Many De Anza faculty are easy to approach but are not always as efficient as they should be, some De Anza students said Monday.
A Gallup poll done in January revealed that students at smaller colleges with less than 5,000 students, compared to larger colleges with more than 5,000 students, are more likely to say that faculty cares about them.
“Counselors are easy to meet with because of the appointment system but there has been times where I've felt like I wasted my time because the information they gave me wasn't helpful,” said Joseph Cortez, 22, business major.
Cortez said that he left the counseling office feeling confident that he had enrolled in the right classes for his major but later found out that he was wrong.
As far as the professors go, “I don't often ask for one-on-one help from my teachers,” Cortez said, “but when I do I'm able to get my questions answered without any trouble.”
Carolina Diaz, 20, communications major, said De Anza counselors have confused her numerous times but her previous professors have been very helpful when she asked for assistance outside of class.
“I try to find the most effective and best professors by looking them up on Rate My Professor,” said Carolina Diaz, 20, communications major. Rate My Professor is an online rating system for professors done by students.
Diaz said she does not personally know any of the counselors and has received help from at least three different ones.
“Counseling would be better if I was able to see the same counselor every time I need help,” Diaz said.
Similarly to the Diaz and Cortez, second-year foreign exchange student, Wen-Yung Chang, 19, biology major, said that he tends to visit the counseling office a lot and has not always left with the right information.
“I’m not so new anymore but when I was, I had to seek help from counselors many times because I was confused,” Chang said.
Chang said he had nothing bad to say about them since they did a good job instructing him in and out of class.
Other De Anza students had different things to say about certain faculty.
Michaela Meyer, 23, sociology major, singled out past professors and said they were not good at instructing or helping students outside of class.
“These professors were fairly older and it seemed like they didn't enjoy teaching anymore,” Meyer said.
Meyer also said she used outside sources more often than on-site counselors because she found those to be quicker and more effective.
Like Meyer, Joel Pedroza, 20, kinesiology major, said that he used outside counseling sources such as Assist because the process was faster and even visited the local university that he wanted to transfer to in order to obtain the correct information.
“I went to talk to a counselor once and he showed me about Assist."
Pedroza said he continued to use Assist and also arranged to meet with a counselor at San Jose State University since that was where he wanted to transfer.
“The only bad professors that I’ve had have been a part of the mathematics department,” Pedroza said, “other than that, the rest have been great.”