Portland Community College – Cascade Campus

Pcc is the Comcast of colleges. Numerous frustrating experiences here. I’m convinced the school is a front for the bookstore. The books are more expensive than my previous college and the bookstore never buys my books back, even if it’s a brand new edition and in good condition. They especially never buy back the books written by their teachers which is awesome because those you can’t get a penny for anywhere else. The classes are cheap but the books get you. And for example I had finals until Thursday of this week and then I work full-​time, but the buyback started Monday, days before finals ended and only went two days after they were done. And since I worked those two days I have no chance to sell them.

There’s people working there that you may have gone to middle school with and alternately there’s opportunity for less than a small town experience. You can study abroad with PCC. The parking can be tough if you’re not yet a student and once you are, parking for extended amount of time near neighboring houses will earn you a citation or ticket. As for education, here the provide ABE or adult basic education (geared towards ged) and other classes like music theory and all that can accompany music skill, like media recording and skills helping you play in a group. Come here to learn to be a 911 dispatcher or another trade skill. And lastly, you’ll see students in their teens, 20’s, all the way up to 60’s! Jump in, and love what you learn.

I love this campus because it’s close to many good Asian restaurants. Also close to bus stop such as bus no. 4 & 75. They just recently have two new buildings that are very modern and bright.
Only 4 stars because it is located in a very busy road, and quite dirty around the campus. However, when you are inside the campus, it’s pretty clean.

I am currently co enrolled at both Portland State University and Portland Community College. I do like that I am able to get a few classes out of the way and save a bit on tuition costs. This campus is also really close to my house.
All that being said, the more classes I take from PCC the more frustrated I find myself becoming.
It seems that there are few options available when searching for classes at this campus (Cascade). I do realize that a couple of the other campus may be larger and therefore have the ability to offer more classes. It still remains a topic of frustration for me.
A few of my classes have been a joke in the way they are run, (So easy I am almost bored to the point of tears). Also, it makes me feel like I am wasting my time and money when an instructor only lectures right out of the text without adding anything extra. I am able to read the book and accomplish the same thing.
The drip coffee is sold for $ 1.75?!? That is about the price of a coffee from Starbucks when you bring your own mug (which I always do). I guess $ 1.75 would be more acceptable if they were serving some amazing coffee, but PCC coffee is nothing special. I’ll continue to bring my coffee from home, or purchase coffee on the PSU campus for $ 0.99.
Many of the classes are starting to utilize custom printed just for PCC textbooks. This makes it very difficult to find used editions for the purpose of saving some money as well as being a more environmentally sustainable approach. They also tend to not take these special edition textbooks back at the bookstore. I guess they want to do all they can to make sure students pay full price for new textbooks each quarter.
The more classes I take with PCC the more I find myself contemplating if the saving in tuition is worth the hassles and frustrations I have experenced.

Pros:
— Campus is small and easy to navigate.
— Staff are very helpful and friendly.
— I’ve taken four classes so far and every teacher has been great. I get the feeling they really care about what they do and want to see every student pass.
Cons:
— Terrible location. Almost every building in the near-​by area looks dilapidated and shady. Most are businesses I (and many other students for that matter) would never use. I saw one place that appears to be a Spanish video rental store. Video rental stores are pretty much useless these days as it is, but a Spanish one to boot? What PCC student would ever use that?
— The students. It’s ironic that community colleges have the word «community» in them because community is always the one thing they lack. The people here aren’t interested in making friends or getting together for study groups, they just want to go to class and leave as soon as possible. That’s understandable because they’re probably busy, but as someone who moved to Portland from Illinois and doesn’t know anyone in the city, my hopes of making friends here were crushed fairly quickly.
— The campus generally looks dirty, which is a fault I attribute to the students. In the cafeteria, some students don’t even have the decency to clean up after themselves. Every time I eat lunch, I feel like screaming at the top of my lungs, «Seriously people, if you make a mess all over the table, get a napkin and clean it up!» In the men’s restrooms, it’s common to see urine on the toilet seats. I’m sure the cleaning staff are working as hard as they can, but it’s impossible to keep a campus clean when the students treat it like a pigsty.
The cons I’ve described could easily be attributed to any Community College though, so if you’ve ever been to a Community College in the past, you should know what to expect. It’s funny how Universities are always located in busy areas that directly cater to students and feature tons of restaurants near-​by, whereas Community Colleges are always in deserted locations out in the middle of nowhere.

I spent summer 2014 at this campus for a lab class. The campus was dead, which was grest for parking but there wad no food choices & we were there for 6 hours with a break. I also wish the classroom was better stocked, as the alcohol pads for blood draw were all dried up.

I love this place. I have been taking classes here off and on for the past couple of years. Excellent instructors, easy to understand cirruculum and plenty of choices to get the knowdledge and knowhow under your belt. I expect to graduate next summer and I am extremely pleased with what PCC has had to offer me.

