yourself through holds and blocks you shouldn't really be able to, i.e., me getting to take full time schedules when I was on academic probation because I figured out who to talk to. I think sometimes that they are purposely trying to weed out some of the less motivated time wasters who will just kill some years here before moving on without a degree.
Also...in general, the actual advisors are ok - just inaccessible. Once you are O_O FINALLY O_O in there with them, they're very friendly and helpful. I've had a very smooth transition to FIU with all my initial credits lining up and fulfilling everything they needed to. My friend Kristin has experienced a similar ease of admission with the University of Maryland, coming from MDC. They're Certified Respectable (TM) and can get you what you need for the next leg of your...gah, there has to be a better word than JOURNEY, right?
Most people will, hopefully, not have to interact with the administration as much as I did.
I fully expect MDC to be an ongoing part of my life even though I won't be attending any more classes - aside from GMYS rehearsals, Ananda wants to do dual enrollment as a homeschooler starting at 15, and I can easily imagine teaching as an adjunct once I have my Master's. I have positive feelings about the school overall. It was a good jumping off point where I had some great experiences and it's nice to run into certain people when I'm back on campus for something. FIU has already proved far more efficient and helpful, administratively, and my course options within an actual psych program are really exciting...but I am also sure I'll be missing ultra-cheap college I can ride my bike to.
First of all - Miami Dade is a BIG community college. I've been shocked when seeing a couple of others IRL and online, because MDC was all I knew - they've seemed tiny by comparison. As the hold message has told me 70984350912340982435 times, MDC is "the biggest institution of higher learning in the United States, now serving over 170,000 students." They aren't even really a community college at all anymore, since you can now get bachelors degrees in half a dozen subjects, which is why the name was changed from MDCC to MDC. I mean the Kendall campus - which is one of 8 campuses - has 15 big, multi-story buildings, an olympic pool, a full gym with locker rooms, a track, 4 soccer fields, a baseball diamond, and 11 parking lots+1 garage. There's also a whole adjacent environmental center with nurseries, trails and so forth. And ampitheaters. The Kendall Campus is deeply enmeshed in the community - I've seen plays there, they are a voting location, and Ananda goes to the orchestra rooms to practice with GMYS on the weekends.
Things I hated about the Kendall campus (aside from having to drive to it, which was after all not it's fault):
-EVERYTHING is hideous gray concrete. There's a lot of funky architecture, which is ok I guess, but ALL GRAY CONCRETE, and with tons of times when you are "half" outside - blocked in by some walls but still technically outdoors, i.e., not air conditioned yet suffering poor or minimal air flow. When it's sweltering out - which is often - it makes it seem so much more stifling and hot.
-Speaking of which, they don't bother to air condition elevators or bathrooms at Kendall, GAH.
-parking is terrible...TER.RIB.LE. Plan to get to school 30 minutes before your class if you even want to think of being on time, during peak times (normal "school hours") because your choices are to park half a mile or more away, in areas you might get towed from, or to drive around slowly, trailing after pedestrians with two dozen other people who are all hoping to nab their spots when they leave. It doesn't help that there is nonstop construction/expansion.
-They do not hesitate to schedule your classes 15 minutes apart without regard for the first being in a former storage area UNDER THE POOL, and the second being on the third floor of a building as far across campus as possible, and things like that. You can't make it without running - through dense crowds? Forget trying to go to the bathroom or make a phone call to check on your kids or something.
-They want to try to make you spend time in their learning labs, outside of class hours, for reasons that must be about funding because there's nothing else to explain why logging on to online portions of courses from any other computer wouldn't be just as good
-they have a totally different book system, meaning you can't buy, sell, or even ask questions about books for Kendall courses at the Homestead campus bookstore, even though it's, you know, THE SAME SCHOOL
-personally, I am not into the ultra bitchy, typical Kendall, Miami attitudes that you get at this campus (in students and administration)...everybody's got the Miami accent, too.
Good things about Kendall are fewer, but are each pretty significant:
-you feel like you're really at college - there's a ton to do, so many people to meet, so many cultural events and so much art everywhere
-the bookstore is way bigger and cooler than Homestead's, and has a lot more non-book stuff
-in general, people who are actually college aged and excited about their futures choose this campus (over Homestead, at least) because they'd rather drive and feel like they're really at college.
