What is your opinion about community college? Is it “where you go” if you can’t afford “real college”? Is it a cheaper, easier way to get your general ed requirements “out of the way”? Is it “my only choice”? Is it better, because I can live at home, “where I don’t have to worry as much about distractions”?

My son is a high school senior this year. We talk about college a lot. I also talk with many of his friends and acquaintances. I see so many smart, talented, motivated high school students ready to launch into college, but so many of them have challenges. Financial challenges are pretty much universal, so we don’t need to talk about that. Some have challenges with parents:

• not understanding their desire to go “away” to college
• pushing them to fulfill parental dreams and visions for their life
• just not being willing or able to support and encourage them to make their own choices

Most students are not settled into a direction for their career or life just yet – they may have hints or clues, but are just not sure.

Throughout middle school, my son thought that he wanted to go to community college. I really don’t know how he came to this conclusion. His mom had taken some coursework there when he was at that age, so he may have felt good about that. Maybe he liked the idea of not having to move away from home. Being local, it may have been the only college he knew of (except for Harvard). Suddenly though, in high school, his thinking changed. He was starting to focus on a particular field of study, had a career pursuit beyond that, and he wanted to go to a school that would help him get there. Still, with the expense of a university education, we looked at starting with community college and did some analysis.

Community Colleges Advantages:
1) Cost – community college tuition is less than 1/4 the cost of even a state school tuition per year, and the living expenses don’t change dramatically.
2) Friends – some of his high school classmates are bound to go there, so he will not need to make new friends.
3) GPA – in general, community colleges are “easier” than universities. Universities, tend to challenge freshmen, in what we used to call a “weed out” process. They want to “wash out” the students that simply aren’t motivated, or focused, or perhaps ready for the ultimate challenges of college as early as possible. Rather than having them take up space in more important and specialized classes, many universities use general education requirements and freshmen major courses to wash out those students who ultimately will not succeed. Community colleges tend to be less Darwinian in practice and more nurturing of students who struggle at first, so students often finish community college “transfer programs” with higher GPA’s than they might have earned in the more selective system.
4) Family Support – living at home has other advantages beyond just cost. If your parents or older siblings are encouraging, students can benefit from a strong family support system, although not all families provide this.
5) Practitioner Professors – one of the truths about community colleges is that they are much more likely to have local industry professionals on staff than many universities. Of course most schools located in urban areas have this, but many colleges located in “college towns” do not have this opportunity. While these instructors may not have the best teaching style, they have practical experience to share and are usually much more excited about their profession than academicians.
6) No Stinkin’ TA’s – in larger public universities, many freshmen and sophomore classes are taught by graduate students, not professors. Some of these will ultimately become brilliant professors and industry professionals… some of them will not. They are literally “a few years ahead” of you in the text and have no formal training in classroom instruction. Community colleges do not offer advanced degrees, and so do not have these grad students available to teach.

Community College Disadvantages:
1) Transfer Elongation – if the courses offered by your community college, don’t “line up” with courses offered by the university you select to complete your degree then you can end up behind and having to “re-take” coursework that you have essentially already completed. This can effectively elongate your degree program by a semester or more. This is more likely to be true, if you select a university and are admitted to one of their “signature” degree programs.
2) Sequencing Elongation – depending on the major, the university you choose to complete your degree may not offer all of the classes you need in the sequence that will allow you to complete the program in 2 years. This also can elongate your degree program by a semester or more. It is more likely to be a problem if you select a smaller university or a more intense or technical program like engineering, or nursing, or even some fine arts programs.
3) Low Community Bonding – while you may have friends going in, the likelihood that you will bond closely with other students in community college, or any other “commuter college” is low. Part of campus life, is the students spending 24/7 together, and encouraging each other when they are struggling. The fact that they all live on or near campus makes study groups and campus group life a big advantage of university life. There is the whole “we are all in it together” factor that tends to build close bonds with dorm mates or fraternity brothers or sorority sisters.
4) Low Preparation Factor – because community college is generally easier, students who were very successful there, may still find themselves challenged on pace and content upon arriving at the university.
5) Deferred Transition Factor – students who attend community or other commuter school freshman and sophomore year, still have to adjust to campus life in their Junior year, when they transfer. So the advantage of having friends from high school at community college, is simply erased two years later. And, since you are jumping in at the middle, others on campus already have friendships established, so it becomes a bit harder to break in.
6) Boredom – taking mostly general education classes, and not being able to start your major coursework means that you can spend your first two years in boring classes that do not really excite you. I can’t tell you how many kids of friends of ours have simply given up on college, because community college was neither challenging nor interesting to them. Many of them just started working, and are still wandering from job to job, never really establishing a goal or direction that they believe in. This lack of inspiration may be the sleeper in this list of disadvantages, taking the biggest toll by far on community college students.
7) Limited Optionality – most community colleges only offer general education courses and a few “major” areas of interest, so if you aren’t sure what you are interested in, there are limited opportunities for exploration and discovery. Another aspect of this is that until you actually study your subject area, you won’t learn that it is not a) what you love or b) what you are good at. The longer you defer confirming your passion and capacity for that subject, the more costly and potentially devastating the denial of those can be.

