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Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

nytimes.com

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Re: Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

#31

Post by scarface74 »

CuriouslyC wrote: post #16

I went to a community college and transferred to a prestigious public university. In my experience, if you find a good community college, the high volume classes tend to be better than they are at a big school. There are usually less than 50 students (vs up to 400), the teachers actually enjoy teaching, and the material is easy enough that the teachers understand it just as well as top tier professors. Honestly, Cali…

Why does the community college need to be "good"? Mostly you take classes there that have nothing to do with your major.

Re: Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

#32

Post by scarface74 »

golergka wrote: post #6
kchoudhu wrote: post #5

Good. There's nothing I learned in the first two years of an extremely expensive private school that wouldn't have been sorted out living at home and going to community college.

Would you be able to make the same connections in a community college?

That's the purpose of transferring after two years.

Re: Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

#33

Post by protomyth »

zitterbewegung wrote: post #4

I went from a community college with an associates to a bachelor degree program. On one hand some of my credits didn’t transfer over to my state college . But on the other hand I got a great gpa, figured out that college was a good fit and got my bachelors in CS. I also was able to compile a weather model at a weather forecasting class . I took Hapkido and got my purple belt . I had a bunch of fun and became treasure…

On one hand some of my credits didn’t transfer over to my state college

That’s why I am very glad North Dakota adopted a common course numbering so all the credits transfer.

Re: Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

#34

Post by maxerickson »

mattnguyen wrote: post #10

My older sibling and I both grew up in a single-parent household. Since we were tight on money, my sister decided to go to community college after high school in part to look after me while our parent worked. After two years, my sibling transferred with a full ride to a good university. Looking to my sibling's experience, I decided to leave high school when I turned 16 to attend community college and accrue transfer…

Having a year (or more) of college credits upon high school graduation should be one of the education tracks available to every student.

It's a massive failure of imagination that this isn't already the case.

Re: Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

#35

Post by scarface74 »

h0p3 wrote: post #20
golergka wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I can't understand how people can sympathize with college students going into crippling debt any more than a proverbial Chinese teen who sold his kidney to purchase an iPhone (this news story from a couple of years ago probably was fake anyway). Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Try empathizing instead of merely sympathizing.

I was unable to "empathize" with people early in my career who were complaining about "crippling student loan debt" that were sitting right next to me, making the same amount I was when I went to an unknown state college and graduated with no debt.

It especially makes no sense to me for a resident of GA to ever go to a private college when you can get free tuition via the HOPE scholarship to go to well known public schools like GA Tech. If you get accepted to GA Tech, more than likely your grades and test scores were high enough to qualify for HOPE. If they weren't, you shouldn't be spending money going to an expensive private college anyway.

Re: Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

#36

Post by jfaucett »

Me and my whole family have gone to community college and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to save money and graduate with little or no debt.

The first two years at university are basically a rehash of stuff you probably should have already learned in high school IMHO (Calculus, English Composition, humanities electives) and junior colleges are a great way to take those courses at affordable costs.

One thing I would recommend - even over community college - is taking CLEP tests. I found out about them a little late but was still able to clep 2 years worth of spanish and french which meant I got credit for around 8 courses for a grand total of $160 bucks. I also clep'd most of my humanities electives like history and sociology. It requires some personal effort i.e. find a textbook at your local library and read and study it - but is definitely worth it from a time/costs perspective.

Anyways, I wanted to mention it because a lot of people don't know about CLEP tests and they saved me literally thousands of dollars (in junior college classes costs, probably 50k if you compared it to a top tier university).

Re: Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

#37

Post by rdlecler1 »

I went to community college for two years before transferring to University. Great experience. I felt the focus on teaching over research and the smaller class sizes helped me transition to University and better appreciate learning. And I saved a lot of money.

Re: Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

#38

Post by paulie_a »

maxerickson wrote: post #30
CuriouslyC wrote: post #16

I went to a community college and transferred to a prestigious public university. In my experience, if you find a good community college, the high volume classes tend to be better than they are at a big school. There are usually less than 50 students (vs up to 400), the teachers actually enjoy teaching, and the material is easy enough that the teachers understand it just as well as top tier professors. Honestly, Cali…

Every community college system will seek to make their credits as transferable as possible, it makes the schools vastly more attractive. The 4 year places generally impose limits on how many credits they will recognize from a transfer, for the obvious reasons, they want their cut and they don't want to be a rubber stamp for some other program.

I found out that limit is not very stringent if you are older with a good GPA, the admissions person will play fast and loose with the definitions and just to get you enrolled.

Re: Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

#39

Post by wjwoodson »

scarface74 wrote: post #31
CuriouslyC wrote: post #16

I went to a community college and transferred to a prestigious public university. In my experience, if you find a good community college, the high volume classes tend to be better than they are at a big school. There are usually less than 50 students (vs up to 400), the teachers actually enjoy teaching, and the material is easy enough that the teachers understand it just as well as top tier professors. Honestly, Cali…

Why does the community college need to be "good"? Mostly you take classes there that have nothing to do with your major.

If I'm required to take a class outside my major I'd rather it be good (& cheap), no?
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