San Diego Mesa College

It was an experience to get through the first year but it's possible and this campus won't let you forget it, Super Dope! Must Visit!

This school may appear to offer a wealth of classes - they in fact do not have enough faculty each term to cover these classes - I am comparing Mesa to several other CC’s within SD and North County as I happen to have previously attended a handful for programs and gained a healthy experience to compare. Mesa is by far the most difficult school in SD (to include the connected SDCCD schools) as far as getting a class, getting off a waitlist for a class, dealing with Admissions - they are not kind nor helpful but rather you do not matter and their attitude will tell you as much, dealing with any programs offered (DREAM, EOPS, etc) they simply take almost half of a term to process these applications (early applications) and they don’t seem to have effective communication between departments in order to get anything done properly. The staff in these admin departments are difficult to deal with, communicate with, get anything handled or processed, etc. They list information incorrectly and take extended (as in 1 yr or more) time to correct information for student records - all this to say, they do not function efficiently. Nor do they seem to function in a way to help the student succeed. After dealing with schools like Palomar in San Marcos and Rancho Bernardo, dealing with Mesa was pushing rope up hill. They find reasons to make things difficult rather than make things smooth and accessible for the student. I can not recommend Mesa or its connected SDCCD schools in any way due to this experience. They simply do not care for the students experience. I will add, I also attended UCSD and another west coast State university and the experience there was again, day and night compared to dealing with the constant road blocks that Mesa seems to create out of thin air. If you want a difficult experience rather than a positive and healthy one - this is the school for you. It is not a realistic or quality CC experience in any way. Parents be warned. Don’t make life harder for your college students - send them to Palomar or Mira Costa, or head directly to a state school - they will be far more successful and supported in their experience.

I'm extremely grateful for the open availability of this beautiful campus. As a disabled senior, my daily walks in the neighborhood are regularly hindered by obstacles, including landscape encroachment and illegally parked vehicles blocking sidewalk passage. Crosswalk passageway has also proven hazardous for pedestrians on area roadways. Thankfully, the Mesa campus maintains safe ADA compliant passageways throughout its grounds, which I've found to be ideal for my personal welfare and fitness needs.

Professor Guido has a special place in my heart; just like mesa college does! His knowledge has helped me grow so much as an artist, entrepreneur, and professional in my work place. I admire an educational system that hires open minded and safe individuals like Mr. G.

The grounds to San Diego City Colleges are pretty nice and they have some good teachers. Mesa and other affiliated campuses may be a good place to go for transfer credits or classes for fun but these colleges can also be a very traumatic life experience, even if you're learning and growing along the way. It's not surprising that so many people attend courses and don't obtain a degree, between life, timing and counselors all providing different information, it's very difficult. I'd like to share some quotes from teachers and counselors during my experience here throughout the years. For background, I completed a certificate program and took all required prerequisites to apply for another AA program I did not get in, due to unfortunately not being selected via the lottery system once and then for not being eligible for not resubmitting the same education plan I had already submitted with my student id not knowing I had to resubmit the same form I had on file. Lesson learned that time but unfortunately, once your prerequisites expire, if you are unable to continue the cycle, the lesson learned doesn't help much. "Why do you want to go back to school? Just do what you're doing, I know some people make good money doing that." "I'm sorry other counselors didn't look at all the details." "You WERE eligible previously but they JUST changed the requirements, I am sorry you didn't know." "You're eligible for an associate's!" One month later "You're missing 13 requirements". "The corona virus is a novel virus and this hype is ridiculous." Two days before we moved to online modules because of what was a global pandemic. "If you look away from the screen for even a second during a test, I will be alerted and fail you." "Apply for your degree, the worst they can say is no." "It's no big deal" ... As I'm holding back tears from disappointment and frustration. After sending an email stating concerns that I was not getting adequate and correct information from counselors and I wanted to correspond with a director directly to make sure I was going the correct course, I was sent a condescending email that promised to single me out had I ever gotten accepted to that program because of the "casual tone" in my email did not portray the right amount of respect in their opinion and that should be my focus at that time. My last conversation, I was promised an email to walk me through the final effort and shared I had a deadline of November 5th. That was 3 days ago and there is no email in my inbox. 😮‍💨

The Veterans Office has been extremely unhelpful. They submitted the paperwork very late, and it only got done because I had to go in person and push them to handle it otherwise, I wouldn’t have received any payments for the entire summer semester. The person in charge was laughing and joking in the back about their mistake and did not want to even speak with us, which felt very unprofessional. Now, I’m facing the same issue AGAIN. They’re claiming one of the classes doesn’t count, even though the counselor confirmed that it does. Update: went back today sept 18- and the girl working in the veterans office was rude. I’m over this.

I attended Mesa College full-time for three years after high school. I can't put into words how much it changed my life. All the staff were so encouraging and kind whenever I had questions or had trouble deciding what classes to take, especially Dr. Primoza and Dr. Hands. I went from being a high school almost-dropout to a UC Berkeley honors graduate, and grew into a fulfilling technical writing career. Those opportunities opened up for me thanks to my time at Mesa. It's a place I'll cherish in my heart forever.