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Community College Might Not be the Death of You |
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Contributed by Cassandra Senior
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Before you read any further, I’m going to warn you that I am about to
make two statements that you may not like. They might cause nausea,
stomach cramps or uncontrollable weeping. Yet, despite that physical
pain they may cause, I’m going to say them because it very well might
save you financial pain, which hurts a lot more in the long run. Ready?
Consider commuting to college.
Yeah, I know it hurts, so let’s just rip the bandage off quick and get on with statement two.
Consider community college.
Now please, before you scoff and click away, hear the argument
out. If you are one of the lucky few who feel no dread when
consider the skyrocketing price of college tuition, then I hate
you. Just kidding, sort of. You are certainly more
fortunate than most of us who, as we think about college, consider
scholarships, financial aid and student loans with as much or more
scrutiny than we consider class sizes, distance from parents and
availability of bars within walking distance. And let’s face it,
those are very important to consider.
To ease you onto the idea of the dreaded C.C., here are some facts about tuition that you may not have known:
- The average price of one year at a community college is just over
$2,000. Public universities, provided you get in-state tuition,
is about two and one-half times that, and private colleges ten times.
- Adding room and board to the cost of non-community colleges will add, on average, around $7,000 per year.
- The price of college rose 6% between the ’05-’06 and ’06-’07 school year, and that is considered a small increase.
It is also important to note that more and more students are taking six years to
graduate rather than four. The increase in length of stay is
attribute to various reasons such as changing majors and the need to
take remedial classes that may not count for credit, but the bottom
line is that more time in school means more money spent on school—and
more debt collecting interest for longer.
Truth be told, once you complete your associates degree at a community
college and move on to attend a four-year, the diploma you get in the
end will be no less respected than those the kids who stayed there all
four years got. It does not just look exactly the same, it acts
exactly the same for the purpose of resumes, job interviews or grad
school applications. You still had to get in and do the course
work, so it doesn’t really matter if it was done for two or four years.
If you have started to mull the idea of community colleges over, here
are some suggestions as to why this might be the road for you:
- You aren’t sure what you want to study. Changing you major
or picking different types of electives to get an idea of where you
want your life to go is a lot cheaper in community college.
- General education requirements can be easily transferred between
two and four year schools—those are the kind of classes that are
basically the same no matter where you go.
- You can save up money by working and living at home. Then you can take out fewer loans when you transfer.
- In the end, the decision is obviously yours, but I hope you at
least consider the idea and set aside prejudices you may have about
community colleges and community college kids.
And besides, while the community college is significantly closer to
your parents than that other school, I bet there are still a lot of
cool bars by your house, too.
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