As the school year comes to a close, many high school seniors are making the important choice of where to commit to college. When considering different colleges to attend, students often rule out community college as an option. This is because there is a common belief that community colleges are only for students without direction. However, this undeserved stigma should be challenged, for community college offers a slew of academic and financial benefits.
At 17 or 18–years–old, the future can feel both far away and too soon. Many students become overwhelmed with the decisions they must make in mere weeks that will affect the rest of their lives. For example, choosing a major can be a huge choice that comes with lots of pressure. Instead of taking on the weight of such a large decision, students can explore much more diverse and flexible options when attending a community college.
Whereas many four–year colleges force students to declare their major immediately, community colleges provide students with the opportunity and flexibility to discover new interests or passions. Without being restrained to classes of a certain subject area, students can explore various ranges of topics from number theory to linguistic anthropology. They can also take advantage of the array of classes offered without the fear of wasting money or not being able to meet their graduation requirements.
Community colleges also offer advantages for students that want to attend four–year colleges in the future. When college decisions come out, inevitably, many seniors are faced with the disappointment of not getting into their dream schools or finding out that financial aid does not cover tuition costs. Though community college may seem like a “downgrade” in comparison to these “dream colleges,” students should think of community college not as demotions but rather as gateways to universities. After all, the California Community College system is designed for students to be able to transfer to universities. In fact, with the Transfer Admission Guarantee program available in all California community colleges, students are guaranteed admission into six UC campuses if they are able to uphold GPA requirements and complete all relevant coursework, according to admission.universityofcalifornia.edu. Not only can students get into the schools they dream of attending, but they can also receive two years of free or much cheaper cost education before reapplying to the schools that were previously out of reach, giving a second chance to many.
Further, society makes four–year university out to be the only option for a good future. However, this simply isn’t the case, especially when community colleges allow students to pursue vocational programs like plumbing or electrical engineering which can set up an individual to have a very stable living and income in the future.
Though some may argue that community colleges don’t provide the same student life as a traditional college may, many people are unable to become full–time students and move far from home like they would have to at a university. As a result, people can find themselves having to sacrifice higher education in order to financially support themselves or their families. Fortunately, community college offers a way to balance education with the responsibilities one might have outside of school, such as a job or family.
Furthermore, student loan debt is a deal–breaker for many students, and cumulatively, it has grown to be 1.75 trillion dollars in 2024, according to educationdata.org. For many families and students, it’s simply not worth it or even feasible to accrue so much debt. Community college can be a very smart decision to allow families to have stable financial situations in the long run.
As high school students think about their future, it can be hard to imagine where they will be in a couple of years. However, when it comes to the long list of anxieties, going to community college should be nowhere on that list, for the stigma is wholly undeserved given the plethora of benefits.
