Not everyone heads off to a four-year higher learning institution right after high school. Some people forgo the awesomeness of freshman year in the dorms so they can save thousands of dollars learning how to become a stellar college student amid the relative safety of a community college before launching themselves full-bore into the larger and less safety-netted world of the four-year college or university.

I was dead-set on escaping my tiny hometown as soon as I turned in my rented cap and gown and was handed my official high school diploma. (They gave us blank rolled-up sheets of paper at the ceremony, and threatened us, on pain of death and of not ever officially graduating, if we failed to return our dorky graduation get-ups. Did they seriously believe that we would steal something so polyester and hideous?) I thought I would explode with anticipation for my higher education adventure, and had to talk myself into enjoying my last, fully free summer vacation, because all I wanted to do was dive head first into college life.

I had done pretty well in high school, considering I only bothered to carry my books home when I had a homework assignment that would take me longer then the five minutes before class the day it was due. I managed to get into a good school, and figured I was golden from there on out. This plan did not work out. I was shocked to discover, after receiving a ‘B’, a ‘C’, a ‘D’ and an ‘F’ for my first semester’s “efforts,” that there was an outside chance I was going to have to crack a book and study in college. Crap.

It sucked, it was humbling and painful, and it was horrifically expensive. My parents made just enough to not qualify for any help with my tuition costs, but not nearly enough to pay for my education outright. They had been saving since I was an infant, and I can’t tell you how shi**y it feels to tell your good, kind, hard-working parents that their dumbass kid just wasted several thousand of their hard-earned dollars trying to avoid the inevitable learning process that is a college education.

It would have been so much easier on everyone’s heads, hearts and savings accounts if I had skipped the dorm experience and had instead gone to a community college for a year or two. I would have had smaller classes, less of that dehumanizing I’m-a-number feeling, more attention from instructors, and a slew of accessible staff and tutors who would have liked nothing more than to help me help myself.

For any high school students out there who would prefer to get really great at being a college student before hitting the four-year campus of their matriculation dreams, then please consider spending a year or two at a solid, accredited community college, and transferring to what will then be a more easily conquerable four-year college or university.

Further Reading:

Community College vs. University

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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