Is attending community college (CC) shameful?

Plus, he doesn't give a #$%^ what other people think about him; he can read this post while counting the $ he saved.

Jucos were started after WWII to educate returning First Responders and US Marines from battle.

CC route worked for me. I had a 29 ACT as a junior so had lots of options. Stayed home, ate mom's cooking, studied hard, got a 3.8 gpa that got me a tuition scholarship at an out of state university where I finished with a 3.7 gpa. The employers I interviewed with didn't care except for a national lab where I wasn't going to get a job anyway because I didn't have a masters degree at the time. Oh, finished school with zero debt although my folks chipped in $8k for the final two years. I make 30% more than the mean average for my profession and still only work 40 hours per week. I had some great professors at CC and don't think it was a cake walk. Have you ever measured the mass of an electron for a physics lab? Third semester physics course taught by U Chicago PhD.

I still would have done things differently for my career but CC wasn't a mistake.

When people who are thinking about going to CC ask me, I’ll tell them no it’s not shameful, but the correct answer is yes; they are either poor, not very bright, lazy, or some combination thereof. Shameful.

It’s not at all shameful, and, frankly, it’s very smart and tactical for a lot of people, as others have attested to here. The cost of college has gone up by a ridiculous, exorbitant amount, and the trade offs are debatable unless one can literally get into a top 20 school and get the network. Think about when you went to college. How many of your friends knew what they were doing those first two years or even after they graduated, if they graduated? I’m guessing only a handful.

I sat my kids down early and told them I would pay for the equivalent of our in-state flagship institution. If they wanted private or out of state, that was fine, but they’d have to fund the rest on their own via academic or athletic scholarships or loans. No reason to overpay for an undergraduate degree. My oldest took it to heart and got a huge merit scholarship at a reputable, private school in the southeast, and she’s thriving. My youngest wants to be a nurse, so no reason to go out of state for that, but our local community college has a five-semester RN program, which can be finished out at a later date to the BSN. If she went that route, she could live at home, work, and save money. The tuition and fees would set her back about $8000 per year. Honestly, for some kids with no clue what they want to do, that’s a no-brainer.

Community college is a means to an end, a way to grow up some and not pay the, frankly, insane cost of college for a couple years. For an otherwise flailing, partying sociology, communication studies, or exercise science major, among others, it’s the smarter way to go.

my sense is it's a weird mix of hypermature and yet stuck in HS. like it's an aggressive pursuit of adult-minded cost savings, and vocational focus. some might see that bright, some might see that as just an early start on decades of work work work which we all get anyway, and which, hmm, am i in any hurry to go that route. also depending where you go, i said "stuck in HS" because you will likely be living among and studying with some of the same people you just went to HS with, maybe living with your parents still. college, conversely, is an inverse odd mix of independence and young adulthood with extended adolescence. you shift more into how people live their 20s and early 30s, you get out of your parents' house, and you travel in a new social circle and make new friends. but you pay for the privilege and depending how much it's a car payment or a mortgage.

you're also burning eligibility if you want to play college sports. but then based on some eligibility discussions on here, the hypermature ethos is you either should have already gotten a job or should be laser focused on vocational concerns, so they would see playing NCAA as a distraction or childish.

i've already discussed how i think the academics compare. my point here is people are discussing the CC choice as definitively more mature. i think the absolutist version of that argument is debatable if you're living at home and hanging out with your HS pals while doing juco. you may not care if you're being hypermature. but personally if i was doing this sort of thing i'd go at least three towns over on academic and athletic scholarship and live in a dorm.

Fair enough on the hypermature, extended high school, but again, we’re talking two transitional years to a college transfer finish where there’s still room for growth and independence and the terminal degree. Your statements about the car or house payment after college are what we are really talking about here, and that’s just not palatable for a lot of families, especially if the ROI of the university and major is low, as so many of them are. I mean, can you imagine going to a private school and getting an exercise science degree?

