Two Plus Two Equals—? The Community College Option
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
As the current economic climate lingers, I am hearing more questions from families regarding the potential value of having students attend a community college for two years before transferring into four-year institutions to complete their degree work. While this may prove to be a valid, if not cost-effective approach for many families, I would like to take a quick look at the implications of pursuing such a strategy.
The following are common explanations for taking the community college route to a four-year college degree:
1. “Since she doesn’t know what she wants to do, she can go to the community college and find out while the cost per credit isn’t nearly as high.” In other words, “we don’t want to pay for her to find herself.”
On the surface, this sentiment makes sense. Why pay top dollar for an education when it seems the student isn’t focused on a specific career interest? On the other hand, many educators would argue that is precisely what a college education is designed to do—help young people find a sense of direction and purpose in life. At liberal arts colleges in particular, the exposure students have to a breadth of disciplines during the first two years is critical to the process of learning how to learn.
2. “Four years of college is quite an expense. He can go to the community college to get his electives out of the way at a fraction of the cost he’d pay at a four-year college and then transfer for his last two years to complete his degree.”
This is a valid point from a financial perspective. In considering the options, however, you need to be sensitive to differences in the style of instruction as well as the levels of rigor that can be found in two-year and four-year educational sequences. In addition, you need to be alert to the transferability of CC credits into a given four-year college.
If the student in question is well accomplished through high school, identify a community college environment that includes an honors or scholars program and/or an articulation agreement with a four-year college. The articulation agreement will ensure a transfer of completed credits and often will provide assurances of need-based financial aid for transferring students. Otherwise, the classroom experience at the community college is not likely to prepare the student to move comfortably into the third year at a four-year college.
3. “He really struggled academically in high school so community college would be a good place for him to start fresh and begin to build his confidence.”
This is perhaps the best reason to consider going the community college route. Students with marginal academic records coming out of high school have an opportunity to “wipe the slate clean” with a fresh start at a two-year college. And they can do so in an environment that is more forgiving without the prospect of costing their families tens of thousands of dollars in the process. There are certainly a lot of very successful people in this world who got their starts this way.
If you are considering the community college route, do so with your eyes wide open. Look for articulation agreements with four-year colleges from which you would like to earn your degree. Visit the four-year colleges that interest you and ask for an evaluation of the CC curriculum to find out which courses will eventually transfer for credit. The last thing you want to do is transfer into a four-year college that doesn’t recognize all of the credits you accumulated at the CC! And, if you need financial assistance, make sure the four-year colleges you are considering routinely make need-based financial aid available to transfer students.
