Community college is significantly cheaper than university, especially if you’re an in-state student. If you’re a low-income student like me, money really matters. If community college is considered your starting point and not just where you go to get your HVAC certification, then there are things you absolutely need to know before you make the same commitment I did.
1. Credits May Not Transfer
I know, it’s tempting to think that all the money you saved racking up credits at community college will be able to fund a move somewhere new. The thing is that many community colleges already have partnerships with big state colleges on what are considered “general” credits, so that’s what they offer. If it’s on the list of transferable credits, it will transfer to the partner colleges equally.
However, out of state colleges without this previous partnership are under no obligation to accept any credits you took at community college, even if they were all labeled “transferable.” Generally, schools with a slackened admission policy or a vast catalog of courses and majors will accept the courses you took if there’s nothing obscure. Even if they do, there’s no guarantee that they will count toward your major-content courses.
The type of course you take matters too. Online courses are less likely to transfer if the transcript says it was completed online. For high school students in dual enrollment courses taught at a high school campus, a significant number of universities don’t consider those credit-worthy if they find out the class met on a high school campus. If a full-time faculty did not teach your course, it may not qualify for transfer. In theory, the person evaluating your credits should research all of this, but they may miss it. Keep it in mind anyway.
This problem is even worse if your ultimate goal is a prestigious or even semi-prestigious school. They will probably not accept your credits, and transfer admissions are more competitive than freshman ones. You could run into a lot of problems if this is your plan.
In short, if courses aren’t recognized by the transfer school, it’s basically as if you never took the course in the first place. You paid for a course that they deem does not exist, causing you to actually lose money, so plan for the future
2. It’s Lesser Quality
Remember the old saying that you get what you pay for? That sort of applies to community college. That’s not to say that all community colleges courses are basically high school classes with more reading homework. Many professors will encourage deep thought and personal growth, but many others will expect a brief discussion on theme, symbolism, and setting of the novel and then move on.
Furthermore, community colleges are a particularly popular avenue for returning adult students who haven’t had to write in essay language in 20+ years. Professors know this, and they have to keep pace with everyone in the class, even if you, the 18-year-old with bundles of academic energy, get stiffed of a rewarding education.
I’m not saying community college has zero reward, but don’t expect any philosophical, mind-blowing discussions that you’ll never forget—unless you take philosophy classes.
3. It’s Easier to Get A’s in Community College
As I said before, the courses are dumbed down for the most part. Thus, if the professors grade on a curve so the returning adults can keep up, you as a fresh student with recently honed grammar skills are at the top of the curve. The professor will give you an A on English Composition homework just for not having twenty errors on the first page.
But, GPAs don’t transfer. If you apply to graduate school in the very distant future, they will ask for copies of a transcript from every school. This is where your stellar-student community college GPA will help you. It will also help on your resume, if your employer gets that far.
4. Expect to Receive Little to No Help
Community college isn’t like university where you get a personal adviser in your field that you can make appointments with or email at any time if you have a problem. You’re pretty much on your own figuring out your degree plan in community college. In fact, the four-person adviser department at mine gave me wrong information about my degree because they simply didn’t know what they needed to know. All emails go unanswered unless you solicit and badger and howl through the walls of the Internet until they rip the hairs out of their head and decide to placate your distress.
The secretaries at the front desk know where to send you if you need to pay your tuition bill, talk to IT, or are looking for a classroom. Nothing more.
5. You Will Not Be Encouraged to Participate
Returning adults have jobs, spouses, children, and sometimes grandchildren. The school isn’t going to waste its time with promoting activities and student groups, if there are any. They will not tell you to get an internship because it won’t be required.
Do all of this anyway, on your own.
You have no idea how many times prospective employers have asked why I did so little in community college. Trust me, it’s very hard to explain and nearly always sounds like a stuttering excuse, so get involved even if nobody tells you there are things to get involved in.
Community college is not the perfect starting gate that many students think it is, and it’s not your fault if you think this. A lot of high school academic counselors don’t know this information either because they never had to deal with it.
I don’t regret my time at community college, but I wish I had known all of this before I leaped in with steam blowing from my bum.