I’m an international student looking to go to a community college and then transfer, I’m most likely going to be living with family. My question is, how are you CC students life at college? Is it boring? I know there are no dorms and stuff like that so that relationship with other students is non existent, but is it like going to class and back to your house and that’s your day and you occasionally hang out with your other friends who don’t study with you? I’m really interested to know how my life is going to be for the next 2 years. Thanks
Cliche, but it is what you make of it. I go to community college in Los Angeles and I do have friends who go other schools nearby (cc and universities). At one of the campuses I went to, it was a very commuter place and people were spread all across the county so meeting up was rare. For that reason, I wouldn’t say that I study with my friends much. I study mostly at home, but occasionally at the city library and at coffee bean because my school is ~25 minutes away.
The people you meet will depend on the classes you take. For example, if you take a sociology class you’ll likely meet a lot of people who plan to go to grad school and people who want to major in social work. In an economics class you’ll meet more business majors. It will be a mixed crowd when you take other general courses that are required for graduation such as art history, English, and biology. Hope I helped!
I guess it will be much harder for me given that I don’t know anybody but hey, it comes with the experience. Thanks for sharing.
I didn’t know anyone either. And I’ll be honest, I only made one lasting friend in community college. It’s hard to be compatible because of varying goals, age, and other factors.
Damn, tough. Thanks for sharing though.
You wont be alone but it’ll be easy to feel lonely. There will always be someone to talk to though. I have plenty of acquaintances.
That’s what I was thinking, also I think it’s hard to build long lasting relationships over the course of 2 years given that I’ll be transferring.
For me, most of the friends I made at my community college were more of acquaintances that were classmates. We may have hung out a couple times during the semester, but we never really got together anymore after the class was over. You should try getting involved in clubs at school. That would probably make it less boring.
I had some vaguely friendly acquaintances at community college, and I joined a club, which helped a lot, although it mostly added more friendly acquaintances (but we did stuff as a club sometimes, which was good socially). I actually ended up making about six friends through community college who I am still close friends with today, even though I transferred and went from SoCal to NorCal! So it can be done, but it’s a little harder at community college because people work and commute and have more non-college stuff going on in their lives, and it can be harder to find people with whom you have things in common.
It really varies from school to school and from person to person. This is true of any university too though.
I’m a community college student, and I’m very active on my campus. I have a lot of friends that I’ve made in my various classes and elsewhere on campus. I’ve made some friends that are genuine friends that will last through the long term. I participate in several student organizations and work in the tutoring center on campus. There are also plenty of students that mostly just show up and go to class, then go home.
This right here. I took classes at a CC for two quarters and the students there came from all sorts of backgrounds. I actually got to know them better than the people at my university due to the small class sizes, but once the quarter wrapped up everyone stopped keeping in touch. It was pretty disappointing, to be honest. I think the nature of community college classes is inherently ephemeral and people are always coming and going—as a result, campus life isn’t as constant as it could be at other places.
I’d suggest getting involved and putting yourself out there. Join clubs to meet people just as much to gain exposure to whatever it is that interests you. Don’t go home right after class, get a part-time job on campus or hang out with other students in the library.
And don’t think too much about transferring. Obviously use that as a goal to work towards, but try to keep your mindset in the present as well. Even if you only spend a year or two somewhere, that’s still a quarter to half your undergraduate experience, so make it count!
Thanks a lot! @coriander23, I wouldn’t say I’m the most social person, I wish I was but putting myself out there is definitely something I’ll start doing a lot.
Would (or could) you go to a community college with dorms?
Iowa Western does.
http://www.iwcc.edu/Future_Student/financial_aid/cost.asp
There are also junior colleges, which have a heavy focus on transfering to a four year and have dorms.
It’s very true that the community college life doesn’t foster the same types of social communities that a university can. A lot of the students at my CC are in their 30s, 40s, and 50s and aren’t really that interested in participating in most of the events. A lot of these events are geared more toward the younger students that are coming right out of high school, or going back to school in their early 20s. Even the younger students are still coming and going for the most part though. A lot of them still live with their parents and hang out with the same friends that they hung out with in high school, so people aren’t out actively trying to make friends as much as they are at a university. There are still typically a lot of social opportunities for people that are looking for it though.