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.