And what does community college offer that a four-year doesn’t?
To answer the title of your post, I don’t think it’s more or less valuable than a four year college. I attended community college for too long. It’s clearly a different experience from the traditional “live on campus” one, but that doesn’t affect its value. And it would be easy to argue that it’s more valuable, because it’s accessible to many more people than a four year uni.
I’m not an expert, but I believe many CC’s offer more certificate and vocational courses than regular units, and again, are a lot more affordable.
What is a “proper” college? A 4 yer institution?
Community colleges are proper colleges. Since you’re attending a university, why does what community colleges offer matter to you?
In addition to the things Lindagaf said, sometimes community colleges can offer a more nurturing and supportive environment than large public universities (which are usually the only other viable alternative for a person who’s considering a community college). Since part of the point of CCs is to help students transfer to four-year colleges (sometimes, after they didn’t do so hot in high school), there’s often a lot of advisement and support four students attempting to achieve that. They also offer remedial classes for students who are a little behind and need to get up to speed in certain areas.
My son started at CC and is transferring to our state flagship in August. He got core classes done on the cheap, much, much smaller classes with good profs (some of whom also teach at the flagship) and will be able to complete his BS totally debt free thanks to CC and living at home to reduce costs.
I’m in California which has a great CC system with a solid pipeline to the UC and CSU systems. I think doing CC for a couple of years and then transferring has a couple of advantages. One is that for students who are bright but took a little longer to mature (ie, didn’t take school as seriously in high school as some do), they can end up with a degree from a top-notch UC if they start applying themselves in CC. Another is that it saves a lot of money so for families that would struggle to afford 4 years of residential college, this is a good way to go. It’s also a good choice for kids who don’t really know what they are interested in - you can take your general ed units and maybe a couple of exploration classes at a less expensive place before transferring to a more expensive college. The CCs here have excellent teachers, usually smaller class sizes than the lower-division courses at the UCs and CSUs.
The main disadvantage in California is that you are giving up having the residential experience for 4 years. If your family can afford for you to live away for 4 years and you want to, it’s a fun time in your life to meet people, get involved in campus life and clubs, etc. There’s also exposure to lectures by famous professors, performing arts groups that visit campus, maybe going to the sports events, that sort of thing. And I’ve heard but don’t really know that some other states have less good community colleges than CA, and maybe the rate of transferring to a great university isn’t as high.
I went to one year of community College for many reasons. It was the perfect way to introduce me to the higher education world plus as stated it had several of the same classes and actual professors for a reasonable price at the time.
It seems many people look down on community colleges but it’s OK for students at 4 year institutions to take classes in the summer there. My sons physics 2 and Calc 3 were not a walk in the park…
Community Colleges exist for a reason. If your circumstances match those reasons…e.g. need to start part time, need remedial courses, are not sure what you want to do, need to live at home, need less expensive option…then it is “Proper” for you.