Throughout high school and after I graduated, I have heard many people say things about community college. Half of the time, the people that say things about community college are people that don't know anything about them. There are many misconceptions about community colleges that we are tired of hearing and here are some of them.
1. "Good luck getting a good education at a community college."
This phrase always makes me laugh because it is so arrogant. Just because we go to a community college, doesn't mean that our classes are easier. Our math and science classes are just as hard as a normal four-year college. Yes, we might have some intro classes that are a joke but that is every college. Most of the time, we come out of a class feeling that we learned something from it. We also have smaller lecture sizes depending on the class. If you are taking a science class you might have thirty or more people in your class. For a smaller class intended towards your major. you might have under ten people in your class.
2. "You must not have a social life."
At community colleges, we still have social lives. There are multiple events to do on campus whether they are sporting events, dances, free movie nights, etc. You can easily find a way to be social and if not then, you can always go floor hopping and meet new people! There are also a lot of people that are in certain programs that get very close because they spend most of their time with their classmates.
3. "You can't even use an associate's degree for anything".
There are many things that you can use an associate's degree for and not a lot of people know that. Community colleges are widely known for the technical programs they have such as diesel tech, nursing. etc. People that get an associates in a technical field not only get their degree but they get work experience before they even graduate. If you get your liberal arts associates degree, you can transfer on to a four-year college and you save a lot of money compared to a four-year college.
4. "It is really hard to transfer to a four-year!"
Actually, it really isn't. If you use a site like Transferology, you can easily figure out if your classes will transfer. If you can't use Transferology, you can always meet with academic advisors there and they will help you. The only classes that don't transfer are pre-college level courses otherwise all your generals transfer and are equivalent to most four-year college's classes.
5. "You must not be smart enough if you decided to go to a community college."
I don't understand how some people think that people that go to community colleges aren't smart. There are a wide variety of people in different majors and different ages but that doesn't mean that they aren't smart. There are many people that make the dean's list whether it is one semester or the two (or three) years that they are at a community college. Just because we want to save money by going to a community college first, doesn't mean that we aren't smart.
I hope the next time you start making fun of people that go to community college, you stop and think about some of these things. We might go to a community college but at least we won't be drowning as much in student loans than if we went to a four-year college. We have the same experience as people do at four-year colleges, even if our school is smaller. We work just as hard as anyone does and we are tired of hearing that we don't.
