The closest college to Marquette, MATC's downtown campus offers classes in cosmetology as well as welding and automotive classes.,”The scent of hair dye wafts through the air as students step onto the campus of Milwaukee Area Technical College. It's not a traditional smell at a college campus. But MATC is not your traditional campus.
The closest college to Marquette, MATC's downtown campus offers classes in cosmetology as well as welding and automotive classes. The school also offers two-year liberal arts transfer program, said Pat Roberts, manager of MATC's admissions office.
Roberts said MATC focuses on providing a diverse and well-trained work force to the city, said Pat Roberts, manager of MATC's admissions office.
Roberts said MATC offers 170 programs that are equally as rigorous as a four-year university.
Students are required to have 66 to 72 credits to graduate, Roberts said. She said that many students pace themselves and spread the credits out over three to three and a half years.
The programs include two-year associate degrees and a program for students to transfer to a University of Wisconsin school, Roberts said.
"The beauty of tech schools is you can work and go to school," Roberts said.
Ed Lewis, 26, is a first year MATC student studying network management and working full-time at Tri-City National Bank. He said he chose MATC because of its network management program.
Of the 28,592 students who attend the downtown campus, Roberts said the average MATC student, like Lewis, works and is between the ages of 24 and 25 years old.
Lewis is one of the 60,758 students who attend one of the four campuses: downtown Milwaukee, Oak Creek, West Allis and Mequon, according to MATC's 2006 annual report.
Roberts said the administration is trying to push more high school students to attend MATC upon graduation to help seamlessly transfer students from the technical college to a four-year university.
Norma Ortiz, a 19-year-oldfreshman in the liberal arts program at MATC, said she hopes to transfer to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee after two years. Ortiz said she chose the college because at the time she was undecided about where she wanted to go and it was affordable.
MonQuisha Russ, a 19-year-old freshman studying criminal justice, said she chose the college because she needed to find a college quickly, and she was attracted to the option of transferring to a four-year university after completing the program.
Russ said her decision was made after she toured the campus with her parents and liked it.
Many students said they chose MATC partly because of its affordability. Roberts said Wisconsin residents pay around $100 per credit.
Roberts said, along with the affordability, students are drawn to their teachers being professionals in their field of study.
"(The professors) are really nice. They are in small classes so they get to help you out more," Ortiz said.
Lewis said there is a lot of on-on-one time with the professors.
Many students said they spend their free time studying or working, and because of this they do not participate in campus activities. The campus activities that are available include chess and student senate, Ortiz said.
Russ said she is not involved in activities on campus because she balances a part-time job and goes to school.
Ortiz said even though the campus offers activities available she did not feel like she was in a traditional college community.
But Russ said she felt like she is able to be part of a community and get to know her classmates because of the professors.
Russ said she has friends from Vietnam and Africa she met in her classes. She said they do group work in their classes which makes the students interact with students they normally wouldn't, creating a community.
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