I’m sure that there are other advantages and disadvantages that we haven’t considered, just like I know that some students are more susceptible or potentially affected by some of these than others. These are just the list that we came up with in our analysis. `

Everyone is concerned about the cost of college. The average cost of a university undergraduate program is roughly 150% of the average family’s annual income. This is roughly 2-4 years annual income for the recent graduate. When I graduate in 1985 from a private university, the cost of my college was roughly 2 years of salary from my first job. I was fortunate enough that my parents were able to pay for my schooling. Now, the cost of that same university would be roughly 5 years starting salary for someone with my same degree, working in my same field, in fact almost 2 years of my current salary.

Community colleges seem like a good way to lower the cost of education. The thing is, if a student is already “directional” coming out of high school, and performs well, having a good work ethic and is motivated by a strong vision for his or her life, then plugging into opportunities that feed that vision and boost that motivation are incredibly important. College, for some students, is a giant slingshot that launches them into greatness – for others, it is a mountain that must be climbed, still for others it is the sheer face of a cliff, insurmountable because they are ill equipped for such an endeavor.

Here are some suggestions for students contemplating college, regardless of the situation:

 

• If you have a good idea the kind of career or area of interest you wish to study find and visit some leading schools in that field. Meet with professors in the department that you are interested in, and learn what they think is important. Understand what they think makes their program great. Learn as much as you can about what a leading school in that field has to offer before deciding on a less regarded program at a different school.

 

• If you aren’t sure really what is interesting to you, your local high school counseling office or your local community colleges advising office may administer interest inventories or personality tests such as a Campbell-Jones, or a Meyers-Briggs, a DISC profile, or even use the Clifton Strengthsfinder instrument on-line to learn about yourself, and what you are interested in, what you are good at, and what kinds of work or activities you might be best suited for.

 

• If you are actively considering community college, then pre-align your coursework with a leading university program that you would consider for completing your degree. Work with admissions counselor at the leading school, and your counselor at your community college to ensure the best chance of transferring all your credits.

 

• If you are actively considering community college and they do not have many courses in the area you want to pursue, consider augmenting your community college with one class each semester at a nearby university, in the area of your choice. This increases your optionality, and reduces your risk of elongation due to sequencing issues. It also allows you to confirm your passion and capacity in this subject area more quickly that community college alone might – allowing you to change direction with less cost and pain.

 

• The fact is most people don’t necessarily stay on one path their entire career, nor do they pursue a single passion their whole life. College (especially undergrad) is a time to branch out, study and experience a wide variety of areas – expand your horizons. If you are into science and engineering – take a course in music theory or art history. If you are a business major, take a class in biology or chemistry. If you are an English lit major take some philosophy, psychology or computer programming. Don’t constrain your electives to your major area of study.

 

• Take a couple business courses! 30+ years ago, my own dad told me that I should take some general business classes. Even if you are a rock musician, you still have financial management – anyone involved in making a product, selling a product, or performing a service can benefit from a little accounting, a little marketing, a little management, a little finance. If you ever have your own business, those subjects become valuable. If you are ever a leader – a manager, a politician, a stay at home mom – those basic principals learned are important. I would extend this to say that everyone should have a class or two in communication – it is the single most important activity regardless of everything else you do. In order to get a job, get a promotion, get your ideas heard, get new customers, get more sales, get recognized for your skills – you must communicate effectively. Learn to write effectively, learn to present your ideas in front of people effectively, learn to be persuasive.

 

• If you are pursuing a passion which has a limited entree – where few people are truly successful like performing arts or athletics or fashion or whatever; have a contingency plan. Don’t leave yourself stranded without a career option. Consider what related or unrelated work you could do without wanting to vomit until you are discovered, or can break into the Big Time. Spend some time figuring out how you can prepare for that work, while you also pursue your passion.

My final advice to all high school seniors seeking to launch into college is this: Believe in yourself! Know that you are good enough. Listen to every voice that is positive and encouraging. Block out the voices that say otherwise, including your own. If you have a passion, and you can see a path to pursue it, GO! Pursue it with all your strength and and Fail Fast! Don’t hang around wishing your would have tried and wondering if you would have succeeded – just try it.

Don’t let others vision or lack of vision for your future color your own. If your parents are not supportive of your passion, understand why and what concerns that they have, but ultimately it is your decision. If someone you care about is not encouraging or supporting you, it may be their problem and have nothing to do with you. Don’t make their problem be your problem. Don’t limit your possibilities because of their issues. If a parent gives you an ultimatum related to paying for college, that is a manipulation. If you feel manipulated by parents, friends, relatives, or teachers, seek the wisdom of someone you trust – a pastor, a favorite teacher, a safe relative or family friend – someone you respect. The best resort may be to give them a different ultimatum, in effect saying, “If you can’t support my passion instead of your own vision for my future, then our relationship will not be the same going forward.” The fact is, at age 18, passion is may be the most valuable thing you really have. Don’t let anyone crush it, or squelch it.