|
- |
S STUDENTS ENTER their senior year of high school, they are frequently asked about their plans after high school. For those who choose to go to college, the college application process becomes the focus of their senior year.
There are aptitude tests to take, applications to fill out, interviews to attend, and essays to write. This period can be daunting and stressful for students as well as parents--whose anxieties about sending their children off to college often extend well beyond financial concerns. The horror stories of binge drinking, hazing, and weekend-long parties are enough to make a parent's hair turn gray.
One of the most often neglected collegiate options, the community college, is hidden in plain sight. I am a strong advocate of the community college system for many reasons: Community colleges cost considerably less than four-year colleges, parents have the opportunity to keep their children at home for a couple more years, and students can maintain relationships with close friends who don't go to college or who take a year off before matriculating.
It can be argued that high school students are under much more pressure now than they were 30 years ago. Poor student performance has been a problem in recent years, and is usually blamed on the mediocre quality in many of our public schools.
The social pressure endured by students is much more intense as well--and is a potentially debilitating factor in a student's ability to compete academically; the Department of Justice reports that over 70 percent of high school seniors have used alcohol within the past twelve months.
This statistic presents a serious obstacle to success in school.
Four years of balancing friends, schoolwork, athletics, and a part-time job with serenity can cause an 18-year-old to hallucinate by the time he graduates high school. It can be not only dangerous, but also foolish to send a hard-working but burned-out child into an environment in which he has to make new friends, complete an accelerated academic load, and endure (or succumb to) the exponentially increased access to drugs and alcohol.
It is not fair to make students risk their academic success while enduring all of the new pressures of college.
By attending a community college, students can slowly acclimate themselves to college life. Unfortunately, however, most parents look down upon the community college system and prefer to send their children off to a four-year university where they may be subject to severe psychological, social, and academic pressures.
One of the main reasons parents and students fail to consider community colleges is their comparative lack of prestige. Community colleges are routinely recognized as the blue collar of academia. Many community college students are older, and the student body is diverse; the typical community college student can range from the housewife who takes a couple of courses in the evening to the senior citizen who decides to take courses for personal enrichment.
One could argue, however, that this makes the community college population much more interesting and valuable than many people realize.
Many people argue that college is a place where lasting friendships and social networks are formed. It is true that many four-year colleges have far more sophisticated alumni networks--but this argument does not invalidate the benefits a community college can offer. In a community college, an 18-year-old student can have lunch with a 35-year-old bank supervisor from his class and converse about the minutiae of the banking industry--without the pressure of speaking to an intimidating alumnus at a school-sponsored job fair.
Community college students can use the information they gain from their friends to demonstrate a more advanced knowledge of a particular industry, and speak much more intelligently to the alumni that they meet at the job fair after their transfer to a four-year school.
The teacher-student relationship at community college is also advantageous for students. Community colleges are "teaching institutions," where most professors aren't under pressure to publish research. In contrast, in some four-year institutions, professors are more engaged with their research than with their students.
The academic conditions in the community college system allow students more flexibility. Classes at community college can be just as intense as in their four-year-college counterparts, but the assignments and papers are usually not as aggressive because professors know that most of the student body consists of part-time students with full time jobs and/or families.
The coursework at community colleges can help less confident students ease into college--and it also allows students who might otherwise have struggled in four-year institutions to catch up. However, this fact should not deter people from considering community college as an option, because exceptional students have the option to enroll in honors courses.
Community colleges also have an honor society: Phi Theta Kappa. PTK is the community college equivalent of the better-known society at four-year institutions, Phi Beta Kappa.
There are other reasons why community colleges' lack of prestige does not have to be a serious detriment to students--for example, since they can transfer to a four-year school, they can still receive a diploma from a more prestigious university.
Also, one of the most important benefits of the community college is that students receive an associate degree after just two years of full-time study. While four-year-college students have little to show if they drop out after their second year, community college students are armed with an associate degree.
As a graduate of a community college, I am grateful for its relaxed academic and social atmosphere. Community colleges do so much more than provide a haven for under-performing undergraduates; they provides students with a quality education, small class sizes, cost-saving benefits--and an opportunity to cultivate an appreciation for the hidden benefits of a local education.
