More than a third of community college students have vanished • Hacker News Board

Re: More than a third of community college students have vanished

#71

Post by wara23arish » Tue, Apr 11, 2023, 6:06 PM UTC

musictubes wrote: post #38

When I decided to go to grad school in Econ I had to take all the math classes I didn’t take during my undergrad years. Community college was the obvious choice. I had 2 really good professors and one hack. This was from 2002-2005. I also tried to take a “fun” class each time I took a math class just to break up the grind. Creative writing was an eye opener. Most of the stuff turned in was dreadful, sometimes in styl…

This is very similar to my experience. Most of the students who actually tried were international students.

I was always dumbfounded when I saw how people just couldn’t care less. Its as if they already predetermined this is isn’t worth it or they’re not good enough idk.

Advisors were also awful, they would actually encourage you to not finish ur degree in 2 years and take longer.

Re: More than a third of community college students have vanished

#72

Post by mike50 » Tue, Apr 11, 2023, 10:25 PM UTC

etempleton wrote: post #65

VLM wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only vote that matters is college graduate HR personnel, and their vote is that CC and associates degrees are lower than worthless, literally a waste of time, would be more likely to hire with two years of entry level or minimum wage work than with an associates degree. Any CC student whom is motivated by employment is flushing their money down the toilet if they're on a track or a program. I was in a transfer pr…

This is true. Community Colleges can be a great tool if you know how to use them. The best value is to go two years to a community college that has automatic acceptance to a 4 year state school. You then get to finish your degree at what may be a fairly prestigious state school. The other way to use Community Colleges is to focus on something that has a very specific certification or outcome just by finishing the cer…

ASN degree still have some value. Decent technician programs for Engineering Technicians (not car repair or similar). The only way to get a real electronics technician nowadays is through a two year degree program.

Re: More than a third of community college students have vanished

#73

Post by SilentM68 » Wed, Apr 12, 2023, 3:54 AM UTC

Some may not like this opionion but...

I have worked at a community college. In my experience, the majority of the degrees or certificates emparted by said college do not really carry any marketable skills. Instructors are older, for the most part and not computer literate. Covid-19 forced a great number of them to either retire early or killed them off. Departments are always fighting the state for a small piece of the budget to stay afloat and not cut staff. I've found that most instructors are only there for their paychecks.

A good indicator of how bad things have gotten is the fact that post-secondary schools like community colleges and private schools regularly send out department reps to perform outreach at high-schools just to increase their enrollment numbers. A young mind's brain is very malleable afterall.

Re: More than a third of community college students have vanished

#74

Post by CydeWeys » Thu, Apr 13, 2023, 8:47 PM UTC

professoretc wrote: post #66

CydeWeys wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Community colleges flat out can't afford the salaries that the best require. That's not network effects, that's a market effect.

Some CCs actually pay better than 4-year schools. There's a lot of competition to get tenure at a university, which can drive down salaries.

How common is this "some" though?