The "Higher/Advanced Education" thread

So let's start with an excerpt of my life...The time has come, I've graduated from high-school about 2 years ago and me and my mom we're debating on enrolling me in a local communtiy college. but the catch is that most of the that courses are stuff that I took in high-school (e.g. Working with Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, plus some English and mathematics). And there's also carpentry, accounting, and blacksmithing available, but when you're stuck in a small town populated by stores, fast food restaurants, construction, and health care my options are kind of limited here.

So what this thread is an discussion about community colleges and universities and how to factor in the local economy into your curriculum.

edited 28th Feb '15 10:35:46 PM by RabidTanker

I would highly recommend against going to a community college at all.

Applying for financial aid will tell you whether or not you'll be able to afford to move out and go to a real university. If not, there is no real positive incentive to going to a CC. I know the usual logic is "get your early-year creds out of the way; earn a transfer degree and then see about going to 'real school'". But it usually doesn't work out like that.

If you're serious about getting into a higher/advanced professional field that actually requires an advanced education, you should take those ambitions to a serious place.

I'm starting out at a CC and planning to transfer a university, but I suppose it helps that where I live pretty much encourages it and has resources to help you plan it out.

Community colleges are great for these things: getting down the basic credits that four year colleges require (this definitely requires you being knowledgeable about what credits the colleges you want to apply to want you to have when you apply) for far less money than a four year college, and going back and getting more education later if you need to do so for your job/ just feel like learning something again.

Frankly I think C Cs should have quite a bit of support. DCCCD is pretty good, actually. (They have head start programs and such for high school students and lots of continuing education courses for adults here.) And different campuses also seem to act as vocational schools. For instance, the Richmond campus has nursing programs and some kind of agricultural thing.

I'd say that the same thing applies to a community college as applies to a four year university; take the time to check out what your options are. Financial assistance is available for C Cs as well, and scholarships that don't care what sort of school you go to. See if a particular campus can meet your particular needs, whatever those are.

Dude, community colleges are just as serious as any regular university. And they can do it at a much less costly price tag, which is important to a hell of a lot of people. Just because they can't offer everything (and no sort of college can, actually) doesn't mean they don't offer "serious" education.

edited 1st Mar '15 8:28:13 PM by AceofSpades

A four-year education that does not lead to a job in your field of study is a waste of four years and quite a lot of money. Community colleges aren't a waste because of the quality of education; they're a waste because of the quality of job placement.

With four years' worth of what would otherwise be free time, and for a four-year program's cost, there are very few fields that I couldn't learn to perform in just as well through personal ambition and an insistence of learning -right-.

All of which would amount to nothing, if I didn't get -into- the field. Any field worth going to college for, is worth going to university for.

Honestly, this overall assessment is variable because of the type of degree you would be seeking.

The only reason I returned to my previous university instead of going to a community college was because I already had some credit lined up for the degree I'm seeking that would have been easier to accumulate at the university. Going to the community college would have meant starting from scratch, and I don't want to do that right now. As for job placement, unless you're going to Harvard, Princeton, MIT or some other prestigious institute, it really doesn't matter all that much in today's job market. For the field I'm studying, it doesn't matter if I get an A+ certification from Bumblefuck Community College or Overrated Who Cares University. Most employers, as Pykrete can tell you, want to see practical coding application regardless of where you received your training. There is still value to the name of your school, but for the average salary worker, it's overblown.

Two of my buddies in law enforcement have degrees related to their field. One went to a community college to get a law enforcement/criminal justice associates degree during his training lull. The other pursued a 4-year BA in sociology. They have the same position and same pay grade, but the latter has more in student loans.

This isn't meant to discourage people from going to 4-year universities, but if you want to save money and time while still being professionally viable, just go to a community college. Like we've said, it depends on the degree and the desired profession.

edited 1st Mar '15 10:30:27 PM by Aprilla

It depends on what your future career interest are. Even traditional "blue-collar" jobs like law enforcement, nursing, machine shop, even airline pilot require some amount of higher education, but not necessarily a four year Bachelors degree. As Aprilla said, on the job experience and practical skills can count for more. Either a university or a community college might best fit your needs, depending.

[Full disclosure: I teach at a community college]

I just want to bring out what Aprilla and demarquis said:

What you want is also very important. You might live there but there is no reason that, if career is that important to you, that moving out is not possible.