I am a transfer student, meaning that I did not start my college experience at the University of Utah, and to be honest I am really glad that I didn’t start my college experience here. Don’t get me wrong, I have loved my time at the U, but I am still really glad that I started out at Salt Lake Community College. Here are the reasons that I am glad to have begun my college journey at a community college, and the reasons why you might want to start out at one too.
- Community College Is Cheaper
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Let’s get one of the biggest reasons out of the way. It is much cheaper to go to a community college than it is to go to a university. My time at SLCC was about half the price or less per semester than what each semester at the U costs me. I know that some think that community college is cheaper because there are lower quality classes and/or professors. But I can say that is not the case; I had quite a few great professors that taught at both SLCC and U of U.
- It Gave Me Time To Grow Up
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I don’t know about you, but when I graduated high school I had no idea who I was, what I wanted out of my life, or what I was even interested in. I was just a kid who had no clue what they were doing. Starting at SLCC gave me more time to figure myself out. Yes, I could have done that at a university, but I was able to explore myself without all of the stress that comes from a university. At a university the classes and campus are larger, which can increase the pressure involved. I have loved my time at the U, but I know eighteen year old me would not have been able to handle it.
- Majors Were Not Forced On Me
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The one thing that I don’t like about universities is how focused they are on majors. When I first started college, a lot of my friends had just started out at universities with their chosen major. But then a year later they would drop it. At community college, you can pick what you want to study, but for the most part you are taking general education classes or working toward your associates degree. So while my friends got a quarter of the way through majors that they never finished, I was able to explore classes that seemed interesting to me. I took a variety of intriguing classes and because of that freedom I was able to pick two majors that I love when I transferred, Anthropology and Writing & Rhetoric.
- It Gave Me The Ability To Attend The U
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To be honest, I was an awful student in high school. I was so bad that I had to take my junior year English class two times. If I did not get my Associate of Science at SLCC, I never would have had the opportunity to attend the University of Utah. Community college gives students like me (that were not the best in high school) the chance to still attend the school of their dreams.
I know that this path is not for everyone. However, I am personally so thankful that I started at a community college because my time there led me to where I am now. Without my experience at SLCC, I would have never been able to attend my dream school.