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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

#81

Post by oculusthrift »

I like CCs but there are definitely some downsides to consider as well: (speaking from california perspective)

- Our cc’s are all impacted and getting the classes you need is nearly impossible. Many people end up taking 3 years to graduate.

- When you do transfer to a bachelors program, you’ll find that your cc was missing a lot of the pre reqs you need for your major (depending on your major). I’ve seen a lot of cc students at UC schools have to go back and take freshman and sophmore level classes. (total could end up taking 6 years overall)

- All the other students when you transfer are already friends and have relationships with the professors and local businesses. Whose going to get the prestigious research position, the new guy or the one whose been bonding and proving themselves to the professor for 2 years? Same goes for internships.

- Who you spend time with shapes who you are. If you are a bright individual, it can be frustrating or depressing being around some of your peers in CC. My girlfriend took an online cc class where they had to submit a paragraph to their class forum. Two students literally copy and pasted her response word for word.

Re: Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

#82

Post by oculusthrift »

maxerickson wrote: post #34
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.

This is essentially what AP classes are, is it not. If you go to a decent high school and take a good amount of AP’s it will keep you busy and challenged.

Re: Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

#83

Post by quake »

I only really decided to go into engineering late in my final year of high school, and I used the local community college (conveniently located across the street from my HS) to take all the calculus and computer science classes that I didn't have covered. In a year, I covered my high school requirements, and my first year of university calculus, computer science, chemistry and physics. The class sizes were tiny, which was amazing, and to this day, I still think my Calc II and Intro to Java professors were two of the best I've ever had. I still have some of the textbooks my Java prof gave me from his own collection because he thought I'd take them further than his lectures.

I transferred into a pretty hard to get into mechatronics program with an OK GPA, but having a year and a half of post-secondary under my belt was a huge bonus when the kids who were coming into engineering school straight out of high school realized that our profs were just too busy to help.

It's really a path that I suggest to everyone that I've met who's just leaving high school. Take some time, save some money, and if you're lucky, get better student-prof interaction.

Re: Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

#84

Post by marinman »

As a capable yet ambition-less high schooler, community college saved my family tens of thousands of dollars. I do sometimes wonder if I missed something with the dorm experience but from an ROI perspective, it was stellar for me. One anecdote doesn’t mean it’s applicable for all but I’d recommend it for many circumstances

Re: Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

#85

Post by technofiend »

oculusthrift wrote: post #81

I like CCs but there are definitely some downsides to consider as well: (speaking from california perspective) - Our cc’s are all impacted and getting the classes you need is nearly impossible. Many people end up taking 3 years to graduate. - When you do transfer to a bachelors program, you’ll find that your cc was missing a lot of the pre reqs you need for your major (depending on your major). I’ve seen a lot of cc…

That sounds like incredibly poor planning on the part of the students and like there are no standards for colleges to follow.

Contrast that with attending Houston Community College where they ask you if you'll be going on to a 4 year degree and if so in what and where. They can tell you exactly what courses to take at HCC to carry on to U of H, TAMU, UT, etc to finish a degree.

Re: Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

#86

Post by robterrell »

gmays wrote: post #41

Community college worked well for me. 2 weeks after graduating high school I started taking a heavy workload at the local community college. I was able to complete the prerequisites by the following year and transfer to a local state university. I was lucky that both were within a 45min drive from my house. The result was graduating college with a bachelor's degree 2.5 years after graduating high school. I lived at h…

After moving to California six years ago, I was surprised to learn how many high school students have this plan -- a couple of years at a local community college and a transfer to one of the bigger Cal schools.

Re: Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

#87

Post by Balgair »

quake wrote: post #83

I only really decided to go into engineering late in my final year of high school, and I used the local community college (conveniently located across the street from my HS) to take all the calculus and computer science classes that I didn't have covered. In a year, I covered my high school requirements, and my first year of university calculus, computer science, chemistry and physics. The class sizes were tiny, whic…

DVC?

Re: Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

#88

Post by avenoir »

gmays wrote: post #41

Community college worked well for me. 2 weeks after graduating high school I started taking a heavy workload at the local community college. I was able to complete the prerequisites by the following year and transfer to a local state university. I was lucky that both were within a 45min drive from my house. The result was graduating college with a bachelor's degree 2.5 years after graduating high school. I lived at h…

This is a great plan and what I personally did 10 years ago. Some states also have high school programs, like A+, upon completion of which your college experience becomes tuition-free as long as your GPA stays above a certain point average in college.

Re: Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

#89

Post by dhimes »

oculusthrift wrote: post #82
maxerickson wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is essentially what AP classes are, is it not. If you go to a decent high school and take a good amount of AP’s it will keep you busy and challenged.

I think AP is slower- like 1/2 speed. But some high schools have partnerships with the CCs to get 1-1 college credit in high school.

Re: Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges

#90

Post by dhimes »

compton_effect wrote: post #67
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…

I would so most states are setup where if you transfer from a CC to a public state school, you basically have everything transfer and can finish all your schooling in 4 years. I'm from Maryland, and our CC system, at least for my county, is great. We even had a pretty good career center. Knew many people who where able to get internships at places like NASA or NIH though the community college. I did my first two year…

I taught across the stream at NVCC an you are correct. I sent students to great schools (and had students from great schools for career changes).

Near metro populations, night classes tend to be filled with strong learners- often already degreed- and with interesting stories to tell as well.

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