Austin Community College – Cypress Creek Campus

I started ACC at age 50, four months after my divorce. After 14 years as an at home dad, I was unemployable and at a horrible point in my personal life. I slept in a Walmart parking lot for two months until I got a room in a garage. Which I share with 13 cats and started taking odd jobs to pay rent and tuition. The work, schooling and a horrible personal life would have been unbearable if not for all the assistance and prodding that I have received from a multitude of GREAT people at ACC, both faculty and staff. I have always received the classes needed to fulfill a degree. This was accomplished by my listening to and following the advice given to me by the GREAT people who make up ACC. I am now a semester away from earning my second certification degree (c++, testing) and I take the foundation testing exam for a license within the month. I owe so much to all the people at ACC who not just helped me get to this point in my life, but pushed me to do as well as I have. The counselors at ACC are incredibly helpful, if you seek their help. The professors bend over backwards, plus some, to offer and deliver their help in making sure the student actually learns and understands the material for each course. YOU as the student must seek this help, but it is more than available if you actively seek it. The staff at ACC is world class as far as I am concerned. When I have asked for help for what ever reason, the staff at ACC bent over backwards in so many ways, both professionally and personally, to help me get what I needed to perform my education or even push me to continue my education at the bad times over the last 2 and a half years. I have made friends and memories and accomplishments at ACC that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I look forward to my future, thanks to my time at ACC. Not too long ago, I was ready to roll over and die, to give up and just survive and live a not so elegant life. ACC has given me a whole new outlook on life. I look forward to my future now, and am now rushing headlong into this future with the necessary outlook and skills required to be successful. I OWE MY LIFE AND FUTURE TO ACC. With all the things that I have received from ACC, from a place to be and something constructive to do, to ultimately a college degree, to all the help I so desperately needed and required from faculty and staff, I feel I have a future now. A future that, with a good amount of effort, will be a nice future. THANKS TO ACC. Thank you ACC.

If ACC didn’t offer Dual Credit and Early College Credit courses, I would never step foot near this campus again. Over the course of 3 semesters, EVERY time I go to this campus I have to return again to accomplish what I needed the first time. First event was I didn’t have a vaccine form to turn in. Never knew I needed a vaccine record to take a class at my HS campus! If this is a documented step in the registration process, I had never heard of it. Next it was I had to go 2 times to get my photo ID. I’m 16, just got a DL and had a temporary paper license. Had my photo on it. They would not except it — even though — funny — the photo looks JUST like me. I even brought my SSN card just to have something else. Next time I needed to get an ECC form to fill out to register for a class. I emailed, received an answer saying swing by Admissions during office hours and we will give you an ECC to take to your HS counselor for signature. Funny, when I showed up, they refused to give me the form. If getting one from your campus is not an option, then why did an ACC help desk person tell me to waste my time to go to your campus? Now, I take back the signed ECC form to the Adviser and Admissions. I get home to sign up for the class online — the system says, ‘error — needs ECC admission form prior to registry.” I WAS JUST THERE! Phone call to the campus required an 8 minute phone wait until they could find someone who would ‘agree to answer my call.’ When the person finally got on the phone, she said, «Ohhhhh, I entered in the wrong date. Try it now…» No sorry — no remorse. Whatever people. I think someone needs to do a better screening and interviewing your support staff. I can’t wait to see how much effort this is going to take to get a transcript to be able to use the credits at my future college of choice. Ugh.

Alright I’m very upset with this place. They’ve screwed me over too many times! I called earlier today to see how late their advising office is open and was told 5pm. I got there at 4:25pm and was told «oh, the advisor’s have already brought back their students today and they won’t be seeing anyone else.» Don’t you think they should let you know ahead of time that ‘hey it says we’re open until 5 but you should get here at noon in order to be seen.’ Careless assholes.

This is my fourth semester at ACC. and all 4, I have mainly attended the Cypress campus.
This is a fairly small campus, easy to find at the corner of Lakeline and Cypress Creek Rd. Entrances from both roads make it easier to get to the campus, no matter which direction you’re coming from. There are 2 buildings. the main 1000 building (classrooms/​testing center/​small bookstore) and the 2000 building (classrooms, advising, learning lab, student services, assessment testing). The library is centrally located.
Parking — Ahh. some days it’s ok, some days not so much. I usually have to park pretty far away, but compared to some of the bigger campuses, this one rocks! Don’t forget that parking pass unless you want a ticket! Visitors have quite a few spots near the front. Very nice for those coming in to pick up something, or tour the campus/​get enrolled for the first time.
Campus is clean, well kept, and easy to get around. Labs are set up well. No cadaver lab for allied health students (Boo!). There is a commons area in the 1000 building and a small café. Food. ahh. overpriced but edible. There are vending machines everywhere but keep in mind that I can never get them to accept my ACC debit card, so cash is best. The commons area has tables and chairs, as well as big comfy seats and ottomans. It can get really noisy and sometimes there are kids (like 10 – 16 years old) hanging out in that area for some reason and making a heck of a racket. I’ve seen it quiet. usually it isn’t. The singing that goes on there is the most annoying. If I want to hear horrific singing, I’ll go to a karaōke bar. This happens nearly every evening that I have a gap between classes. I do wish people would be more respectful and especially leave your kids at home. not on campus. While it is a commons area. many people do like to study there because you can talk with your friends and grab a bite to eat. The library isn’t always good because sometimes it’s just really full. I wonder why?
Classrooms: Set up nicely for the most part. The smaller classrooms can feel cramped when the class is full, but it’s still manageable.
Everything else: Restrooms are centrally located and usually quite clean. There is an elevator that works well. Some of the drinking fountains have water bottle access. (Super nice!). Advising area is cramped, and sometimes the wait is really long. Waiting areas are cramped as well. Not much room back there. especially when busy. The process to be seen by financial aid or an advisor, isn’t always clear. ⁹⁄₁₀ times I go to Round Rock for student services, even though it is further away.
In general. I love this campus. If I could just get away from the American Idol tryouts every Tues and Thursday night. it’d be darn near perfect.

