Community college ostensibly for people who don’t have a good track record from High School, but is often advertised as the cheap, local option for people who don’t want to feel bad about having to go.
I did in fact try community college and it’s really just high school material with smaller text. I even took it in parallel with an edX equivalent and the material wasn’t even close to each other. The idea that CC is suppose to replace the first 2 years at a real college is terrifying and reinforces how much of the professional word is theater.
If you do any number of years at a community college, you should be able to apply as a freshman to a real college if you want.
Good unpopular opinion, because it’s a horrible opinion.
There are many reasons to go to a community college over a college to start out.
I for one struggled with a full university and failed out my first year. I wasn’t used to the workload, and I was used to more 1 on 1 attention from teachers in high school. Universities are the exact opposite, massive 1000 person lectures, TAs with barely any time to work with you. I went to a community college because I needed something to help me grow into being a college student.
Community college gave me smaller class sizes where I could actually ask the professors questions. It gave me opportunities to talk to them after hours, and ask questions. They were more accessible and took an interest in helping me succeed. After 2 years, I went on to finish my full degree back at a full sized university 2 years later.
and we haven’t even talked about the cost. I spent about $2k on community college per semester. University wanted 15k per semester, and that’s not even including books/food/housing.
Take it from me. That was all over 10 years ago that I was in college and doing that. What you’re saying is a trope - it’s arrogant and it’s definitely coming from a standpoint of “Pushah, you aren’t at a university, you’re not even on my level”. As a full university graduate who now is well into his career, doing pretty dang well, I firmly can tell you that this entire way of thinking is wrong, and arrogant.
People learn differently. That does not mean they are stupid, or that you are smarter. Some people absorb through reading, others through auditory, I was someone who needed examples and through question/answer. I learned the exact same information, but the difference was I had professors who took the time to make sure I understood the subjects, and gave me the tools to learn differently in university later.
Without community college I would have failed out like the standard 40% of the class did in the standard university classes. Community college got me standing upright again when University failed me. I graduated, and I am better because of it.
Edit: Out of curiosity, I went through your history and found your post:
I’m in a catch 22 situation. I want to go to a four year college, but I was previously placed in the remedial track and have a poor academic standing. If I go to a community college, I could improve my grades, but the material they cover is a replacement for high school classes and I’d be precluded from signing up for entry classes at the four year college. This seems like to would put me at a disadvantage when that finally happened and I would only be setting myself up for long term failure.
Friend, Community College is not where stupid people go. Going to community college, even after a university, is not a failing. It feels like a gut punch, trust me I went through it. It was a vastly different experience compared to university. If I’m making assumptions, you’re facing something similar to what I was before.
You can keep thinking the way you’re thinking, and refuse to actually try community college. You can fail out of a university and somehow think by not going to a 2 year school that you were still better. Or you can suck it up, accept life changes things, and adjust. I personally built a plan, and I knew going in that it was temporary, and that I would work my way back in, and I did.
This is 100% on you. There are no excuses anymore, there’s no one to lay blame at this point. If you’re truly facing this, then this is 100% in your head, and you need to figure out how you want to make your goals a reality. Maybe shitting on community college isn’t really a long term plan. Maybe accepting and getting help if you need it is. I don’t know, you have to decide.
I can speak for the last part: “This seems like to would put me at a disadvantage when that finally happened and I would only be setting myself up for long term failure.”. This is absolutely not true. I have never once, in my entire life, had anyone ask me if I went to community college. Not that I’m shy about it, I’ll happily tell people, I’m not ashamed of my past, but it doesn’t come up. Colleges really try to convince you that your GPA and transcript matter. It really honestly doesn’t. Maybe for your first job. I’ve never had anyone ask to see my transcript, my GPA, or any details about my college beyond selecting “B.S. Degree” from a dropdown.
I didn’t go to CC, but two of my friends in college did. They were mildly embarrassed about it, but I told them they were smart for taking prerequisites for a fraction of the cost.
Thanks for your long thoughtful comment. The CC stigma has never made sense to me. I was a dumbass in college, but one of the few things I’m proud of was always being supportive of my two CC buddies.