Totally amazed at the campus as far as places to sit quietly, places to visit, the food options, and then my professor is so far and above what I would have expected for a community college, I am very happy with the money and time spent @ PCC.
In addition to the Cascades Campus, the whole Killingworth neighborhood has won me over for stops after class for bites to eat and chats with classmates before we head home. Totally underrated part of town by my estimation.

Best PCC campus– not prettiest, but best.

PCC has a very much undeserved reputation of being a low cost, and as a result low quality of education, place to get a degree.
This is odd to me, as I have a degree from another private college, and actually prefer the education that I received here. I majored in Criminal Justice, as a way to satisfy my curiosity about the legal system and law enforcement, and am actually graduating with more comprehensive hands on knowledge than I had expected.
My instructors are not simply people who went to school and got the type of degree that leads to a singular career choice of being a teacher of the same subject they just graduated in (I am referring to you anthropology, or theoretical mathematics, majors), but individuals who have actual career length experience in the subject they teach.
My corrections courses are taught by those who ran correctional institutions, my juvenile courses were taught by demonstrated leaders in the juvenile legal system, and my where else can you honestly say that your law enforcement courses are taught by a current, local, Chief of Police, or a highly respected retired member of the FBI?
PCC may have a vary diverse set of programs, and some may be less maintained as the Criminal Justice program (hence 4 instead of 5 stars), but they are one of the better educational options in the area.

I have only had good experiences going to this campus!

If this were my main campus, I’d already be in prison for killing somebody. I had already been going to PCC for a year when I had to come to this campus for an advisor in my field.
My son had gone to classes here and said he loved this campus. I did not realize parking here would require a heavy dose of some drug legal or not, so maintain sanity. I wouldn’t even have minded walking, if there were spots. There were so many people and traffic around this campus, it was not worth it.
After going through the parking hurdles, I found I had to wait for two hours for an advisor, despite an appointment time I had set. The woman giving me the time frame, gave me the typical PCC attitude and told me I would be seen when I was seen. Really?
Then the advisor I had to meet with was seriously, the rudest person I have ever encountered. I had an advisor at Sylvania that was absolutely on it and had my degree mapped out and worked with me but this woman, didn’t even use the form to write the classes down, she tore a piece of printer paper off and jotted classes down and told me to go online and figure it out.
I waited two hours for a five minute useless meeting. The irony was, that I had another appointment at MHCC to meet the Eastern Oregon advisor for my transfer degree and they mapped my entire program out.
I am glad this was not my first campus experience with PCC. I know some people love the vibe around this campus, but I don’t have a doctor cool enough to keep writing scripts to keep my car on the road and not on top of jay walkers darting into traffic.

Neighborhood community college with a lot of heart. The students and faculty take A TON of pride in their school and it shows. Highly recommended.

I like PCC. It’s inexpensive compared to taking the same classes at a four-​year school, there is a large selection of classes available (although they fill up quickly), and I have had a couple really superb instructors here. My only gripes have to do with issues that make the school less accessible than it should be. Being a community college, accessibility seems like it should be key.
I find it really frustrating that most of this campus closes on or before 5:00 on Fridays. Sure some of the main buildings are still open for evening classes, but the library closes at 5:00, the main computer lab at 4:45, and the cafeteria at 2:00. These facilities are open later on other weekdays, so why not on Fridays too? Although I’m sure nobody wants to spend Friday night doing schoolwork, sometimes you have no other choice. I feel like it’s a bit of a disservice to those that need to come to campus to use these facilities outside the normal Monday through Thursday hours, especially those us that take weekend classes.
I’m here now as I write this, and noticed after the library closed at least 15 – 20 other people simply migrated to the cafeteria seating area to continue working, the same as I did, so clearly the need for these resources to stay open later is there.

The surrounding neighborhood sucks, but the campus is nice.

I’ve since taken several courses at PCC, for credit and not for credit, and I’ve had a really great experience. The campuses are really nice and the equipment is great. I took Anatomy and Physiology here and felt the labs were so nice, even nicer than many other universities. In addition, many of the professors that teach at PCC also teach at PSU… same instructor for a portion of the price. Good deal.

The teachers are seriously hilarious. Every single professor has had a great sense of humor, they don’t take themselves to seriously, unless they are spin instructors, but frankly cyclist that wear those funny hats all take themselves too seriously. Anyhow, when I go to speak with anyone in Financial Aid, Counselors, or anyone at Registration they are always SUPER helpful, they smile and don’t seem run down from dealing with students all day. How they maintain their cool speaks to me about how much they enjoy the company they work for, and who is hiring these people? They obviously are choosing people who like working with people. Shuttle service is free for all students, making it easier for students to take the classes they need in the locations that work best. I work in SE and live in North Portland, but I do my extra-​curriculars at the Sylvania Campus, and the free Shuttle service is a life saver. I’m glad to be a student here, even though I know I won’t be here forever, PCC has made my 2 years back in college life so fun and easy.