Currently waiting for my advising. I’m a returning student. Always been satisfied with this campus in the past. It’s fairly new and the buildings are nice. Eco-​friendly water bottle refilling fountains are nifty & the staff is friendly. Yesterday I came in at 4pm (they close at 5) and I was told there were already ten students in line, they’d be cutting off for the day. That’s what brings me back here. I’ve been waiting 30 minutes and I was told it’d be about a 30 min wait from the computer when I checked in. The computer check in system is a little impersonal but what can I expect these days.
There’s not a lot about this campus that makes it stand out to me other than the library. It’s always very quiet for studying and kept well organized. They have plenty of tables layed out and desks against the walls. Group rooms if you’re with some fellas, gonna be talking. I sometimes like to pick a good book, plop down and read for a couple hours. The atmosphere in there makes it easy to do so and there’s enough books to keep even the most distractible minds entertained.
The café area is alright. expensive for what you get but a fairly decent selection, they even had kombucha last time I looked (Febuaryish, Buddha’s Brew) but it ran a little steep at $ 4/16~oz.
I was recently told through text I’d be waiting a few more minutes, so we’ll see how that goes.
As far as community colleges go, this and the Northridge location of ACC are my favorites.

I have been trying to go back to school for a little while and so I started the process at ACC at Cypress Creek because that would be the location I would be attending the most. Sadly from day one I have had a rough experience.
First, I was told I needed to get my proof of residency turned in and I was so excited to get started. However, I was halted when I was told that I could not talk to anyone until I had a transcript from another school. I was told I only needed to get my unofficial in order to talk to someone.
Next, I finally, with much difficulty, was able to get an unofficial transcript to sign up for a class! I went and waited 30 minutes, while I was talking to the woman at the counter she told me I couldn’t see anyone because I had my unofficial transcript… Ummm NO they told me I could. Thankfully I was able to convince her to let me talk to an advisor. When I got to the advisors room I told her what I was interested in doing. After, telling me the class to sign up for, with out even looking at ANY of my transcripts, she sent me on my way to sign up for my class.
This is where I was turned completely off by going to the campus staff for help. There are a few computers for signing up for classes. I waited about 5 minutes and one of the students left his computer. There were still items around the computer so instead of sitting right down I asked the staff member that was suppose to be helping if I could use the computer, and he snapped at me about the guy not being finished and to go to the computer in the corner.
While I was going through the motions of changing my password because it had been so long since my last log in, some how the page that I went back to was the employee and before I could change to the students section the staff member (I believe his name was Doug) came over and rudely said, «UM are you an employee, no you obviously need my help.» Sadly he sat there and helped me, which made my experience at the campus worse. I even told him there was no need to be rude to me. When I was leaving he told me I needed to come back for his help with my shot information and I assured him I would not return for his help because I don’t deserve to be treated that way.
About 2 days later I found out that I had already taken the class that I signed up for. AT ACC AT CYPRESS CREEK!!! the advisor advised me to sign up for a class I had taken AND PASSED!!!
I took matters into my own hands, signed up for a class I needed, got my shot information turned in and I was done. Had someone told me that I needed to pay by August 22 as well as everything else I had already done maybe my efforts to go back to school would have been worth it.
YES, with NO warning, and no information about a full payment needed by the last day of registration ACC dropped me from my class and then when I went in to ask for help, there only advice was, that I can take the 12 week course…
Dear Staff members at ACC at Cypress Creek I will No longer be needing your assistance. Unless I HAVE to come to that office I will not set foot in there. Because I know that going back to school is the best thing for me I will be doing this all on my own because the people at ACC at Cypress Creek do not want to help in any way when it comes to starting school.

This is one of the better locations of ACC. Second to round rock campus. Even though it’s older than the RR campus, it is in tip top shape. The campus is clean, and the labs aren’t gunky. It even has one of those super awesome water bottle fountains!!! Yay!