Upsides of Community College

Let's start with the upsides. One of the most obvious benefits of community college is the lower cost of tuition. Average annual tuition and fees for a public two-year college are around $3,500 compared to about $9,500 for public four-year colleges (in-state students).¹ The potential savings are dramatically higher when comparing community college tuition to that of private four-year colleges or out-of-state tuition at public four-year colleges. Two years at a community college will be much less likely to leave your child with crushing student debt. If she ultimately wants to get a four-year degree by transferring after two years at a community college, she could potentially save 30 percent or even much more on just the tuition part of the cost of her total education. The cost savings could go even higher if she lives at home while studying at a community college.

Community college can also provide a second chance at academics. If your child did not get serious about academic study until late in high school or struggled with grades until he received additional support services or changed schools, community college can provide a chance to fix grades and demonstrate that he can be counted on to continue taking his academic work seriously.

There are students who have gone from a community college into an Ivy League university. When four-year colleges evaluate potential students for admission, by far the most important requirement is that the student will be able to successfully handle the academic work. Students don't always mature or develop adequate study skills in time to give that confidence to the admissions office. Even if they have an SAT or ACT score that suggests their innate ability is higher than their grades, colleges know that doing well is as much a matter of self-discipline and hard work as it is a matter of talent. It is worth noting here that if your child will attend community college as part of a long-term four-year college plan, then he needs to do the work needed to perform well in his community college courses to ensure he can get admitted to the four-year college.

Course difficulty can vary widely by departments and institutions, but generally community college courses are less demanding than four-year college courses. Students need to show they are capable of getting good grades in order to give the four-year college enough confidence that they will thrive on campus.

Community colleges also provide a lot of flexibility. Most offer evening and weekend courses that provide greater scheduling flexibility. Many students at community colleges are adults or other nontraditional students who have children or have regular jobs outside class. These schedules can be helpful for students who need to work to help cover the cost of their education or have other options they want to explore at the same time. This flexibility can also be useful for students who are testing the waters on whether college is right for them. Perhaps they are not sure if they need a college degree yet or if they can handle the academic work and do not yet want to commit to a four-year degree pathway that requires a full-time commitment. They can work full time or part time earning money and still take a few courses to get their feet wet and see how it goes.

Another upside is a strong focus on employment. For students who are intent on finding employment quickly and would like to begin working without spending four more years in a classroom, there are many community college programs that are specifically geared to preparing students for employment in excellent careers that offer very competitive pay even compared to some careers that require a four-year degree. A lot of technology companies, in particular, prefer to hire people for certain technical jobs who have specific skills they need rather than requiring a four-year degree. There is also nothing to prevent your child from using her community college degree to get started in a technical field and later complete a more advanced degree if she wants to develop her career further. Here are some examples of fast-growing, well-paying careers that your child could enter through community college preparation:

1. Medical technology and imaging. This includes jobs like being a diagnostic medical sonographer who uses sonogram technology to test patients and diagnose diseases in a lab environment.
2. Engineering technology. Many manufacturing companies have jobs that require technical knowledge of advanced manufacturing systems and technologies, but in many cases, this practical expertise can be learned without a full four-year engineering degree.
3. Dental hygiene. Dental hygienists can get licensed with an associate degree. Starting salaries for clinical positions are typically only a small amount lower than they would be for someone with a four-year degree.
4. Nursing. Becoming a registered nurse requires passing the NCLEX certification exam but does not require a four-year nursing degree. Those with an associate degree can qualify.

Yet another benefit for some students at community colleges is smaller class sizes and more personal attention from professors. At many four-year colleges, a typical required course for freshmen is a weekly lecture that takes place in an auditorium with two hundred other students. The professor may be a charismatic lecturer, but it's unlikely any students will get much personal attention from her. The class will be divided among multiple teaching assistants who provide individual assistance to students who have questions. The knowledge, eagerness, and effectiveness of these teaching assistants may vary widely. This can be an intimidating experience for new college students, and it sometimes requires that students be more assertive and self-disciplined when they need extra help.

