How many people go to community colleges instead of universities?

It might be a little different over here in the UK…sometimes people go onto sixth form college for two years after high school and then onto Uni… but that’s only really one way of education. I followed that route and then dropped out of Uni during my second year..I was very ill and it turned out wasn’t my path.

I’m now doing a Open University degree which I study at home. Whilst I was at University I did stay in Halls of Residence for the first year and it was an amazing experience (and not one that I was thrilled about going into tbh) but not one that I would say everyone has to have. It is each to their own really. The expense of course has to be factored into it too…and I still have debt from my Uni days…

A lot of people go to community college including some famous ones:

” * Gwendolyn Brooks, Pulitzer prize-winning poet
* Eileen Collins, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut
* Joyce Luther Kennard, California Supreme Court justice
* Jeanne Kirkpatrick, former United Nations (UN) ambassador
* Jim Lehrer, news anchor
* Robert Moses, choreographer and dance company founder
* Sam Shepard, Pulitzer prize-winning playwright
* James Sinegal, CEO of Costco
* Maxwell Taylor, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff”

Source

Brian Williams of NBC fame went to the commuity college I work at. Increasingly, more and more people are starting out at community colleges for financial reasons, maturity reasons or because of the competitiveness of university admissions. Also, many returning students start out at community colleges for convenience. I don’t have numbers but I know this is an ever-increasing trend.

A nephew started at a community college for the same reason as yours, and later transferred to a university. He never lived in a dorm though…just with his parents.

Living in a dorm takes a lot of self-control to stay focused on studies while a 24/7 social fest is going on around you. As for roommates, it can be hit or miss. Freshman year, I was matched up with someone, and we got along exceptionally well. Her mother told her that she couldn’t afford the housing costs any more, and since she was a local, lived at home for her next 3 years.

Sophomore year was a nightmare. Roommate #1 didn’t see anything wrong with having sex while I was in the room. The 2 girls next door offered to switch roommates with us. Roommate #2 and I got along really well until she figured out I wasn’t interested in returning her advances. One evening, she assaulted me. The RA immediately found her another place to live.

Two years at a community college can be a reasonably cheap way of relearning how to study, to learn, to write papers, to think analytically and critically.

If you find a liberal arts area that interests you and do well, you can easily transfer as a junior (if we are talking about education in the US) and finish up your last two years with a BA or BS

More people are taking that route now due to financial issues.

(As usual, @janbb and I say the same things.)

When I was working at a school in Philly, the Admissions folks at the U. of Penn. (an Ivy league school) said that they loved getting grads. from the local cc’s.

I have taken several courses at our community college and enjoyed them both. They were not as intellectually sophisticated as my college classes but they gave me what I wanted.

In my area, it’s popular among the non-rich to attend a community college for two years, and then transfer to a university for the rest. You get the same degree in the same amount of time for much, much less money.

I went to community college first because it was cheaper and I wanted the smaller class sizes. I obtained my ADN from the community college and took the licensure exam to become a RN. Then I went to a RN-BSN program at a university. I will be receiving my BSN this summer. My student loans for 1 year at the university are equal to 4 years at the community college. I had to go to the community college for 4 years due to the waiting list to get into the nursing program, but this gave me an opportunity to complete some classes that transferred to the university for my BSN at the cheaper tuition rate, which meant I didn’t have to go to the university as long.

With the current economic climate, the community college in our area are bursting at the seams. I’ve even read that many people are going abroad to save money. For instance, college in Sweden is free, all you have to pay for is books and room and board.

Here is a list of cheap American colleges that are practically a secret.

I don’t think the statistics are available but I can say that I went to a large university first, then to several junior colleges and back to a university. So you really don’t have to miss the dorm experience.

Where I live, a lot of high school students are starting to take classes at community colleges while they are in high school. Instead of going to a community college for two years and then a university they find it easier to just start/finish general ed. while in high school. It saves a lot more money because you only have to pay for books because you are technically still a high school student. So you would save more money and time if you started taking college courses while still in high school. I did that when I was in high school so now I can complete college in 3 years instead of 4 if I really wanted to. Also, the majority of kids that went to my high school decided to go to a community college rather than a university even if they got accepted into universities.

Most of the time it is the first step towards a bachlors degree or a masters. You will get an associates degree from community college and the councilers recommend you get as much done as you can in jr college first so you’ll have a better chance in a university. I guess there are some gifted people who do jump right into universitys so it could depend on where your at might talk to both school but most start with jr college