Santa Monica College

Santa Monica College (SMC) is a public community college in Santa Monica, California. Founded as a junior college in 1929, SMC enrolls over 30,000 students in more than 90 fields of study. Although initially serving primarily pre-college high school students, the college quickly expanded its enrollment to educate college-age students and non-traditional students with the primary intention to transfer to a four-year university The college has high transfer rates to four-year universities such as the Universities of California or California State Universities. Occupying the entire Santa Monica Community College District, SMC is the only public institution of higher education in Santa Monica. The main campus, located on Pico Boulevard, is the college's largest location. The college operates five satellite campuses across Santa Monica, and is the leader in California's system of 113 community colleges in transfers to the University of California system. History 20th century Santa Monica Junior College was established in September 1929 with 7 faculty members and 153 students in classes held on the second floor of Santa Monica High School. Attended primarily by high school students, it was originally part of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. Despite the ensuing Wall Street Crash of 1929 and Great Depression, the school's enrollment increased to 355 in 1930 and 600 in 1931. In 1932, the college moved to the vacant brick Garfield Elementary School building on Michigan Avenue. The building was declared unsafe following the 1933 Long Beach earthquake and classes moved to tents and bungalows on the Garfield site, which students nicknamed Splinterville.