John
Tyler Community College Perspective.
An education is an important and
rewarding accomplishment. Some students may prefer to assist small community
colleges with focused attention to students while others prefer larger state
universities with many students, professors and broader ideas. I personally
attend John Tyler Community College and would recommend it to anyone. The
college is in a good location, instructors and guidance counselors are helpful,
and offers hybrid courses for working adults.
I
first attended John Tyler in 2005. I was pleasantly surprised by the
instructors and guidance counselors. I had a good experience that I decided to
come back fulltime for the 2011 fall semester. The college is located in
Chester VA, a growing diverse community. The campus is composed of four main buildings
that are mostly one story high and only one is two story. They all have
pathways that make traveling easy from one building to the other. Recently,
they renovated the Nicholas Center where the library and bookstore is located.
There is also an area where students can lounge and have their lunch. Prospective students should have an idea what
degree or field they would want to pursue and should first meet with their
counselor. I would recommend looking through the college catalog and placement
tests should be taken. Upon these Placement tests the college evaluates your knowledge
and advices you to take developmental courses before taking a regular college
course. If all goes well, you can immediately “jump” in and take regular
English and or math classes. The guidance counselor therefore"guides"
you to which classes you should take which semester. Last year was my first
semester in five years. My guidance counselor Ms. Barbie J. Cassada was
wonderful. She welcomed me back and got me back on track. She explained
everything thoroughly, gave me a lot of information and sheets on financial aid
and helped me plan out my schedule for the upcoming semesters. Another place
you definitely should visit would be the Financial Aid office. The staff was
helpful and responded quickly to my emails. During the semester all of my instructors
made themselves accessible. All of the instructors emailed responded to all of
my emails in a timely fashion and accommodated the students very well. You
would think most instructors would be mean and harsh, especially at a college
level. I experienced quite the opposite. Luckily all of my instructors extended
deadlines or offered extra credit assignments to boost the alumni grade.
John
Tyler offers hybrid courses. Last semester I took two hybrid courses. I believe
this is a great opportunity for people who work yet want to continue their
education. Most of the work is done online and you meet once a week for about 2
hours and discuss what was assigned. I have to admit it was difficult at first,
but then you adapt. It is difficult because it is a lot of reading material
that has to be read so that you can participate in the discussion board on
blackboard. I also discovered that it is difficult to study for an exam because
you don’t really know if it’s going to entail all of the material you read or
just the basics. Luckily the instructors I had helped us by giving us practice
tests, study guides and extra credit assignments.
All in all I would recommend anyone to attend
John Tyler Community College. I was
pleasantly surprised by the whole John Tyler experience. It is affordable and has payment plans to
assist students in continuing their education.
