<p>I am taking three classes at my local community college this semester. I live in the suburbs of a large urban area where lots of different nationalities are represented. It is inspiring to get to know the young students in my classes.</p>
<p>My lab partner is from West Africa. She works three part time jobs in addition to her full class load so she can send money back to her family in Africa. She told me about the higher educational system in her country and it is very dangerous to go to college there so kids go to other countries. She said (after we overheard some kids talking about partying) that she never partyies or drinks excessively as she does not have the time.</p>
<p>A student in my math class is also from Africa and she mentioned that she was tired today because she worked the night shift last night. She works several nights a week all night as a nurses aide, and then comes to school during the day!</p>
<p>A third friend is from Bangladesh and is raising kids while going to school.</p>
<p>I will definitely encourage my child to go to this cc and get to know the students.</p>
<p>I agree. I do legal work for our local community college district. The tuition may be cheap and the school may be easy to get into, but they’ve got some tough programs that turn out some quality professionals. (I remember hearing a friend complaining about how difficult the nursing program was - duh, don’t we WANT it to be tough?)</p>
<p>Shhh! What in the Lord’s name are you doing…Saying positive things about community college on College Confidential!!! All of the hyperactive valedictorians with HYSP blinders are going to eat you alive!</p>
<p>Busyparent-Thanks for posting. I attended cc before transferring to a university and have nothing but good things to say about my cc experience.</p>
<p>I attended the first class of English 101 at our local, very new CC for my D, who was taking the class in the summer because she couldn’t take English her junior year. (I just went to that one class to get any handouts for her and take notes on the first day and to tell the teacher why D wasn’t there–her high school wasn’t out yet.) The students all introduced themselves and it was so interesting to me: a police officer who wanted to get a college degree so he could be promoted, a woman from Russia who was a dr. there who wanted to improve her English, a nanny for an extremely wealthy family, all sorts of other stories. It seemed like such a motivated class and the teacher was very cool and well-spoken. I was sorry I only could attend once! My D really liked the diversity in age and socio-economic groups. She was the youngest in the class at age 15.</p>
<p>My children attended a predominantly white and affluent high school and when they were looking at certain colleges I questioned the decision and said they would continue to be exposed to mostly white and very affluent people. They would be missing the opportunity to meet different people.</p>
<p>The community college experience has reinforced this for me. Most of the students are between 18-25, but there are the middle agers like me as well and I have met people from all over the world. I don’t know if all cc’s are like this or just mine because of the area of the country that I live in but it is great to learn about so many other cultures. Plus several of the students are young single moms who are working hard to improve their lives while also worrying about their own kids.</p>
<p>One of my teachers is from Romania, another is from Argentina and the third is a local girl. They are great, the class work is as challenging as my college was thirty years ago and you can’t beat the price.</p>
<p>My biggest mistake was not going to community college for two years. I took one math class at a communtiy college in the summer. I dropped the class at the university. The professor was very accomodating and explained the material very well. He also applied the concepts to real world information. It was a 360 degree change compared to the professor I had at the university. I found the students overall to be very friendly and were always ready to learn.</p>
<p>Both of mine attended CC while in HS. The first day I drove DS in. We were early. I dropped him, waved and took off for the grocery store. He called me to tell me “no one is here yet but some old guy.” LOL. Turns out by the end of the semester he was studying with a 25 year old military guy. Great experience for him to see that other people worked all day then went to class at night, doing homework nights, weekends and on their lunch hour.</p>