At a community college, the experience is usually much more intimate. Class sizes are more like what students experienced in high school, so professors can get to know students within the classroom and are more approachable outside class when someone needs to talk through a concept he doesn't quite understand. This kind of attention and intimacy can be helpful for students who may not be ready to jump into the deep end of a four-year college experience just yet and want a chance to get some of their standard requirements completed in a less stressful environment while they mature as students. As we discuss later, though, this can be a double-edged sword.

Along the same lines as smaller class size, community colleges may reduce exposure to high-risk behaviors and a drinking culture that exists on many four-year college campuses today. There are no fraternities, sororities, or extensive time periods for social interaction that students find on a four-year campus. Many community college students are career-focused adults and do not have time to participate in activities outside class. In addition, your child will most likely live at home while attending. If your child is anxious about coping with social pressure or intends to take a more aggressive course schedule to shorten the time spent meeting academic requirements, then community college could provide a better atmosphere in which to complete the first two years of a four-year degree. There can be a downside to this as well, depending on your child, which we discuss later in this chapter.

One benefit of community colleges that might not be readily apparent is the opportunity to try out a major with less at stake for those who change their minds. Many students end up changing their major while attending a four-year college. Both of us changed majors after completing some of the entry-level requirements in our initial course of study and had to scramble to make up credits in another major to graduate on time.

It is a common misconception that most students going off to a four-year college will graduate within four years. In fact, less than 20 percent of full-time students at many public universities earn their degree within four years. Only about 9 percent of public four-year universities graduate most of their students on time.² What this means in tangible terms for you as a parent is that there is a reasonable chance your child may need more than four years to graduate, and thus the cost of college may creep higher than you expected. By choosing to attend a community college for the first two years, the cost of making those changes can potentially be reduced, and it may take some pressure off your child to feel obligated to complete a certain major that she would otherwise prefer to change if it were not for the financial impact.

Finally, your child will be able to use money from her 529 college savings to attend community college. If you have been saving for college with a 529 plan, funds may be used for any community college tuition costs, just like they would be used at a four-year institution. There is a caveat for room and board expenses. In most cases, we are assuming if your child is attending community college, he will be living at home and will not incur room and board expenses. However, if he is enrolled at an institution less than part-time and still paying for some kind of room and board, those expenses will not be eligible for use of 529 funds.

Potential Downsides

Now let's turn to some of the potential downsides of attending community college. As you will see, some of the positive attributes of community college can also have a corresponding negative impact depending on the situation.

First, a large percentage of community college students are adults and nontraditional students rather than eighteen-year-old first-time students coming from high school and planning to earn a four-year degree. Community colleges are designed to support a wide range of local community member needs. Many of their students are working full-time jobs and have children. They may be attempting to return to college after many years in the workforce or may be trying to manage a quick career transition after losing a job that did not require a college education. There is nothing inherently wrong with this mission or these students, and community colleges are playing a critical role. But it can mean that your child may be surrounded by a lot of students in their classes who are less motivated, less prepared, and much less interested in a four-year degree than they are. One of the great benefits for eighteen-year-old freshmen attending a four-year college is that they are immediately immersed in a large group of peers with similar ambitions and a similar situation in life. That group can provide a lot of support and encouragement. Peers can be role models for success or help other freshmen through homesickness or show them a useful new way to study. Teens are more likely to feel that they are going it alone at a community college and may have fewer like-minded peers to turn to for inspiration, companionship, or help. For some students, this more “businesslike” feel of a community college can be appealing because they want to get it done and move on to a job as quickly as possible. For others, though, this could increase the risk that they lose steam and feel adrift, questioning whether college is right for them after all.

