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I Owe It All to Community College

nytimes.com

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Re: I Owe It All to Community College

#161

Post by bjwbell »

romaniv wrote: post #71

I'm glad that it worked for him, but my community college was a complete waste of time with the exception of two (just two!) courses and the internship program. I think the true way forward is in replacing community colleges with certificates from online courses (with some in-person labs, probably). It's cheaper and would make for better quality of education.

My experience was that math & physics were very good. Basically the first two years of a standard state uni. curriculum for a quarter or less of the price. The CS courses were useless, all of the material I'd already easily learned by programming.

Taking a couple years of community college classes while HS age is a good investment. You can satisfy many of the general ed/lower division requirements & focus on your upper division major courses, when you transfer to a uni.

Re: I Owe It All to Community College

#162

Post by sigzero »

lifehug wrote: post #112

I got paid to go to community college and now I'm getting my masters at UIUC. It's called FAFSA, and most of my peers did the same. I'm not sure why we need to make it globally free when those who can't afford it can get paid to go. Also, the solders mentioned to tug at our hearts strings get school paid for. Soooo why the need for a hug pay check from congress?

We don't need to make it free and if the answer is some kind of "more taxes" then I am sorry but no thanks.

Re: I Owe It All to Community College

#163

Post by burger_moon »

jdhawk wrote: post #80
jesseclay wrote: post #64

Another anecdote on the power of community college: Back in 2009 I enrolled at Community College of San Francisco. I was 19 and had no idea what I wanted to do career wise, so I took broad and rigorous curriculum focused on transferring to UC-Berkeley. The 2 years I spent there were some of the best of my life. I was frequently pushed and challenged by excellent professors who had true passion for their subjects (a f…

Not all community colleges are the same. If you live in close proximity to universities with high academic standards, most of the professors are going to be recent graduates of those programs, or educators picking up extra cash and some experience teaching at CC. BFE Community College will not have the same level of academic excellence.

Yes when I attended CC some of my instructors taught during the day at a private university that is ranked very high. One would always joke about how we were getting the same education as the students at the private school but for a third of the price since it was the same curriculum he taught there.

Re: I Owe It All to Community College

#164

Post by alexisnorman »

jdhawk wrote: post #80
jesseclay wrote: post #64

Another anecdote on the power of community college: Back in 2009 I enrolled at Community College of San Francisco. I was 19 and had no idea what I wanted to do career wise, so I took broad and rigorous curriculum focused on transferring to UC-Berkeley. The 2 years I spent there were some of the best of my life. I was frequently pushed and challenged by excellent professors who had true passion for their subjects (a f…

Not all community colleges are the same. If you live in close proximity to universities with high academic standards, most of the professors are going to be recent graduates of those programs, or educators picking up extra cash and some experience teaching at CC. BFE Community College will not have the same level of academic excellence.

Yeah, while I think community college is great, the one I attended (GCC, in AZ) basically felt like high school all over again. Horrible professors, worse students, boring (and ridiculously easy) material; I hated it so much that I ditched college for two years before deciding to go back to school at a university. As soon as I was taking university classes I started to wonder why I hadn't just started at a university to begin with. It's good to hear there's community colleges out there that emit the same level of passion in students/professors though.

Re: I Owe It All to Community College

#165

Post by nfoz »

mindcrime wrote: post #9

I have issues with the Obama plan, not because I'm against community colleges, but because I have issues with how this will (probably) be funded (read: taxes). As a libertarian / ancap who believes taxation is theft, I don't support anything involving spending tax dollars, no matter how noble the end. That said, I'm a community college grad myself, three times over. I have an A.G.E. (General Education) from Brunswick…

> I'd just like to see more of the scenarios like we had at BCC back in the day. Some local rich millionaire type (a real estate tycoon) setup an endowment to provide free tuition at BCC for any graduate of any Brunswick County high-school. I'd love to see a concerted, nationwide effort to build a coalition of philanthropists of this nature to fund this "free college for everybody" thing, instead of taking it out of the federal govt. budget.

I don't understand the libertarian perspective. Why is it so important that people should have the freedom to not participate in "concerted, nationwide efforts" to fund services that benefit the whole society, while you're simultaneously acknowledging that those services should exist. Taxation seems like such a straightforward, simple way to achieve what you've described, at the cost of a freedom (the freedom to not participate), which is a freedom we don't want everyone to exercise anyway (as it means the collapse of the social service in question).

Re: I Owe It All to Community College

#166

Post by rifung »

benihana wrote: post #113
markdown wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OT: > irregardless regardless is fine.

so is irregardless. Can I ask why you take the time to correct someone when it was perfectly clear what the intent of the sentence was?

Why wouldn't you want to help the person improve his/her English?

Re: I Owe It All to Community College

#167

Post by ahomescu1 »

v64 wrote: post #87
thoth wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As a libertarian / ancap who believes taxation is theft, I don't support anything involving spending tax dollars, no matter how noble the end. That's pretty hard core. How would you fund services like police/fire departments or infrastructure improvements (roads, electricity), basically anything where its existence benefits many (as opposed to say redoing education to require parents to pay for individual tutoring o…

The Wikipedia entry on Anarcho-capitalism[1] dives into these details. It's a fascinating philosophy that, in my opinion, severely underestimates the human affinity for greed and manipulation. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism

> It's a fascinating philosophy that, in my opinion, severely underestimates the human affinity for greed and manipulation.

Ironically, exactly the same can be said of Communism.

Re: I Owe It All to Community College

#168

Post by ahomescu1 »

mhurron wrote: post #44
mindcrime wrote: post #9

I have issues with the Obama plan, not because I'm against community colleges, but because I have issues with how this will (probably) be funded (read: taxes). As a libertarian / ancap who believes taxation is theft, I don't support anything involving spending tax dollars, no matter how noble the end. That said, I'm a community college grad myself, three times over. I have an A.G.E. (General Education) from Brunswick…

> instead of taking it out of the federal govt. budget Why is education for the citizens of a country considered something that a countries government should have no part in in the US? If education really is something important for the country, would it not make more sense for the country to prioritize and fund it as opposed to leaving it to the whims of whomever feels like funding it that day?

> Why is education for the citizens of a country considered something that a countries government should have no part in in the US?

10th Amendment says:

  The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
If you follow this Amendment, the States are free to educate their citizens any way they want, it's just that the Federal government isn't allowed to (a good restriction, in my opinion, since competition usually increases quality).

Re: I Owe It All to Community College

#169

Post by pjmorris »

At loose ends as my senior year in high school passed (long story, short on ambition), I defaulted in to taking a scholarship at the local community college, offered to the top 10% of local high schools. A software engineer moonlighting as an adjunct taught my first course in programming (in FORTRAN, on punched cards, no less!). Somehow, he conveyed an enthusiasm and an understanding that inspired me to continue, to pursue and obtain a BSCS at a state U, and to have a happy career as a developer. I owe it all to Community College (and a whole series of other supportive events).

Re: I Owe It All to Community College

#170

Post by euphoria83 »

I will give it an upvote, if for nothing else, than for the powerful writing. He makes a very lucid point though. Even hardcore capitalists could not argue with the idea that though the success of a man should depend on his efforts, bringing him to a state when he can start making an effort should be supported.
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