Question about Community Colleges in other states

Paying for College
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<p>Okay, I have a question I've been wondering about and thought I'd post and see if anyone knew. I see a lot of post recommending that students consider community colleges at least to start with. I am assuming that by community college we're talking a 2year college, what we in Texas call junior colleges, correct? If so I'm thinking other states must do things differently than we do in Texas. In Texas not only do you have to have state residency, but you also have to deal with district residency, if you are out of district you have to pay a surcharge and while it's not quite as much as out of state, it is certainly enough to raise the cost beyond what most of the posts I see about community college suggesting. Do other states not have district requirements? </p>

<p>I dealt with this 4 years ago and am currently dealing with it now. My son attends a high school in a town that offers dual credit with the Junior College for certain classes, if you pay the junior college tuition. I assume that's how dual credit works in other places too. But we (our family) are not in-district residents for the Junior College, so in order for him to do the dual credit I had to pay out of district tuition for the 12 hours he took last year as a junior. The out of district tuition was more than double the in-district rate. Couple the cost of increased tuition for a full-time student with a dorm and meal plan and you're not talking that much of a price break compared to a university.</p>

<p>In theory a boy like my son could commute, but then you're talking a vehicle, gas and insurance for a nearly 3 hour round trip drive, plus parking. so I don't know how much of savings you would really get. Even if he had a relative to stay with or I could find cheaper off campus housing, he still wouldn't meet residency requirements, ie in Texas you have to meet the same residency restrictions as are placed on a out of state resident, live in the town a year, not just moved there for college etc.. </p>

<p>Don't get me wrong, I think junior college is great (it's where I started) apart from the lousy transfer financial aid at most schools and the difficulty of transferring credits (we are getting better in Texas at that) I think it's a fine option to start with.</p>

<p>Four years ago I wrote my lawmakers about this in-district thing for junior colleges and am doing so again. I think junior colleges should be like the state universities in that if you're a Texas resident (not just a resident of the city the junior college is in) you get in-district tuition rates and I'd be willing to to pay a little more on my property taxes to make this possible, not just for my child but all students. </p>

<p>But judging from the posts on CC, this Junior/Community college thing must be handled differently in other states, because I've not seen reference to this problem before. Or do other states have more community colleges than Texas, we are a huge state, spread out quite a lot, but there are lots of kids in Texas from tiny rural towns who don't have even a junior college in easy driving distance, or no transportation. Texas basically has no state transportation systems, no bus service, etc.. The big cities, Dallas, Houston etc.. have some public transportation and some of mid-sized cities are making an effort, but for the most part none exists, so for an 18 year old, if they don't have a car, basically they can't commute. It's one of the things I'm considering as I get older, if I get to where I can't drive or can't afford to maintain a vehicle, I'll be basically stranded miles from even a local grocery store or shop. </p>

<p>So how are community colleges in state handled, are they open to all state resident's or based on local residency? Is it easy for most students to commute if they live at home? </p>

<p>Thanks</p>

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<p>Well, it’s way different here in NJ…We’re a very small state with wayyyy too many people!</p>

<p>We are in Morris county (northern NJ), there is a fine Community college. It charges lower rates for in county students $110/credit in county vs $236 out of county and $327 out of state.
I suppose some students commute from NY or Penn??</p>

<p>But there is some type of agreement that if a student’s home county CC does NOT offer a certain major, the student can attend the CC of another county for the incounty rate.
A friend’s son was considering this.</p>

<p>We do have some limited public transportation (trains and buses) but most students do drive. In our much smaller than Texas sized state, it is easier. Except the traffic just makes a short commute double what you might expect.</p>

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<p>In order to get the cheapest rate where I live, you have to live in the community college’s county. There is another, higher rate if you live in the state but out-of-county and a higher rate still if you live out-of-state. </p>

<p>That said, my community college is a mile from home. My kids can bike or walk there. They can also walk to public transportation. It was a key factor in my house shopping. </p>

<p>Does your indistrict school offer any online classes? I think that is helpful to students who are far from class.</p>

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<p>Here in Texas, what we call Junior Colleges span counties and parts of counties. Our residence and property is actually one of the counties that the Junior college serves (so I pay those county taxes), but not in the college district, because the district doesn’t cover all the county, but it covers parts of other counties too. I argued 4 years ago and argued again, that since I live in the county and pay county taxes (I think aside from very poor road maintenance, and I mean really poor) I receive no other benefits for the county taxes I pay. I’m not sure what is our in-district school is, the school in our county, (but still out of district for me) is about an hour or so (depending on traffic) and is the closest to us, even though we’re not in it’s district. Weird, isn’t it.</p>

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<p>So is there no junior college to which you are in-district ?</p>

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<p>In Florida, community colleges just have in-state and out-of-state rates. The (now “state”) college I am dual enrolled at actually spans multiple counties (there are several campuses). In fact, my school district (which only contains one college campus) pays the tuition for all dual enrollment classes that high school students take (so a lot of students get up to two years of their college education paid for, with guaranteed transfer to UF or FSU).</p>

<p>Scribbulus, that situation sounds unfortunate, and if you are paying county taxes and some of that goes to the education of that county, then it should be your right to pay the lower rate for your son. Sadly, the system sounds flawed.</p>

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<p>In Oklahoma Junior colleges are just in-state tuition or out-of-state tuition.</p>

<p>

Out junior college charges a lot more for online classes which has always puzzled me. You would think it would be less as you don’t have a classroom and the related expenses or a live teacher.</p>

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<p>California is instate or out of state. No distinction between county or district. And it looks like our tuition is much cheaper than others. Just $26/credit. Any other states that cheap?</p>

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<p>No ours isn’t that cheap. Our nearby college’s tuition and fees are $76 a credit hour for live classes but more for ITV classes and about $50 more for online classes. But each junior college in the state has different tuition and fees. This one has three branches in different cities and ours is the cheapest. The other 2 branches are @ $90 a credit hour and a whopping $237 a n hour for the one that is in the same town as one of our large flagships state U. (I think they originally set up shop there to do remedial type classes for students who could not quite get into the flagship State U to get them up to speed on college level classes so that they can gain entrance to the 4 year school - but it costs almost as much as the state U - I guess maybe the big U did not want too competition pricewise from a school literally next door - and I think they can use the big Us facilities - would not be any saving $$$s going there.)</p>

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<p>Ours has a progressive fee structure so that a 3-credit course is around $400 but 12 credits is over $1600 and a full load in the semester (15 credits) is over $2K.</p>

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<p>In Maryland there are in-county rates, in-state rates, and out-of-state rates. Some programs at each community college aren’t offered at any of the others, and students enrolled in those specific programs pay the in-county rate no matter what their country of residence is.</p>

<p>In Iowa where I used to live, there are only in-state and out-of-state rates.</p>

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<p>Our community college used to be sponsored by the city but now is sponsored by the county. Tuition is $83/credit in county and $166/ credit in PA but out of the county.</p>

<p>I agree that access can be difficult especially in the western, wide-open states. Does your junior college have dorms?</p>