First-generation freshmen can be especially vulnerable to that feeling at a community college. Educational researchers have done studies that show that first-generation students are in fact more likely to graduate if they attend a more challenging four-year college because the expectations are higher and the peer group is more supportive. Everyone is riding the same wave so to speak. Think about whether your child has the self-discipline and internal drive to succeed and work through challenges more independently or whether she could benefit greatly from being immersed in a large group of supportive peers who can help carry her along to success.

One of the benefits we discussed was the fact that community college can be an easier academic transition for students because courses will be less difficult than at a four-year college on average. There can be a flip side to this, though, if your child's goal is to go on to attend a four-year college. Because the course work is not as rigorous at a community college, your child could still find herself in a situation where she is struggling to keep up and adjust academically once she transfers. By the time students take courses in their junior year of a four-year college, professors expect that they have developed strong study skills, can read multiple books every week, can produce well-written papers frequently, and can juggle multiple academically challenging classes at the same time. If community college was more like advanced high school for your child, she may have a tough adjustment period when transferring at the start of junior year. Your child might be surprised by how much more work she has to start doing in a four-year college, and this could lead her to question whether she is capable of persevering.

How much this would affect your child may depend on what she intends to study and where she is transferring. Similar to what we mentioned earlier, this issue can particularly affect first-generation students. Sometimes because these students lack confidence in their abilities, they chose to attend community college first, even when they were doing well academically in high school or have test scores that show they are capable of the work at a four-year college. They may believe that starting at a community college will make it easier for them to succeed, but research has shown that these students are more likely to succeed academically and graduate with a four-year degree if they go directly to the more challenging four-year college first. If your child is getting excellent grades in high school and demonstrating consistent self-discipline, don't be afraid to challenge her academic insecurities if she is leaning toward a community college simply because she lacks confidence rather than ability.

Another potential downside to community college is the temptation for some students to opt out of a more ambitious educational plan and go for a quicker path to a job so they can get out of the classroom and start earning money. Community college offers faster options for entering the workforce, but often with lower pay or a more career-limiting skill set than a four-year degree. We are not suggesting that students should aim for the maximum possible time in school before entering a career or that a student would be some kind of failure for choosing to be a nurse instead of an oncologist. We just want to point out that it is worth giving some thought to your child's goals and personality and thinking about whether she would be happier in the long run by committing to a more challenging four-year-degree career plan or is mature enough to avoid giving up too soon because of impatience or having an easy out. Community college is more like the roller coaster with a “chicken exit” at the front of the line. Some kids might be better off getting into a line where there is no chicken exit and being inspired and challenged to succeed at a bigger goal. Others may be relieved to know that they don't need to go down that four-year degree path to find happiness in life and start a good career and will appreciate the flexibility and more direct job pathways offered by a community college.

Community colleges do a great job of providing a wide range of foundational courses and then very specialized courses with a career-placement focus. But students who are on a four-year-degree path could miss out on some truly inspiring education. During our freshman and sophomore years at a large research university, we heard lectures by Carl Sagan, Kurt Vonnegut, and other world-renowned thinkers. We took history and psychology courses from professors who were famous for their insightful and engaging lectures. On any given day, there were forums, lectures, workshops, or seminars on everything from Chinese literature to nanotechnology. Many times we took courses from professors who wrote the most important books in their field, the same books that community college professors would use to teach that subject. The language department offered not only Spanish, German, and Chinese but also languages like Tagalog and Urdu. Those who wanted to study architecture in Italy could take a semester-abroad program there. And those interested in studying politics in Washington, DC, could take a semester program in DC. Even if we had teaching assistants instead of the professor helping with our physics classes, those assistants were doing cutting-edge research in their field and had access to world-class facilities. They were creating new knowledge in science, not just regurgitating what scientists already know.

It is hard to say how much that experience enriched our lives financially, but it absolutely enriched our lives intellectually and opened our minds to beautiful knowledge that inspired in us a lifelong love of learning, perhaps the greatest career skill of all. Whether this is worth something for your child is a deeply personal decision. It may seem like a luxury, but do not underestimate the power of a great four-year college to inspire young minds toward a life bigger than they had originally imagined for themselves. And keep in mind that many of these top colleges offer substantial financial aid to students with high potential who come from a low-income family.

