Story 8

As the spring semester is starting to wrap up, a poll was given to 19 students who answered questions on how well they like Anoka-Ramsey Community College (ARCC). Some of the questions involved whether they have ventured to the Coon Rapids campus, if they have taken any online classes; which do they prefer between in-class or online, if they have ever attended any campus events, and whether the staff was helpful in their college experience at ARCC. By unraveling the poll results, it was amazing to see how these students responded.

Going to ARCC isn’t all about just attending classes. There are steps you have to take before you can start your journey as a college student. The staff/faculty can help either make or break a decision on which college a student chooses to attend. If the staff isn’t helpful with guiding you, or answering questions you might have, you might think twice to attend that specific school. But out of the 19 students polled, 18 have had great experience with the staff. Whether it was a question that they needed answered or if they needed help in guiding them to which classes to attend. The students were all-around satisfied with the commitment that the staff and faculty has towards their students at ARCC. Michelle Husom, 25, stated, “They have helped me with figuring out my classes.” While on the other hand, Megan Thompson, 19, was not as pleased by saying “I am having a hard time with my FASFA going through.”

At ARCC, the college is dedicated to low tuition and great flexibility to having two campuses to choose from. While out of the 19 people surveyed, 12 have never been to the Coon Rapids campus to whereas 7 have. “It’s close to home.” Rebecca Strohkirch, 25, stated about picking the location of what college that she wanted to attend.

With more colleges, including ARCC, becoming more online-oriented, another question that was asked, was have you ever tried an online class, and if yes, do you prefer online or in-class learning better? Amazingly 8 out of the 19 have tried at least one online class, but 7 out of the 8 preferred an in-class learning environment instead of the online structure. That goes to question why don’t more people like the online courses compared to the in-class teachings? While a lot of the classes have became online or web-enhanced in the last few years.

While attending college, some of students are involved in extracurricular activities on campus. Whether it is the math league or a social committee, there is always an event to plan or to attend. If you take a look in the ARCC school calendar or even the schools newspaper, you will find many things to do or attend. But as the polls were added up, a shocking surprise was that no one had attended an ARCC event. “The only event I plan to attend is the graduation ceremony.” Glenda Rittenour, 27, said after reading the question given. So why haven’t any of the students polled not going to any type ARCC events? Do they not know about them? Or do they simply not care about things going on outside of their classes? Maybe if there were more of an incentive to join a group or maybe just something as simple as knowing when a specific event is going to happen would get these students to an ARCC event.

With the questions given, and the polls answered, it was a shock to see the results. The wide range of questions given gave a broader spectrum on what ARCC students do for their class types and how they feel about different things, like the staff. It is pretty amazing that no one has attended a school event, but hopefully the school can reach out to the different students to interest them into an event or program, or maybe venturing to the Coon Rapids campus or even to an online class that might help them.