In high school, I had many friends who elected to attend community college rather than moving to a four year university. At it's core, this is simply an issue of choosing to attend a different type of school, although many people do not see it that way. Everyone seems to feel that they get to have an opinion and voice that opinion on where someone chooses to attend college, but they don't realize that their opinion is often critical and unhelpful to the student.

When I was choosing a college, there were so many people who told me that I could "do better" than community college. This was proven true, as I was accepted to four different universities, but that doesn't necessarily make them better than community college. As a senior who is already worried about college applications and acceptances, it doesn't feel good to have people think you made a bad choice.

When I ultimately chose Hollins University as my college, there were many people who voiced their disappointment and judgement at my choice. Many of their concerns were unrelated to the quality of my education, but a lot of people did tell me that

Of course, Ivy League schools are going to be better quality than your local community college. You will get a better education and have more of a typical college experience overall when you live in an Ivy League compared to living at home and attending community college. If someone is choosing between an Ivy League school and community college, then fine, tell them the Ivy League is better.

I find that a lot of the time, the people making these comments are parents and grandparents. These comments are made with good intentions, because they often want you to make the best choice for you. That being said, what they often do not realize is the quality of education at community college has improved greatly and is similar to what students will get at a public four year school. The only difference is that, for a public university, students are often paying much more for relatively the same education.

So stop telling students that they can do better. For most of my friends who chose community college, they often chose it because of money. Many of these same friends were also accepted to public universities but turned down their offers because it was a smarter choice for their economic situation to hold off for two years. A lot of people think community college is only for students who barely graduated or ended up with a terrible GPA - and these are the students that go to community college, but most of the students there are just as smart and able as the students that do not go to community college.