Surely, going into junior and senior year, nearly every one of your peers is planning to attend some prestigious state college, university or private college, fulfilling his or her’s parents’ dreams of living the best years of his or her’s lives in a dorm with every resource they could ever wish for at the student’s disposal. It is just the norm for someone who is worth anything at all in high school to enter crippling college loan debt for that undergraduate degree. Spending $30,000 on yearly tuition at a private university is thought to be reasonable because of the alleged experiences and knowledge gained.
The reality is, even if someone is planning to attend a modest state college instead of an Ivy League university, the extreme prices of attending any college or university are often just an unnecessary formality which force students into debt because they think there is no other option. Of course, there is an extremely evident alternative: community college. But no child-prodigy-future-millionaire would go to a community college, right? Maybe not, simply because society holds such a bitter stigma against community colleges. Although community colleges do not offer the same opportunities for bachelor degrees that state colleges or universities do, they have many opportunities for students to gain diplomas, earn associate’s degrees and complete the first two years of a bachelor’s program at a much cheaper price.
The idea of community colleges being lesser than what may be considered an “actual” university in the current generation has even made its way into pop culture during Plankton’s cries in dismay in episodes of “Spongebob Squarepants.” Yes, Plankton exclaiming that he “went to community college!” was hilarious because it seems like such a trivial accomplishment to the watcher. But maybe the microscopic organism deserves a bit more slack. In 2009, according to an Education Week article, 16.4 percent of United States citizens ages 18-24 did not possess a high school diploma or equivalent and were not enrolled in school. Such a large chunk of students cannot even make it through high school, so graduating in its own regard is quite an accomplishment. Pursuing some further education, even if it is in a community college, should be heralded as an impressive feat. When people claim getting a degree at a community college is inadequate, students will be less inclined to attempt to gain some higher education and will not take what might be a substantial opportunity for advancement.
Going to a community college is the most fiscally responsible way to begin to attain a bachelor’s degree. Paying for two years at a community college and then transferring to a state college or university for two or three years is cheaper and also makes it easier to gain admission to the college. It should be the obvious choice for most people, but instead community colleges are seen by the public as places for lesser students and eccentrics. Yes, most community colleges have open admissions, but all this means is that there will be a more diverse set of students at the college. This makes community colleges even better than universities in some ways, since they give students a better opportunity to get a feel for what an actual workplace will involve.
Ultimately, attending a community college would be much more socially accepted if people simply acknowledged there are many benefits to going to a community college. Maybe university students will continue to be completely pretentious and act superior to community college students, but the reality is anyone preparing to enter a higher education without wanting to embrace a load of financial responsibility should simply take the not-so-low low road.