Many Americans look askance at community colleges, regarding them as schools for bad students who couldn’t get into a “real” college. That frame of mind, argues Lillian Diaz in today’s Martin Center article, is a huge mistake.
She’s writing from personal experience, having attended a community college in Durham for two years before going on to UNC-Chapel Hill.
Diaz states, “Coming from a college-preparatory high school, I myself felt a little embarrassed when I enrolled in community college while my peers went off to four-year institutions. During my senior year of high school, the student advisor shamed me for my decision to attend a community college, claiming that I was ‘too good of a student’ to attend community college and that I ‘belonged to a four-year school.’”
Why do it? For one thing, expense. She saved a great deal of money in those two years.
But at least as important, the level of instruction was superior. The faculty at her community college proved to be highly devoted.
Diaz continues, “Instructors taught students with the intention of helping them learn and understand the material (as opposed to throwing them into the deep to calculate students’ ability to figure it out on their own). I remember one instructor remarking, “How do you expect students to grow in knowledge or critical thinking if you don’t teach them the foundations in the first place?” This community college seemed to serve students from all backgrounds, helping them meet their educational goals, whatever they may be: learning new skills, earning a credential, or transferring to a university.”
That’s a crucial point. Students at four-year schools, especially those regarded as prestigious ones like UNC, often get little attention from the faculty.
But what about the “college experience”? Didn’t she miss out on a lot of campus life? Diaz weighs that against the cost savings and high educational value and concludes that she made the right decision.