I remember being a senior in high school and hearing all of my friends and classmates talk about their plans to move to a new city or to move out and about their acceptance letters to different universities. Going to a university was not what my plan was. My plan was to attend my local community college, earn my A.A then transfer to a university. At first, going along with this option made me feel like I was on a different path than everyone else but the reality is that we were all heading in the same direction, to get our Bachelor's Degree in whatever we were pursuing. The main difference being, I would graduate with two degrees instead of one... that's not so bad, is it? Here are six reasons why you should consider going to a community college.
You didn't save up as much as you would have liked to.
It is not new news that paying to go to a university cost almost an arm and a leg. Tuition at a university is almost double what you would pay at your local community college. By taking the community college path you'll be paying much less for the same classes that you would have to take at a university. For me, doing this gave me much more time to be able to save for when it came time to transfer to my university.
You aren't sure what you want to major in.
Going into a community college you don't have to specify what you want to major in. Personally, that took stress off my shoulders because I would be able to figure out what I wanted to go through those 2 years. Throughout those two years, you'll be taking the general required classes you need to be able to earn you A.A degree and taking these classes you can get a taste of potential classes you have to take in your major and decide if it is something you want to do.
The transferring process is easy.
Transferring is no problem when you've already earned your A.A degree. Don't be worried that after spending 2 years at a community college, that you won't be able to transfer. Most universities give priority to students who have earned their A.A at a previous institution. As long as from the beginning you know what is required from the university you want to transfer to, then you'll be ok.
More personalized attention.
One of the many benefits community colleges is that the classroom sizes are much smaller than the lecture halls in universities. Having smaller classes is very helpful to those that require a little bit more attention and for one on one help. The professors are also very helpful when it comes to office hours if you ever run into any problems.
Easy admission policies.
While applying for a university has countless amounts of requirements and policies, the ones needed to apply to a community college are very minimal. Some of the things that you need to apply to your local community college are your high school transcript and some ACT or SAT scores. However, your scores will not keep you from being accepted, they only use those scores to see what classes you place you in if you're going to be taking English and Math classes.
They have smaller campuses.
Universities campuses are huge! Having a campus that big can make it intimidating to start classes since you won't be very familiar where everything is. At a community college, the campus size is a lot smaller, therefore, making it easier to get from point A to point B without getting lost on the first day of class.