What you’re saying is a trope - it’s arrogant and it’s definitely coming from a standpoint of “Pushah, you aren’t at a university, you’re not even on my level”. As a full university graduate who now is well into his career, doing pretty dang well, I firmly can tell you that this entire way of thinking is wrong, and arrogant.
What I’m saying is my experience. I tried Bio110 at my local CC while taking an online high school, an edX course, and a Great Courses lecture series. The CC material was below the even the high school material.
People learn differently. That does not mean they are stupid, or that you are smarter. Some people absorb through reading, others through auditory, I was someone who needed examples and through question/answer. I learned the exact same information, but the difference was I had professors who took the time to make sure I understood the subjects, and gave me the tools to learn differently in university later.
My CC was a joke. I had a small classroom and did not benefit from it. No one was really interested in it. They were just the summer session students looking to fill their requirements. One morning, I was the first person in the classroom and overheard the teacher shit talking the regular session students for being dumb and the summer session for being disinterested. This same person also recommend looking for easy topics to do projects on and didn’t accept growing Biobutanol because the school didn’t have the material. I wasn’t even planning on using the school’s lab for it.
I even tried the next closes CC and was denied the class I wanted to use as a trial because I tested out of it.
If I could do 2 or even 4 years at a community college, only have it be viewed as a high school replacement, and apply as a freshman, I would have done that. Every policy I find don’t allow that. In fact, I’m reaching out to some staff at one university I’m on good terms with to see how much of a hard policy that really is.
As far as cost effectiveness goes, I know way, way too many people who pursued college, any college because they were told that it’s what they need to do and are now paying off loan payments(if they didn’t get it forgiven) in careers unrelated to their degrees. For me, this was never about cost effectiveness.
You’re doing a lot of comparisons to other people in your classes. Why do what they’re doing have any effect on your success? Who cares if they aren’t paying attention, or aren’t learning? What are you doing in those classes? Why are you wanting to do easy classes you can test out of when instead you could be taking harder classes?
Idk man, everything you put out here is screaming “I don’t want to like community college because I belong elsewhere”, and like I said, those thoughts reside 100% completely in your own head. Either go to a 4 year university if you can and be happy, or deal with it if you aren’t being accepted to colleges and make a plan. Going online and trying to demean community colleges and comparing yourself to the lower mortals in these classes is not going to help you.
Maybe stop worrying about how other people are doing or how you’re going to be viewed about where you went, and just make a plan on how you’re going to actively achieve what you want to.
You’re doing a lot of comparisons to other people in your classes.
The CC teacher was the one judging the other students. She was outside the class and didn’t realize I was already there when I over heard her shit talking her students. The other teacher she was talking to didn’t feel the need to correct her. It was disgusting to hear. The only one here I’m judging here is her.
I’m sorry you heard it, but unfortunately professors are people too, and I’ll tell you that’s not unique to community college. That’s something that you will find at all levels, even full universities.
There’s easy classes and hard classes.
I took “swimnastics” at a real university, I assure you it was not difficult. If you wanted a harder class you should have taken a harder class.
And absolutely nothing is stopping someone from not transferring credits over. Hell, some people have done it from one university to another because they want a perfect GPA for their next level degree.
If you’re trying to go to Harvard law and have a shot, but something fucks up your first semester, it’s not unheard of.
And absolutely nothing is stopping someone from not transferring credits over. Hell, some people have done it from one university to another because they want a perfect GPA for their next level degree.
I don’t want to transfer credits. I want to re-earn a GPA at a CC and start over a 4 year. My high school decided I was a low preforming student and stuck me in the remedial classes to forget about.
Then do really well on the first year on those “easy” classes and transfer your 4.0?
I don’t understand what your problem is with community college
It’s depressing and the material doesn’t compare to freshman classes at a 4 year. My credits would be the same, but I would be at an educational disadvantage. I can’t enroll in a 4 year, but I am able to take edX courses. Comparing the two, a CC class is just rehashed high school material with smaller font. An edX course is actually build with the assumption that you would be using the knowledge to do something. The difference is bigger then the difference between remedial HS classes and regular HS classes.
I don’t understand what your problem is with community college
I did 12 years of compulsory school at a remedial level. Every success meant the program worked and every failure meant the program was necessary. The moment I became a legal adult with agency, the free school option ended. I know what “Cs get degrees” feels like and I don’t want to do that anymore.
