<p>I don't really get the community college designation. It seems like it refers to two-year schools, but also to schools without housing. We have CUNYs here that generally give four-year (or higher) degrees but without housing. So what are Brooklyn College, Queens College, Hunter College, College of Staten Island? They offer some two-year degrees, mostly four-year degrees and some advanced degrees, but most don't have housing. Boy am I dumb.</p>
<p>In talking to community college students about school, you can generally depend on hearing within one minute the phrase "getting my general ed out of the way".</p>
<p>If you consider the first two years of your college experience merely getting general ed out of the way, then, by all means, go to a community college.</p>
<p>Many people are probably still influenced by the "Community College Bowl" sketch Saturday Night Live aired on 10/19/91. Two teams from Community Colleges battled it out on a quiz show, being asked, and flummoxed, by grade school level questions.</p>
<p>Mike mac -- Thank you for a very thoughtful, mature and -- in my opinion -- spot on series of posts. I have seen too many kids from my area who could easily handle a 4-year college get derailed academically by choosing to follow their friends to the local CC. This is often done for social rather than economic reasons. Frankly, I would not want my daughters to go to our area CCs unless it was the only option remaining.</p>
<p>My reservations about our CCs are due primarily to the large percentage of kids attending who either don't really belong in college or don't want to be there but who don't know what else to do. This probably sounds elitist, and maybe I should just plead guilty up front. However, after working extremely hard and taking all honors/AP courses for four years in high school, in part to avoid taking classes with the more disruptive and intellectually disinterested kids in the school, why would a good student willingly choose to spend their first two years of college with those kids?</p>
<p>That said, I am a strong believer in the community college system. CCs do a great job with vocational education, with non-tradional students and with a certain percentage of graduating HS students the CC is their only real option. A mature, motivated student can certainly start in CC and move on to the best 4-year colleges in the nation. I have met some of these kids in our nearby CC and they are very impressive. I would also say that the majority of faculty members I have encountered are excellent. In sum, CC can get you where you want to go no matter how high your reach, but it is not the best way to go.</p>
<p>There are good and bad sides in everything.</p>
<p>The good: community college offers 'easier' courses and the class is smaller, people tend to focus easier in smaller classes. Money is the most important factor. Community college courses are cheaper. Most of the people I know in my university take summer classes at the local community college because they are cheaper. Your credits are trasnferred and the GPA doesn't count toward their university GPA. </p>
<p>The bad: a lot of time you can't find the experience that you will have at a university (the dorms, the big games, large lecture halls, social activities...) The quality and the expectation are lower too. You don't have world class professors teaching, you are not surrounded by quality students. I'm not saying people who go to CC are not smart. I'm just saying that overall, there are more accomplished students at universities than cc's because people who are admitted to universities went through a filtering process. That doesn't mean everybody at CC's are not smart. Also, the pace at universities and CC's are different, once you get used to it for 2 years, it might be harder to learn and adjust once you transferred to a university. There are several studies at my university showing that overall, transfer students have a GPA of about 0.25 lower than freshmen.</p>
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My reservations about our CCs are due primarily to the large percentage of kids attending who either don't really belong in college or don't want to be there but who don't know what else to do.
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Indeed that is a big problem. The CC system is a godsend for those who have few alternatives due to finances, prior circumstances, etc. The problem is that so many kids in many CC's aren't prepared to to college-level work, and their relatively large numbers can affect the education provided to all.</p>
<p>In the excerpt below from the study I mentioned earlier, "NELS" refers to "National Education Longitudinal Study" which followed HS students from the 8th grade on, with the data on CC students from the subset that entered a CC shortly after HS graduation -- in other words, traditional college students.
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Proficiency test scores also showed that many NELS community college students began their postsecondary education with relatively low ability levels in mathematics and reading. Thirty percent of these students entered community college with 12th-grade mathematics proficiency scores at Level 1 or below. These students could perform simple arithmetical operations on whole numbers but could not perform simple operations on decimals, fractions, powers, or roots. In addition, 44 percent of NELS community college students enrolled with 12th-grade reading proficiency scores at Level 1 or below. These students had basic comprehension skills, but they could not make relatively simple inferences from reading a text beyond the author's main point.
