Trying to decide whether to attend a community college or a university right out of high school is a question worthy of pondering. I’ve attended both (university, then CC, then university) and each has its pros and cons.

Class Size

Community Colleges tend toward fewer students per class, which means more student/teacher interaction. This is good for students who like access to their instructors so they can ask questions and avoid getting lost (in the course material or in the shuffle).

Universities usually have massive auditoriums full of a few hundred students, all of whom are trying to keep their heads above water and have hordes of fellow student to compete with for the prof’s office hours. Higher level courses have smaller class sizes (the riff-raff have been weeded out and those left have proven their mettle).

Campus Housing

Community Colleges rarely have on-campus housing to offer.

Universities generally have one or more version of campus housing in order to accommodate students, grad students, faculty, married students, etc.

Expense

Community College will put less of a dent in your college fund.

University tuition costs vary depending upon whether they are public or private, but are more expensive than community colleges.

Caliber of Instruction

At any school there are the amazing instructors and the dismal ones. It’s just the way it goes. I have experienced both kinds at two-year and at four-year schools.

A lot of great instructors teach at community colleges because they actually want to teach and not do the whole publish-or-perish game. I’ve had community college instructors who were there because they wanted to teach at a college-level and they were effing good at it. They could break down some utterly confusing and complicated calculus or chemistry or physics moment into its most simplified, basic form and with one eloquent statement sweep it up, explain it, and have it all fall into place, fully comprehended, in my head.

I’ve had university profs who were so busy with their research (which is, unfortunately, the only way to achieve and maintain professor status) that they were more like silent partners in the course and their TA’s did the actual teaching and question-fielding. But I’ve also had ass-kicking professors who clearly went into their chosen field because it is the thing that makes their world complete and they are happiest standing in classroom explaining their idea of perfection to college students.

Architecture

Community Colleges are rarely architecturally stunning as they tend to lack both real estate and funding.

University architecture is what we all think of when we picture a college campus: the buildings vary depending upon the decade in which they were built, but overall a university campus is usually far superior to its community college counterpart.

Transition Issues

The transition from high school to a community college is easier, but you miss out on all the dorm parts.

Jumping from high school to college isn’t as smooth as it could be, but moving away from home when you’re a barely legal adult and living sans parental supervision in a puke-infested dorm is the American version of painfully unmentionable tribal rites of passage. It’s a grow-up-quick, sink-or-swim, survival-of-the-fittest situation and it is what memories are made of.

Degrees Obtainable

Community colleges offer Associate of Arts degrees, nothing higher. However, they are extremely useful as a means to a transfer end: most general ed. coursework that a university requires of its freshmen and sophomores can be taken at a community college.

At a university you can be educated to within an inch of your life: they offer Bachelor’s degrees, Master’s degrees and Doctorates. Go crazy.

College Life

Little or none at a community college.

Lots at a university. Sports, clubs, bonding with fellow collegians, you name it.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

A college degree is one of the better bullet points to have on your résumé. And going to college is the best way to obtain said degree. Not everyone heads straight from high school to a four-year college or university—about half of the undergraduates in the U.S. are currently matriculating through community colleges. Financial, academic, or resident status red tape being the main reasons to attend a two-year vs. a four-year institution. But less than half of them actually accomplish their higher educational goals. Um, why? The theory is that while the community colleges are very accessible to a larger percentage of the population than are four-year institutions, the community colleges don’t do much in the way of support once the students are in and trying to do the actual learning and achieving of goals.

The state funding the community colleges receive is frequently based on enrollment, not on student success. There’s now a new plan afoot to base state funding on several measurable achieved goals.

Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count is a multiyear national initiative to help more community college students succeed. The initiative is particularly concerned about student groups that traditionally have faced significant barriers to success, including students of color and low-income students. Achieving the Dream works on multiple fronts, including efforts at community colleges and in research, public engagement and public policy. It emphasizes the use of data to drive change.

Fifteen states have colleges participating in the Achieving the Dream initiative. Inside Higher Ed’s recent article explained in detail how the schools in Washington State could benefit from the program.

Washington State’s Student Achievement Initiative rewards its colleges for helping students continue moving forward regardless of where they start or how far they may be from attaining their educational goals.

Washington’s community and technical colleges will receive extra money for students who earn their first 15 and first 30 college credits, earn their first 5 credits of college-level math, pass a pre-college writing or math course, make significant gains in certain basic skills tests, earn a degree or complete a certificate. Colleges also will be rewarded for students who earn a GED through their programs. All of these benchmarks are important accomplishments that help propel students forward on the road of higher education.

To base funding solely on enrollment numbers is lame and doesn’t help students once they’re attending the school. Which means I support the basic idea of student success-based funding. Teach your students well, have excellent advisors and tutoring centers and there will be more money for you. However, there is a slight disconnect for me regarding how this program will affect not only the traditional students this new program is geared for, but all the non-traditional community college students as well.

Community colleges have several student categories: transfer, transitional, high school concurrent, adult, international, professional/technical, and personal interest. How do they fit into the assessment program? Do they affect funding positively or negatively? Will they end up skewing the funding numbers? Or will they end up with little or no support because they don’t fit the traditional student criteria?

Obviously a student trying to earn their GED needs more support than the retirees taking Tai Chi. It’s not that I feel it’s supremely important that the underwater basket-weaving students receive as much guidance, advising and tutoring as the international transfer students, it’s that I don’t want this incentive program to cause the dissolution of all non-traditional courses at community colleges. I’ll be optimistic and hope the initiative positively affects the traditional students who need additional support and has no adverse effects on the non-traditional community college student population.

Further Reading:

Excellent explanation of how the Lumina Foundation selected colleges for the Achieving the Dream initiative.

American Association of Community Colleges Student Enrollment and Characteristics.

Profiles of colleges taking part in the Achieving the Dream initiative and their individual goals.

Press release regarding Texas schools.

Press release regarding Michigan schools.

Posted by Alexa Harrington