<p>We are trying to decide which option is best for my daughter, staying home and going to the local community college or going away to another community college and dorming there.</p>
<p>My concerns are that she is immature and might not take academics as seriously as I would like her to. I don't know whether she will do better going away from home or going to a community college.</p>
<p>Her goal is to transfer to a 4 year school.</p>
<p>I would rather not pay the additional expense of room and board at an away school if the experience at the local school is just as good.</p>
<p>I would appreciate hearing your experience and advice.</p>
<p>“My concerns are that she is immature and might not take academics as seriously as I would like her to.”</p>
<p>In addition to kids who choose the community college route due to financial concerns or a need for “seasoning,” a sizeable number of CC students everywhere fit the description you have given for your daughter. I have RARELY seen the decision to go to a community college in another community pan out, except when the decision was based on the unavailability of a specific academic program at the local CC (culinary arts, for example, is available at a limited number of NYS CCs). I would personally be very reluctant to spend money on room & board for a community college halfway across the state for a kid who is “immature and might not take academics seriously.”</p>
<p>Community colleges are almost always commuter schools, so there’s very little to be gained in living in campus. The the additional cost is hard to justify, even without the “maturity” concern that led you to choose CC route in the first place.</p>
<p>My daughter just transferred into UW-Madison and was accepted into Nursing after two years at a local CC. Her strong #1 choice coming out of HS was the UW and when she did not get in, she decided to go the CC route which offered guaranteed transfer admission.</p>
<p>What worked for us was to have her live at home the first year and then in an apartment the second year. That way we were able to help make sure she was putting in the time necessary to get top grades from the start.</p>
<p>She would highly recommend a local CC. Her experience is that you can really stand out at a CC if you concentrate on your academics. She was able to get her best grades ever (3.8) while working 15 hours a week and volunteering.</p>
<p>I hope it doesn’t sound like bragging. We are just really proud of what she’s accomplished.</p>
<p>One of my nephews is at a community college about 35 miles from home and he is sharing an apartment with a university student while attending community college. He generally goes home on the weekends. His parents are funding this but it is fairly inexpensive and they are pretty happy with the arrangement. He was living with another group of students before but they kicked him out because he wasn’t keeping up with his share of the chores. He was doing nothing for a while (neither working nor going to school) but his parents were extremely unhappy with that.</p>
<p>The current arrangement has taught him some level of responsibility in maintaining a shared household.</p>
<p>This is just another data point. From my perspective, most community colleges don’t have dorms and many don’t have cheap housing available off-campus. If everyone else is commuting and you’re living nearby, you have the advantage of a short commute but you don’t get the socialization that you’d get in a residential setting. Still, it seems to be working for my nephew.</p>
<p>Community college is community college – they’re really not different fromone another, and it doesn’t seem reasonable to pay for her room and board for her to go to a largely identical school a little farther away. You can save that money up for when she transfers! I didn’t even think CCs had dorms there; most of them don’t by definition.</p>
<p>On the other hand my cousin went to an out of state community college with dorms to the tune of 12k a year. It was totally worth it. She was very intelligent but dropped out after 9th grade. She lived in the wrong part of a bad city. The local community colleges were down-right dangerous, and were ranked among the worst in the country. She wanted a change of pace, and really wanted to get her college career on the road. The CC she went to had transfer programs to a couple great colleges, and numerous programs that the local CC’s didn’t. She says going out of state was the best thing she ever did.</p>
<p>The people who I know (five different families) who are (did) taking that course of action (often for financial reasons – take 2 years at community and transfer, only pay for 2 years at the high priced place) have sent their kids locally. If the point is, in no small part, to build up cash for college tuition, wasting it on living and moving costs to go to a community college somewhere else does not make sense. Obviously, the exceptions that themouse indicates would modify things.</p>
If she does well at CC then she can apply to out of state 4 year universities.</p>