-also, Kendall offers everything - you sort of have to go at some point to complete an MDC degree because you can't get all the classes you need in your available time slots elsewhere.
Homestead Campus is 6 buildings, arranged in a big triangle that surrounds a lot of green space with a volleyball area, tables and chairs, walkways, etc. It's SO MUCH NICER IN SO MANY WAYS, even though it's small - the two largest buildings and the administrative building are completely enclosed and air conditioned (as are all bathrooms and elevators, which are impeccable), but mostly it's just a lot newer and much prettier all around. There's a lot of big open space inside of buildings, floor to ceiling glass, they did a lot of bright colors - it's a way better feeling, for me at least, going from class to class on 95 degree days. There are only two parking lots but you won't have to fight for spaces, and you aren't going to be late to one class because the professor before held you for 2 minutes over when you were supposed to get out. The library, computer courtyard and tutoring labs are really spacious and always have a lot of available centers and people whenever you go in. Some of the tutors are awesome. You're less likely to catch their administrative or bookstore hours, because they are fewer, and more likely to get an adjunct professor - Homestead has actually been in danger of losing their accreditation over miminum required numbers of fulltime faculty. However - three of my very favorite professors, including my 1st english teacher who had just completed her PhD in literature and was basically passing through on her way to a job at UM, were adjuncts and taught me a lot.
There is a higher proportion of bullshit time wasters at Homestead, though. You will sometimes have classes with people who goof around in a distracting way reminiscent of middle school, or get paired up for group work with people who are totally lost and don't even understand the assignment. MDC is very accessible, as my sister puts it, and so anybody can pretty much get a Pell grant and make a free attempt. More than once I was shocked by people asking what fairly common words I was using meant, and things like that - which is partially about language barriers as much as intelligence, in this area. Some of the teachers cater to this and dumb down their requirements, and others absolutely do not, are extra bitter because slackers are wasting their time, and fail damn near everyone semester after semester. My speech teacher, a seriously type A tenure track guy at Homestead, was constantly barking "work harder" lectures at us and giving us lists of exacting, detailed requirements for every presentation we had to do. Seven page synopses of speeches had to be approved with the learning lab and signed off on as to his formatting standards before he would even look at them for grading. I felt lucky to get a C from him, since he could be arbitrary as hell and several people dropped out of school altogether in the middle of his class.
Then again my mandatory "student life skills" class was like, group discussions about our week and watching The Secret on the projector (which I actually thought was interesting, in a gimmicky woo-woo way), all led by someone who sat on her desk in flip flops, sometimes texting. I will not bore you with the details of her best friends' love triangle or what her problem with Eminem is...but I could. I COULD.
The most deadly serious and on point students I encountered at both campuses were 15-18 year olds who were at Miami Dade for dual enrollment, on their way to being high school valedictorians with half their AAs already done. Sometimes it's kinda disconcerting just how many minors you're sharing space with, especially when you're, you know, 30 and running into your kids' friends in the halls O_o
But, there are also plenty of 55 year olds around on evenings and weekends, and they tend to be far more lost than I, whether we're talking math or technology or current events :p
There is also a small minority - under the dominant trifecta of older people, dual enrollment teens and 20somethings just "hanging out" on the 7 year AA plan - of young adults that are in the honor societies, running the paper, organizing events and advertising them all over, etc. That group is much more represented at Kendall than at Homestead.
Homestead has a significant showing of 20somethings who just got back from Iraq and are there on the military, too. They're often asked about their experiences overseas in the middle of class discussions, which can get pretty heavy.
It was easier for me to make friends at Homestead, because you end up having the same people in multiple classes semester after semester, and running into them often in the halls.
The MDC Virtual School classes surprised me by seeming like actual college classes and not a cop out. I realize that sounds terrible, but I think I went in seeing them as a bit of an easy way out for busy people without time for "real school". But, for example, my online Humanities course required me to go visit a museum and submit sketches and interpretations of exhibits, go watch a play and review it on specific criteria, and write poetry for the bulletin board as well as critiquing my classmates' poems. I actually had to really study for the (many) tests, because the guy - a hilariously passionate professor who seems to LIVE for the subject and had pictures that screamed, "hippy" in his "about" section- went all out and made them 60 question nightmares that covered huge time periods in art and philosophy, with multiple choice and essay portions.