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I don't really get the community college designation. It seems like it refers to two-year schools, but also to schools without housing. We have CUNYs here that generally give four-year (or higher) degrees but without housing. So what are Brooklyn College, Queens College, Hunter College, College of Staten Island? They offer some two-year degrees, mostly four-year degrees and some advanced degrees, but most don't have housing. Boy am I dumb.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>AFAIK, the term "community college" refers to state schools that offer 2-year degrees and possibly certificate programs. Although they generally serve the local community, some of them do have at least limited housing. (Ours does.) The whole "junior college" designation seems to have vanished in recent decades. There are private colleges that offer training for careers such as that of medical assistant, but they aren't called "community colleges" or "junior colleges."</p>
<p>I've never heard the term applied to schools like Brooklyn or Queens College that offer 4-year degrees. The CUNY system is unusual. I can't think of another city that has anything like it. Think Bergen County Community College.</p>
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If you consider the first two years of your college experience merely getting general ed out of the way, then, by all means, go to a community college...
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</p>
<p>One of the things I miss a lot about cc is that this kind of self-congratulatory elitism is not around. </p>
<p>If a person has X number of dollars, spending that money at a community college to get their general ed out of the way before spending the bulk of the money on the course work related to their major makes perfect sense. It's got nothing to do with devaluing general ed courses. </p>
<p>Or do you assume that those of us who attended cc in fact had $50K lying around but just did not care enough about our mere gen ed classes? It certainly sounds like it.</p>
<p>The overall statistics for how well community college students perform on average are not necessarily relevant to how well a motivated student will perform in an academically rigorous program at a community college.</p>
<p>For example, the Honors Program at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, requires specific GPA's or ACT scores to be admitted to the program. The courses offered through the Honors Program are rigorous and challenging (as I can attest, having completed the program.) Their home page (Honors</a> Program) describes the results:</p>
<p>"We are justifiably proud of our students. Their accomplishments and successes within and beyond the Honors Program speak for themselves. To date, nearly 100 percent of the students opting to complete the Honors Scholar Program have transferred to four-year baccalaureate-granting colleges and universities – many of these highly selective schools like the University of Chicago, Georgetown, Northwestern and Duke – with the vast majority receiving degrees there. One Honors Scholar has even become a Rhodes Scholar!"</p>
<p>Additionally, saving money by attending community college first can dramatically broaden a student's options for which universities can be attended thereafter. This is because the student only needs to pay for a four-year institution for two years instead of four. Thus, all other things being equal, the student can pay almost twice as much per year. (This assumes the cost of community college is minimal, which it is as most community colleges.) Spending two years at a community college and two years at an institution the student actually likes might be preferable to spending four years at an institution which is academically weak, a poor fit, or both for financial reasons.</p>
<p>Comm College is a great stepping stone. The student demographics are a mixed bag; many are motivated but just didn't have the bucks to go away, and some kids are just hs school flunkys trying to figure out what's next.</p>
<p>The Professorss are very happy to have students who work for the class so that will favor you. The challenge is to not go home & sit in front of the tv w/ moms cooking spoiling you. At most commuter schools the kids bug out immediately- which then it's easy to lose the incentive to study. After class, stay on campus & study in the librairy until the end of the day, you might run into a professor or two. Use the gym facilities (take some fitness classes), go to the transfer center, do a little civic work on campus- you will still need things to write about on your next college application. Form some study groups with fellow classmates because making friends at CC is difficult and it can feel lonely. Get a weekend job in a busy environment. And enjoy the feeling of not taking on $50,000 of debt for 2 years of education!</p>
<p>I meet a lot of students at my community college that go to universities and other four year colleges taking course here because they are cheaper. Many of our professors are Phd’s and teach some ode the same course at the more sought after colleges and universities.</p>
<p>That’s nice but the OP asked this 4 years ago and hasn’t posted in 3 1/2 years.</p>