Which is a better first step into college: Community colleges or regular universities?

Community

1 of 41

by Cyd Madsen

• 

Write now Print Invite a writer™ Add to Favorites RSS Feed Contact this writer

The only thing that matters is from which university you graduate, not the one you entered. So much pressure is put on high school students to push beyond their limits so they can enter a top notch university....and go broke doing so. It simply does not make sense.

When young adults graduate from high school, everything they've ever known about the world disappears. It's a tremendously stressful time, but they'll go down the tubes before they admit they're not thrilled to be free at last and heading off to the big time. Entering the overwhelming new world of a university campus after the oh-no-what-now shock of compulsory schooling is over, and most likely a summer of reckless partying to dull the fear of freedom, is often far too much for budding young adults to handle. There's a reason why college drinking is on the rise and the "freshman ten pounds" has now ballooned to the "freshman twenty pounds." It's a bucket full of stress dressed up as success, achievement, and accomplishment. There's got to be some relief from all the turmoil, and often food and substance abuse are the most easily obtained relief values.

Why suffer the frenzy of fierce competition to enter a prestigious university right out of college when at least 20% of those entering freshmen will burn out or be in rehab by their junior year, leaving plenty of space for transfer students? It is worth burying the pleasure of one's last carefree years as a kid in school just to say, "Hurray! I got accepted at a school that scares me to death and my parents can't afford!" Those aren't the exact words spoken, but they are the sub-text.

Community college is a fantastic way to ease into the next stage of journey from childhood to adulthood. It's a chance to get used to handling the freedom of non-compulsory attendance, class schedules that bounce all over the clock, and a class grade determined by as little as three chances to get it right. It's much better to ease into the strange new world of self-discipline if you have the added benefit of being able to fail and get back up again without spending a fortune or humiliating yourself in front of your classmates. A very large part of success in higher education, and life in general, is learning how to play the game. You can't learn without failure, and community offers the opportunity in abundance. There's nothing more valuable we can learn than how to pick ourselves up and keep going. Why not take the opportunity, and take it at bargain prices?

Many young adults leave high school with no clear idea of what they want to do with their lives. This is a good thing. Life is long, and there are so many options it seems a shame to miss the opportunity to explore the broad spectrum of general education at a community college. Was that anthropology class kind of interesting? Yes? If you're at a major university you have no time to fiddle around and take a few more classes to see if that might be the direction you want your life to take. No, sir. University is big money and great expectations. No time to test the waters and paddle around in the shallow end. You're put on a rigid schedule and keep on marching.

The experience gained at a community college, and the advantage of being able to take classes over at a lower price if you should fail, take a tremendous amount of stress off the junior and senior years of high school and add some quality of life to those precious and fleeting years. Spending a few years at community college to cover general education requirements lifts the pressure of a 4.25 GPA in high school, gives you a chance to test many different waters, prove yourself in a new environment, and spread the incredible energy of youth across a broader spectrum. It will also most likely bring some very big surprises. First, you will probably find that general education classes are actually better at a community college than a university. Why? Your professors aren't actually professors at a university, they're graduate students. Professors keep an eye on their teaching assistants, but most of their time and passion is spent on upper level courses and teaching graduate and post-graduate students. At community college your professors are actually older than you and have more experience. Some of them might be bitter that they haven't hit the big time, but most don't want to play the games of complex universities and would rather teach a subject they actually enjoy in an environment they enjoy.

The other big surprise is that you might find yourself accepted into a university you never dreamed would take someone like you. By the junior year those universities are looking to keep their numbers up. They don't want to get stuck with stats that show 1,200 freshmen accepted in 200_, but only 600 graduated four years later. They have report cards just like students, and they guard them jealously. You'll have spent two years studying under less pressure, with possibly better instructors, have some money saved, and find yourself performing better than you expected. And this will be happening just as those universities are starting to have heart palpitations because they don't want their numbers to fall. You might even qualify for scholarships after getting the hang of things at community college.

Why not take off some of the pressure, save some money, give yourself a chance to get used to college life, and then get into a top notch university that hands you a prestigious diploma two years later. Trust me on this. I graduated from USC, and not once has anybody ever asked me if I entered that hallowed hall of academe as a freshman. I didn't. I started at community and had a terrific experience with higher education in every way possible. The best part about going to a prestigious university was being from that university, not driving myself nuts and my family to the poor house to get in as a freshman.

Learn more about this author, Cyd Madsen.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.