Not everyone can get the athletic or academic scholarship, certainly not everyone here, or that would be solid advice. Kids also have different temperaments. Some are cut out for school, some aren’t. My oldest always loved school and was always going to excel, even from the first grade. My youngest can’t sit still or focus and has always hated the structured school environment. I’m not sure the four year degree is a good use of her time or money. YMMV.

These days you really had done exceptionally nothing in HS to have to go to community college. Half the colleges in US will accept anyone with a heartbeat and willingness to pay. They're not gonna deny paying customers.

Lol that’s hilarious.

It's a great option for someone else's family.

This is true. I work at a public university. My wife works at a community college. The two schools used to be partners, one feeding the other, but no longer. Now my wife's school sees my school as competition.

My school has lowered admissions standard to the point that it's basically open admissions. Enrollment is up, but graduation rates are dropping. The classes are too large and the students have all sorts of problems (frustrating the professors). A lot of these students really need to be in community college (especially for the vocational opportunities).

One of the problems is the demographic cliff that's coming in 2026, with a lot fewer 18-year-olds. So, in the meantime, my school is "stockpiling" as many students and their precious money as they can.

It's pretty much what you make of it. I ran XC and track and made friends that I'm still in touch with even though the coach screwed me out of a top 7 spot on our national team. That still frosts my buns.

Noureddine Morceli ran JC in California and Blinn JC could beat most D1 schools in track.

I went to Orange Coast College first in 1981-82, It was fun, met Great People on the Teams, The team won state over Grossmont that was considered unbeatable at the State Level at the Time, it was good.

I'm not going to a Community college yet, but I was thinking of transferring to this high school to run cross country. Any alumni her know about the program.

re "scholarships," the athletic bug is not just the money part, which is kind of a money-driven way to see it. i turned down D2 offers from no-name schools to go D3 because i thought the schools i was looking at were far superior academically. and would better pay off at the end. which in a way is a longer term money driven view. you mention ROI and it's not just cost it's the payoff afterwards. eg my master's was probably my most expensive -- it wasn't funded and was all loans -- and yet best thing for me job wise. that's when i started getting all my interviews.

but to be real, i wasn't being offered "full." it was all partials on top of academic scholarships, pell, a full financial aid package.

like i said, there are work colleges and the academies where it's 4 years and free.

i think juco is most advisable if you have family circumstances or need remedial work or just know you aren't mature yet.

circling back to sports, if it's an obsession/in your blood, a mature person may not think about it immediately, but it might hit you in 5-10 years. you need to think about was this part of what i saw as my college experience. you can rationally talk yourself out of it and say money or whatever, but if it's what you really wanted, it will bother you later on. i had a pretty good college career and i'm still like darn it i should have been all-conference in soccer and competed better for conference in TF. it's a touchstone.

now, if you don't care, then you don't need it. maybe you got your fill in HS and brought it to an end. maybe you've matured out of it. friend of mine was sick of organized sports by the end of his juco run. but if you want it, i'd at least hunt down a juco with it, if not do 4 year. there are cheaper or free 4 year. and if you're any good a scholarship helps pay for the juco.

re strathcona, that's a 5-figure secondary tuition atop whatever college will cost. and it's self defeating if you go to a nice private high school then can't afford a good college. depending what your family finances are.

that being said, if you are made of mohey or can get it discounted/a scholarship, elite private schools are usually better than public ones, higher acceptance rate higher test scores.

NO!!!!!!

Community college is a great deal. I worked at one as an administrator. So many of the classes were taught by PhDs who liked TEACHING! They were not there chasing research grants. Doctoral students who barely knew the material were not teaching the class (not to mention having no clue about HOW to teach).

It is likely a bargain financially.

One does need to be careful and choose classes that will transfer. Someone at the CC should be able to help with that if you have an idea of schools you are interested in. Some math classes won't necessarily transfer. My daughter took classes in HS at a community college and had to fight to get a psych course to transfer (it was more an issue of the fight than the credits).

Not true. JUCOs started in 1901 and more were added in the 20s and 30s. There was a boom after WW2 but the peak of new CCs was in the 60s and 70s.