We admit that we are personally disheartened by the trend these days to reduce college to an equation of money in and career out. It can be and should be much more than that. College can change lives. As you and your child consider the standard equation that cannot be ignored, try to spend some time discussing the bigger picture. Think about whether your child needs an extra dose of inspiration and could get it from the types of four-year colleges that will admit her.

A community college does not provide much in the way of campus life or the social and emotional development opportunities from a group experience. It is true that students can still experience this once they transfer into a four-year college as a junior, but they will miss out on some formative experiences that are more typical in a college dormitory environment. As we discussed previously, some parents and their kids may view this as positive. It is true that there are four-year colleges with campus cultures that encourage excessive drinking and partying, although at any institution, this will depend heavily on the social circles in which your child chooses to associate.

In fact, the social experience at a four-year college can be much more than parties. Four-year colleges often offer activities such as a multiday camping trip for summer orientation before freshman year that provide healthy and safe ways for your child to connect with their peers and begin building lifelong friendships. Many four-year colleges offer unique dormitories for special interest groups such as students interested in environmental issues or women's studies, or for students who want to be with other students of the same race or gender. Dormitories on campus at a four-year college have resident advisors, and often professors, who live in the same dormitory and provide both supervision and mentorship. The random encounters in dormitory hallways, study halls, and campus cafeterias can expose your child to people from different socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicities, and countries, and offer the opportunity to develop valuable social skills that will pay off in the workplace. A student's freshman and sophomore years in particular provide opportunities for this type of concentrated social interaction and friendship formation and help develop your child's sense of independence away from home. By the time students are juniors, they may start to break off into their established groups of friends and live off campus. Students who transfer in from community college during this time may find it a bit harder to establish those connections or break into existing groups if they do not easily form new friendships. The value of campus life during these formative freshman and sophomore years depends greatly on what a college offers, where it is located, and the unique personality and interests of your child. It is worth spending some time thinking through the lifelong personal benefits that may come from having those special social experiences and whether your child would want to miss out on them.

Finally, the last but perhaps most important potential downside of community colleges is the issue of credit transfer. If your child is planning to attend community college as part of a larger strategy to obtain a four-year degree, you and he must be very careful to research and verify what credits from the community college will transfer successfully to a four-year college. We wish that this were an easier task. Sometimes the admissions office at a four-year college will tell you that credits will transfer but the actual department that reviews those credits for acceptance will tell you otherwise. Even if the name of a course and the course syllabus exactly match the same course that is taught at the four-year college, the department at that four-year college may not feel that the rigor of the course at the community college is sufficient and that the courses are not equivalent. Ostensibly this is to prevent students from coming in underprepared for the next level of course work, so they would say this is for your child's benefit. But if you have already paid tuition and your child has done the work, it can be hugely disappointing and also a financial burden. Some students have been forced to pause school and work until they can come up with the money to cover the additional cost of recompleting course work after they transferred. This is where it can very helpful to attend a community college with well-established credit transfer agreements with other public colleges in your area. In certain states, community colleges are required by law to have specific transfer agreements worked out ahead of time so that students can be confident that their credit will be accepted. But you should always personally verify that your child's specific course credit transfer assumptions are correct. It is best to verify with both the community college and the four-year college to which your child intends to transfer. This can get tricky if your child decides to change his intended major late in the game. He may have verified his original course plan but if he makes changes, he should go back and reverify his transfer plan. It never hurts to ask.

We hope this chapter has provided a lot for you and your child to discuss if you are considering community college as an option. We hope that we have also armed you with information that you can use to conduct more research about any community college your child is considering so that she can make a smarter decision. Although the cost of community college is lower and there may be only one or two choices available in your local area, programs within community colleges can vary widely and it's important that your child do as much research as she would when considering a four-year college and think through all of the potential advantages or disadvantages.