Earlier quoted context omitted.
It depends a lot on the field. At my community college, the STEM classes had standards. Totally incompetent people disappeared after a semester or two of going up the coursework chain. Meanwhile, the liberal arts professors had to deal with people that couldn't write a coherent sentence if their life depended on it, even in advanced classes. However, I constantly read similarly demented and completely mangled english…
In my state the universities must accept equivalent course credit from in-system community colleges. And within my own city it's widely accepted that 1st and 2nd year calculus classes at community college will have vastly better quality of teaching than you'd get taking them at the 4 year. (This reputation doesn't apply to other subjects.)
Re: Student Loans Are A Drag On The Economy
#181Makes it a lot easier to get personalized letters of recommendation, too. My first year science and math professors all remember me, since the class sizes were small and enthusiastic students are easily noticed. I doubt that would have been the case at a university, where I'd have been crammed in with several hundred people.