<p>My youngest attended an inner city school and I was a parent volunteer that assisted students who wanted to attend college but didn’t have family that could or would help them research their choices. In several cases their family not only needed their income, but needed them to assist in child care as well. When you are a first gen student, not everyones family is supportive of you wanting to go to college. Even my own in-laws were far from understanding and thought we were setting our kids up for failure. :rolleyes: ( & that we were too big for our britches)</p>
<p>These kids didn’t have all their required classes for college application, because they did not realize until junior or senior year of high school that they wanted to attend college, so they needed a place like a CC where they could fulfill those requirements.</p>
<p>Some were very motivated, but I admit that continuing to live at home & fulfilling their families expectations was a distraction to their ultimate goal of going off to college.
Still, sometimes it was necessary to have that time to get their family and friends used to the idea, so that they eventually could be more supportive.</p>
<p>These students are often first gen & low income/ minority, just the students that colleges want to attract more of. By taking coursework at the CC with what can be very strong profs, students are able to show that they can handle college level work and so can be more proven entity than students coming right out of high school.</p>
<p>Its true 4 yr colleges have fewer transfer slots than freshmen, and less merit aid as well, but for high performing low income students, a college that meets 100% of need can offer very attractive packages. We were lowish income, but not FRL and our PROFILE EFC was = to FAFSA EFC.</p>