Academic High Points (not previously mentioned):
-Gen Ed biology and earth science were both intense, and required whole spiral bound notebooks of notes, which I am now using in our homeschool, with the kids. Those notebooks have led to some great discussions and supplements, with the older kids.
-My survey of world religions class was taught by an amazing (Catholic) woman who is a life coach and runs an eclectic "spiritual center," and her curriculum actually changed my life. Note: that was a Kendall adjunct
-Abnormal Psych was taught by a woman who was in practice for a long time with schizophrenics and the homeless, and then addicts at local crisis centers, after an internship with family counseling. She had SO MUCH TO ADD to the text and I feel like I will be referencing back to things she told us - specifically about ethics and perspective - for the rest of my life. I have different ideas about areas I want to explore professionally, because of her. I could have taken that class 8 hours a day for years.
-I love writing papers, and got to do that a lot :) I was also praised lavishly for my papers, as a big fish in a small pond, and ended up friends with my english teachers after class was over. Like, we email about my book and aside from writing my recommendation letters we run into each other at the bookstore and sit down to talk for an hour.
-My spanish classes emphasized points of pronunciation and grammar that I'd never grasped before, and skipped me light years forward towards, "bilingual."
Academic Low Points (in addition to those listed above):
-My algebra and statistics courses were taught by adjuncts who only come in on Saturdays, and are busy with their fulltime jobs all week. Both were totally inaccessible by email or phone, and obviously harried and disorganized during class. There were errors on the board and in the study guides and just, gah. It was not the ideal math experience for someone with my math issues.
-the mandatory computer competency course was the most tedious lot of garbage EVER
Last - Admin. WHERE DO I BEGIN?
The registration and financial aid windows - at both campuses - are almost exclusively run by work study students who have no idea what the hell is going on. Those windows have 30 person long lines winding around the building before semesters start. The people who answer the phone for registration and financial aid are actually at their houses half the time, with no access to the computer system, and only able to answer generalized questions like, "What is a fafsa?" They tell you to call back, sit on hold again, and then maybe next time you'll get someone in the office. You have to reconcile yourself to a 30 min-2 hour wait to see an advisor, ANYTIME, assuming you don't just get told they're at a meeting all morning, or everyone went home for the day (that is startlingly common). Logistically, dealing with administration is just a fucking nightmare. People tell you what you need to do, but you don't realize it's only a tiny portion of what really needs to be done. So you come back with, say, your tax return and an electric bill, only to be told you're actually also gonna need an auto title and $20 and, oh yeah, now they don't do tax returns and you need a special tax report from the IRS. So you leave, and come back, and WAIT, again, and it's some other thing. It's like nobody talks to anybody else or makes any notations on your file when they talk to you. Clusterfuck, Incorporated.
HOWEVER. If you are smart and ask around and play your cards right, this disorganization and inconsistency means that you can manipulate yourself through holds and blocks you shouldn't really be able to, i.e., me getting to take full time schedules when I was on academic probation because I figured out who to talk to. I think sometimes that they are purposely trying to weed out some of the less motivated time wasters who will just kill some years here before moving on without a degree.
Also...in general, the actual advisors are ok - just inaccessible. Once you are O_O FINALLY O_O in there with them, they're very friendly and helpful. I've had a very smooth transition to FIU with all my initial credits lining up and fulfilling everything they needed to. My friend Kristin has experienced a similar ease of admission with the University of Maryland, coming from MDC. They're Certified Respectable (TM) and can get you what you need for the next leg of your...gah, there has to be a better word than JOURNEY, right?
Most people will, hopefully, not have to interact with the administration as much as I did.
I fully expect MDC to be an ongoing part of my life even though I won't be attending any more classes - aside from GMYS rehearsals, Ananda wants to do dual enrollment as a homeschooler starting at 15, and I can easily imagine teaching as an adjunct once I have my Master's. I have positive feelings about the school overall. It was a good jumping off point where I had some great experiences and it's nice to run into certain people when I'm back on campus for something. FIU has already proved far more efficient and helpful, administratively, and my course options within an actual psych program are really exciting...but I am also sure I'll be missing ultra-cheap college I can ride my bike to.