First and foremost, let’s just start with some interesting statistics, “32% enroll in a CCC, while 12% go to California State University (CSU) and 8% go to the University of California (UC).” This very real issue within California and the entire nation has caused a major global shift in the view of community colleges. Since 1990, the cost of attending a four-year university has increased by 124.2% (Hanson), while the average income has only increased to 20% (Statista). This gap in the rate of increase has led to many households being unable to afford any 4-year university tuition fee. “1 in 3 recent high school grads” (Intelligent) state that they cannot afford to attend college, which I find extremely concerning with how hard it is to earn enough money to pay many household bills. The societal impact of this issue is significant, as it hampers the educational and career opportunities of a large portion of our youth. However, there are many workarounds that many students don’t consider when facing this prolific problem that afflicts many young adults. The simplest solution to this problem is attending a two-year college for an associate degree for transfer. Over 1.1 million students transfer from a community college to a four-year university. (NSC) These transfers pay “$11,377 less for a four-year degree.” (Lendingtree) every year after transferring. This 60% decrease in cost can be the difference between being able to afford living costs and being lost on the streets, helping students transition between local living situations and new cities with no connections nearby.
Although every cost-benefit is specific to each campus, the consensus on how helpful college students find community college transfer prices is very prominent. When looking into your local institution, you should visit their websites or contact their recruitment personnel about their classes and how they treat their students. There are also various websites where you can find more widely available information, such as RateMyProfressors and the National Center for Education Statistics. However, the benefits of Community Colleges are not the reason for this article’s existence. Instead, I wanted to focus more on debunking many myths that surround attending Community Colleges. The first big one is that it is nearly impossible to get into a good college after going to a two-year college; for one this is completely untrue. There is a specific program called the “Associate Degree for Transfer program that offers community college students a guaranteed spot at the 23-campus California State University system” (Burke). This program has low-income and financially dependent students as it gives chances to those who aren’t traditionally able to access four-year colleges without extreme financial aid. Another annoyance with community colleges is the fact that all Advanced Placement, AP, classes taken during high school are then void however this idea isn’t necessarily true. This stems from the fact that if a student passes the AP exam in high school for a class, they no longer need to complete the course to get the required credits during their college years. These are two of the most common problems with attending community colleges but they are most definitely all talk no bite.
Overall, Community College makes higher education much more accessible to people of all types and should not be overlooked as an option after high school.