While attending school at Schenectady County Community College I learned a lot of valuable information. I attended all my classes on campus. Some things I learned about the school I would have liked to have found out sooner and could have helped me decide in what direction and attitude I would have taken while attending.
1.) It would have been good to know more about the personalities of the professors.
Maybe meeting them in person before attending, the Computer Science Department was understaffed and teachers had to actually teach courses in another subject that was understaffed also. Professors had to sometimes teach in a sense of hysteria to be able to get past all their duties and teach. It was hard to tell if a teacher was either laid back passing information to the students at an even pace, or just overwhelmed and can’t get the information to the student adequately. A few of the teachers in the Computer Science Department were in the middle of retirement or retiring soon and taught the class with a little indifference.
2.) I would like to have known more about what departments had the best staffing.
Each subject will have a staff of professors and an administrator for a department as well as a department office. The English and Writing Department was larger than the Computer Science department, and were better staffed because of it. This allowed the professors more room to connect with students rather than juggling tasks that the admins helped with. More time to organize the structure of the course to facilitate learning. At the very least a student would have to take the courses to graduate the program.
3.) I would like to have known more about Computer Science tutoring.
It would have been good for the school to have better or more tutoring for Computer Sciences and computer programming. I could not find a regular tutoring or study group in the school for the subject. It would have given me a better idea of how deeply I would be able to dive into the Computer Science subject.
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4.) I wish I knew more about the Math Department.
They did not seem overwhelmed and had adequate tutoring with a tutoring office and staff. The teachers were very helpful in class and to tutor students. Knowing this before attending would have relieved some stress I had about the math courses I had to take to complete my degree.
5.) While I was attending classes for my degree.
The program was changing the name of the Degree from Computer Networking and Systems to Computer Systems and Security, some of the courses were going to be different from the degree I was attending for although it was supposed to be the same program. This made it difficult to concentrate on my degree because I was not sure if I would have to take extra courses to graduate. In the end I think I had to take one more class to graduate but was given the degree in Computer Networking and Systems. I feel like I missed part of my degree and was unable to complete part of another program when I graduated. Knowing that the course would change midway through and how it would affect me and the courses I took would have lead me to either go to a different school or change my degree program.
Knowing these things ahead of time could help you make the right choice in major and get through your program without a hitch.
Brian Auer enjoys staying current with science and technology and their contributions to the world. He graduated from Schenectady County Community College with an Associate in Applied Science for Computer Networking and Systems.