Before attending a $50,000-per-year school, I went to community college. Or, as my high school guidance counselor called them, “where people who aren’t smart go.” In my senior year, I got into five 4-year colleges, attended my top choice and soon realized it was not right for me. After I left, I decided to go to community college as a stepping stone to figure out exactly where I wanted to go in order to not spend thousands of dollars on a school I wasn’t totally sure about. But when I was standing at the registrar filling out my application, my guidance counselor's words haunted me. I had to bargain with myself, “You got into great schools, this is just temporary. You are smart.” It took me less than a month to realize that my guidance counselor was the one who was wrong.
In my first semester I had a creative writing teacher who got his MFA at the Iowa Writers Workshop and had countless books published. But what was more revealing about him that perfectly depicts community college? He taught the same course at a prestigious university in Boston on Monday nights, our class on Wednesdays. He liked the atmosphere of community colleges (and probably the extra paycheck) but nonetheless, it was the same course, same syllabus, same teacher. By the time I completed my associates degree, almost half of my professors had been adjunct faculty, working at other colleges simultaneously.
While attending school there, I became a writing tutor. On a daily basis, peers would come from their full time jobs, picking their kids up from school or taking care of a loved one, just to get extra help on their essays. Most people, like my guidance counselor, blew off community college as a place where people who ‘aren’t smart’ attend, when really, most students there care more about their education than anywhere else I have been. If someone works a 12 hour shift and are still willing to go to a 2 hour philosophy class at the end of the day, you better believe they want to be there.
I’ve unfortunately heard it’s also just "a school for poor people" and you know, sometimes, it is about the money and that's okay. As I said, I attended similar-to-university classes for little-to-nothing every semester. I don’t come from a trust fund that I can pay for college with and will likely be in debt for a major part of my adult life. But, by attending community college I was able to reduce that debt in half as well as receive scholarships for having received an associates degree before transferring to a four year school. I just wish that my guidance counselor, someone who is supposed to help you prepare for your future, was better informed about what really happens at a community college. Hint: You can study abroad for almost free, you can learn about all walks of life and you can cut your student loan debt in half.
