Seven Great Reasons to Attend Community College

Nowadays, high school graduates realize every day that going to college is extremely important. Not only do college graduates make more money on average than high school graduates, but many companies now hire only college graduates for even the most basic entry-level positions. However, many students seem to think that this means they must attend a good University right out of high school. Many high school students brush off community colleges as too easy, or not a real college; they don’t even consider it as an option. This is a big mistake! In many cases, attending a community college and then transferring to a University is absolutely the best, most practical choice a student can make. Here are seven great reasons why:

1.It’s Cheaper!

Even if your parents are going to pay for college, or if you are eligible for financial aid, choosing the best value is always wise. Many financial aid options need to be repaid, so it is always good to avoid stacking up unnecessarily high amounts of debt by spending all four years at a University. Even if your parents have decided that they will pay for college, the least that you can do to express your gratitude is help keep the costs down by attending community college. That way, if it takes you longer to graduate, the money will not run out before you get your degree.
In the end, a bachelor’s degree from UCLA is still a degree from UCLA, no matter where you got your general education. Paying for your GE at a community college just means that you get that degree for a lot cheaper than someone who started at UCLA as a freshman. It’s like getting a $100,000 car for $50,000.

2.A change of scene halfway through will keep your motivated.

A lot more students enroll in college their freshman year than end up graduating college, and this happens for several reasons. One major reason this happens is burnout. Every year towards the end of the semester, students start getting less enthusiastic about school. It is always easier to be motivated and do well when something is new and exciting. One of the major benefits to attending community college is that you get to leave after just a few years. That means that about the time you are starting to feel like you couldn’t possibly spend another day on that campus, you won’t have to. You will get to transfer to a university, which will mean something new and exciting again. You’ll have new people to meet, new buildings to explore, and new activities to get involved with. It may sound silly, but just the fact that it is new and different will help you stay motivated. Then, by the time the university is starting to become too common to you, and you feel like you want to get out of there, you canâÂ?¦ with a degree.

3.Community college is a great place to experiment to decide what you like.

If you are undecided on your major, or even if you have declared a major but are uncertain if it is really the one for you, then you community college is a great place to experiment by taking classes in a bunch of different departments. You may discover something that you really love doing that you never even knew about before.
At big universities, classes in specific departments, such as music and art, are often limited to students who have been accepted in that major, simply due to lack of space. At a community college, if you want to take a class that will teach you the basics of playing the violin, you can. Or if you decide that you’d like to experiment with oil painting, you can. Best of all, you can do this experimenting at a fraction of the cost of what you would be paying to take classes at a university, which is nice, especially if the class will not end up counting towards your degree if you change your major.
Many people end up getting degrees in fields that they find they are not that interested in, and then work in a completely different field, just because they feel that it would have been a waste of time and money to change their major halfway through. It is much easier to make those changes and avoid ending up with a useless degree by going to a community college and changing your major as many times as you want.

4.Community colleges offer you a flexible schedule with a variety of options.

Maybe you realize that you will have to work to pay for school. Even if your parents are paying for school, or you will be getting scholarship money, you may be in the situation where you are going to need to work to pay your living expenses. Even if you live with your family, you may, like me, live somewhere like Southern California where public transportation is just not a reliable option, and the price of gas alone requires a decent income.
You have a much better chance of finding a good job with good pay if you are able to be flexible with your school schedule. Community colleges offer a wide variety of classes on nights and weekends, and even online.
Plus, in many areas you are within driving distance of more than one community college, which means you can check the schedules at all the community colleges around you to find classes that best meet your needs. In my last year before transferring to a university, I attended three different schools to get the classes I needed to transfer at times I could take them. It was a bit confusing, but I met a lot of people and really enjoyed the experience.

5.You can live at home!

You will most likely be able to find a community college within driving distance, if not several, which means that you can live at home. You might think that nothing could be better than getting out of your parents’ house and having the freedom of living on campus, but dorm living is really not all it is cracked up to be. You generally get no say in who your roommate is your freshman year, and so you could end up with someone worse than the little brother you think you want to get away from.
Plus, the food in the dorms is not usually the greatest. Living with your parents means you can eat what’s in their fridge, or if not, you can afford to eat out. In one of my classes last semester, we were put in groups and given an apple to describe in a creative manner. One guy in my group volunteered to eat it so we could describe the taste. When he ate the apple he said, “Gosh, that’s so good. I’m haven’t had anything that fresh in a long time. Dorm food here is terrible.”
Living at home also means that you get to use the family washing machine, which you don’t have to put quarters in or wait in line to use. It also means that you don’t have to share the restroom with an entire floor of students. Plus, if you live with your parents and work while you go to community college, then you can save up a bunch of money and, when you do transfer to a university, you can get an apartment instead of living in the dorms.

6.Community colleges have smaller classes.

At many major universities, your basic freshman general education classes, like English and other ones that everyone needs to take, are going to be huge. It is not uncommon for these classes to have over 300 people in them. It gets better as you get further along, because the classes are more specific and because people drop out. At community colleges though, most classes are limited in size to at most 100 people, but they usually keep it at around 20-50. Plus, these lower level classes are often taught by assistants at the university level, but at community colleges, you will get a real professor for these classes. Having smaller classes means you get more individual attention. It also means that there is a good chance the teacher will actually remember who you are when they go to do the final grading, and so they can take into consideration things like your participation in class.
In the three community colleges I have attended, I have also found that the professors here are more than willing to go out of their way to help you out. They will meet with you on office hours to explain things you don’t understand, discuss an idea for a term paper with you, and write you recommendation letters for scholarships or acceptance into universities. This is a major benefit that you will not often find at a state university.

7.You get a second chance at getting into the school of your dreams!

If your goal in life was to get accepted to Harvard, Yale, UCLA, or some other big school, but you did not get accepted as a freshman, then you can look at community college as a second chance to get to that school.
While these schools generally accept less transfer students than incoming freshman, if you call the admissions counselor at the school of your choice and find out what hindered you, they can usually give you some tips of things you could do to better your chances next time. Maybe they are looking for students who are more well-rounded. Then you could join some clubs, play a community sport, and volunteer at a local nursing home. Or maybe you just need to improve your grades, so you could take honors classes at a community college, and let the professors know that you really need to excel in your classes. They will usually help you out, giving your tips on what you can do to get from the B+ up to an A. Either way, spending two years at a community college and then trying to transfer means you get another shot at the school of your dreams.

Community college is not merely the easy way to obtain higher education; it is the smart way!