Last time I checked you do not have to transfer your credits. You go to community college for two years. Get the knowledge. Then choose a regular college apply and go there just don’t transfer your credits. Now you are going in as a freshman.
Wtf wouldn’t you transfer credits if you could?
That’s just a dumb waste of money and time.
He wants to be a freshman again. It’s a way to make him be a freshman. Not saying it’s a good idea, not sure why you’d want to be a freshman again either though
Every place I looked had a freshman requirement be less then two years at a CC and I haven’t found a way to purge bad classes. Every time I research this, people say it’s considered fraud to not fully list courses completed in applications.
I haven’t found a way to purge bad classes
You retake them and get a good grade. That’s the way.
I failed Calc 2, retook it and got a B. That’s quite literally the way to purge them.
I need to speak to an actual college rep on that one. When I completed a shitty high school class, there was no option to redo it.
I did 12 years of compulsory school at a remedial level
Then you need to catch up…
The moment I became a legal adult with agency
Nope, each state is different but most are to early 20s, you didn’t have to leave if you were remedial.
Just nothing you say lines up, so I don’t think I’m gonna be able to help
Technically, the school is only required to provide a free education to people under the age of 18 and who didn’t already have a diploma, but are free to make their own judgements on adults without a diploma. In fact, many states view GEDs as a legally distinct document and do not preclude students from having one.
Regardless of whether or not the school can enroll adults or not, doesn’t effect what classes they can take. If I had completed remedial Geometry for instance, I wouldn’t be allowed to take it at a more advanced level the next year even if I had available time to do it.
I was actually in school at 19, but that didn’t help be get into the better classes when they can just lie and say the class is full. Curious that I was the only one that they ever told the room was full for. Also curious that when I tried to bypass their permission by testing into Honors, they could only tell me that I didn’t pass and not actually show me the test results.
Then you need to catch up…
Then we are in agreement that remedial classes are a joke. I just don’t want that “catching up” to replace freshman at a 4year.
This is not really unpopular, cc is looked down upon by most people
If by looked down you mean an AA/AS is less than a BA/BS, then yes, but those are different degree types. If someone like me went to 2 years of CC and then onto finish my BS, that BS is the same as if I had gone to 4 years of the university.
Steve graduated highschool and went to cc with the intention of transferring to a uni.
Mary graduated highschool and went directly to university.
Most people would consider Mary more “successful” than steve
Key word there, “intention” of transferring. Did she?
Not so sure about that.
I went to a university that thinks of itself as prestigious - though not a US one. The teaching and the course were a bucketful of shite. All it really had was decent libraries. There was the odd smart person, but they all did mostly research and were hardly involved in teaching.
Admittedly, I chose a stupid subject that I now know to be useless, but the university shuld have known that and not offered the course in the first place. It was a massive waste of my time. Fortunately for me our Government covered most of the fees - but that just makes it a waste of other peoples money.
The whole thing seemed largely to be a badging excercise for a bunch of posh cunts.
Hmm. I have a degree from a CC and make good money and learned plenty. Your degree opens more doors and gets more interviews. It’s not true for every single degree, but it is mostly true. And it saves on undergrad in bigger colleges.
In many CCs, the degree-track classes you take are going to be the same ones that you take at a 4-year school, because the schools are going to fall under the accreditation board. The big difference is that CCs tend to have more certificate programs, and two-year degree programs
The CC art classes were far harder than many of the art classes that I took in art school. Art school cares more about concept than just execution (outside of the commercial arts classes, where you need to be very technically proficient). I’ve seen plenty of e.g. painters with very mediocre technique that got rave reviews from professors in art school because they had a very compelling concept and approach, even though the execution was flawed. CC though? It was all about foundational techniques. If your technique sucked, you got a shitty grade, because there’s no ‘concept’ when you’re reproducing a still life that the teacher set up in the middle of the room. (I would post one of the self-portraits I did in a freshman CC class to give an example of what I mean by technique, but I’m way too identifiable to do that, even though it’s been 20 years.)
My CC calc classes? Just as hard as four year. CC physics? Yup.
