Sometimes less is more, even in education
Kristina Haney
My biggest pet peeve through my college years so far has been the question: “Are you going to go to a university after community college?”
My answer is and will always be no. I went to Arizona State my first year of college and I really didn’t enjoy it. The environment was not really my thing and I don’t like the 400 person classes. Plus, it was a 30 minute drive from where I was living and CGCC was a three minute drive.
Also, I feel like the tuition prices at a university are way too high. My first year of tuition in 2009 was around $7,000, and that didn’t include books, parking, supplies for classes, food and anything else necessary to get through the year. The prices have gone up significantly since then, so I can only imagine the debt people are in.
At community college, the most I’ve ever paid for a semester of classes was around $1,000 and since most community college teachers don’t usually write their own versions of textbooks, there are more options to get books online at way cheaper prices.
I have no debt, no loans and I paid for all of my years of school on my own, not including a small $450 scholarship that paid for a book and a half my first year of college.
Now I’m not saying that it is going to be like that for everyone, but personally I would not want to go to a large university again. Some students want the “college experience,” Dorms, frats and sororities, parties and events, but that wasn’t something I was going to school for. I was in marching band, so I got my college experience through that. But I was also able to do that while in community college.
I feel like community college gives you more freedom to do more “life” things than just be engulfed by school all the time. I had the ability to take a semester of just online classes to do extracurricular activities and an internship with the Disney College Program.
When I was at ASU I would have to leave my classes early sometimes in order to get to work on time because of how insane the traffic was and the fact that the cheapest parking was a 25 minute walk from the campus.
I’m not degrading anyone who is going to or planning on going to a university, but I feel like if the intended career field does not require more than a two year degree, we shouldn’t be forced to follow the lemmings of going to an accredited four year school.
Walt Disney went to a junior college, James Dean and Jackie Robinson never finished school.
Not getting a four-year degree and being successful, while it is rare, is possible.
So to all of the students that don’t plan on going to university, you are not alone.
