Virginia Peninsula Community College

I'm not sure where to start. My ability to take classes was delayed by 2 semesters due to lack of communication and even misinformation from the school's own employees. I signed up for classes, did my fin aid, then was told that my fin aid would automatically pay for my classes. It did not and my classes were dropped, another semester comes up, more BS happens at the fault of the school. I'm currently trying for the third time and I made a little more progress by going in person to the school. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND: do not call any numbers that land you on someone that doesn't work on campus, these people are uneducated on their jobs as they cover various community college's and in my experience they act like it's their first day (very incompetent). Go in person, a lady in fin aid actually helped me with a few things, It's inconvenient and annoying but I have to go up there from time to time to check on things. Face to face is the only way to go with this school. What's depressing is that the next closest CC is Tidewater and their reviews are not much better! 4 year college's do not have the same issues, what's going on with VA's CCs? This is a serious issue - I want a better future for myself and VPCC has so far made it impossible. Once I successfully take a class with no admin hiccups then I'll start to see the school in a more positive light. This is unacceptable. I'd like to know where we can speak to someone that will make major changes in the functions of this school. This school is UNEQUIPPED.

DONT GO HERE!! Im transfering to another community college and can not say any good things about the school other than the teachers, who are working really hard. Advising is the worst and doesn't seem to actually want to advise at all! My advisor Janeen Jackson was supposed to advise me on transfering to a school closer to me after a move, but communicate with her was dreadful. I got an email from Seth the director of advising apologizing for my frustration after i had expressed in an email how frustrated i was just tying to communicate. I never head from her again and stongly feel she just didn't want to deal with me and handed me off to him to make it seem like they cared. Im happy to be transfering to another community college and can say the other college is already far better in communicate

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME HERE: The administration of this school is terrible. All they seem to care about is getting people to sign up for classes and pulling in the $. My daughter signed up for three classes for the fall semester. When she went to attend two of her classes there was a sign on the door that the classes were cancelled because they didn't have instructors. What sort of college can't schedule instructors for the classes they advertise in their course catalogue? Her third class was placed online because again, no instructor. When she went online, it was a canned class with no instructors, only daily tasks. What sort of college allows you to register for in person classes, only to divert you to an online platform at the last minute? That should never happen and it begs the question of who is managing this place? Needless to say we asked for our money back. Never seen a more disorganized and poorly managed college in my life.

I am almost done with my degree but I just wanted to share this. The teachers are great but the school is not. All they care is about money and they don’t even have the time to contact you and ask how are you doing with classes. Not a single advisor has messaged me or called me. I have tried multiple times to get a message back and nothing. I feel like they just wanted my money and didn’t care about my progress as a student. I don’t even know how I’m doing academically, when I’m graduating. I only got help from student services and no advising. Their appointments never work online and when I call is always something. I have emailed my advisor and nothing. They set me up with an advisor and no reply back. Honestly the classes are good but it really makes you feel like you are doing everything alone. If I could give a 0 I would but I feel like the teachers care about the students so I’m given 2 stars.

DO NOT GO HERE! There is a REASON why the ratings are low. I have taken courses here since high school AND have finally received my AA through here not too long ago. This school should ONLY be an option if you truly don’t have any money/aid or any other options. But even with aid here, it comes with a lot of headache. Professors/Faculty as a whole, don’t prioritize responses at all. A lot of them are just tenured in and really either don’t care about your success at all or will make you jump through hoops and hurdles for any type of assistance. Their programs’ criteria and curriculum requirements change like every year or two which makes you have to take extra classes. There are very minimal professors for each program/class so if it’s a teacher that does not teach well, you will still have to take that class if it’s required for the degree. Financial Aid is a literal joke. I know at every school people complain about financial aid but it’s stings even more when most people go to community college to save money. There was a few semesters where I wasn’t able to take any classes because financial aid, (even though these ladies have been there for many many years), couldn’t tell me what I needed so I could receive my aid. They are pretty much robots at this points because, in my opinion, they are tired of having people coming to them upset and just want to be done with the day. The lady over that department is just ready to retire as well. It sucks when you are really trying to get everything seamless so you can be successful and you have to deal with people who are just there for a check regardless if you are successful. Also, my final straw with this college and its aid, was my very last semester, I was attempting to do an 8 week class (A) and then the (B) section so I could finish quicker. My aid was approved and I enrolled into the class and was a 2 weeks into the class and they pulled my aid ON drop date to receive a refund. So, now I have to pay $580. And this has happen like 3 times. I explained the situation to the aid office and had evidence. They took it to the boss but it’s just literally a monotone response. Just different answers already programmed into them. They do not care. They did not have pretty much any extracurricular/clubs activities which sucks because as a young adult, it would have been great to try new things and meet new people. And again, even for the few activities they do have, the sponsors have NEVER followed up with me. There are so many other things that I could share but if you don’t read anything except for this line, please understand, THEY DON’T CARE IF YOU SUCCEED. All, of the personnel who were helpful and took passion in my academic journey are gone for a reason. Take notice on how they do not respond to reviews at all. Take notice how they ask you to fill out reviews and nothing changes or gets updated in the buildings, and how teachers with less than a 2.0 rating on MyProfessor have been teaching for decades. If I save even just ONE person from this peril, I will sleep better at night. And I have this paragraph saved in my notes in case they one day decide to try to delete the bass reviews because it’s JUST that serious.

Misinformation is the hallmark to this institution. The lack of integrity, pursuit of excellence when communicating expectations for career planning and taking classes, and the laziness and apathy experienced with the academic advisors updating records is astounding. I recommend skipping this institution to 'get ahead' and 'save money.' Go to a different community college or bigger college/university. They're willing to misinform you on the front-end to funnel more students through their lackluster programs, even if it costs you the consumer, tons of more time and money. I could've saved a lot of money and time going directly to my desired location; what's worse, is the advisors and professors told me otherwise. Pure greed and lack of compassion. Taking advantage of other's lack of information for a quick dollar is like 'selling one's soul to the devil.'

I attended this college just to take some courses of interest as I already have my degrees. What looked like an okay college turned out to be one of the worst educational institutes I've ever seen. It's a horrific college that treats the students poorly. No one answers the phone, no one calls you back, emails are not returned. Impossible to get help if issues arise. Only one person I spoke with out of a dozen was polite, everyone else was rude, hostile, and disrespectful. DO NOT ATTEND. DO NOT SUPPORT.