Community Colleges: Dud or Stud?
Not sure if you are ready for a full commitment?
That’s OK. Community colleges let you test drive the wheels without having to buy the whole car.
A community college aka a junior college, a county college, technical college or a city college is a two year college where you can get certificates, diplomas and associate’s degrees. So it’s a higher institution where you can get an academic, vocational or professional education.
But community colleges have gotten a bad ‘rep.’ They are seen as institutions with low academic standards and have even been called “high schools with ashtrays” in the past.
But is this reputation totally deserved?
According to federal statistics, 42% of public community college freshmen take remedial courses.
But lots of students who don’t have high GPAs and college admissions test scores can improve their grades in junior college to help them get into a four year college or university. And you can even transfer your credits from junior college to a four year college.
Also, more and more students are attending community colleges to save significant sums of money in the first two years of their four year education.
Certain junior colleges also have incredible athletic programs, particularly in basketball and football. There is even a collegiate athletic association for junior colleges called the NJCAA. A talented player who doesn’t meet the academic or athletic standards of a major college program may be able to play for two years in junior college and get the break they need to transfer to the major college.
There are also military junior colleges that let cadets become commissioned officers in the armed forces reserve in two years, instead of four.
So do community colleges deserve their bad name? We don’t think so. There might be something there that make it right for you.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 3:10 pm and is filed under What's Hot. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 29th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
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