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Can community colleges lower the price?

The President has been pushing the idea. Some smart students are paving the way. Can community colleges undercut the big schools, at least on the first two years?

Michael Winerip at the NY Times informs us that some of the Philly schools like U Penn and Bryn Mawr are trying to grab some of the best community college students and they’re accepting them after two years. Winerip doesn’t mince words when he suggests that this path might save kids $100k+. And then they could end up with the same degree.

I’m of two minds of this. I’ve watched the Harvard Extension school for years with admiration. Several of my friends who’ve taught Extension school courses say that the students aren’t better or worse, just different. They have more experience and less of that red apple polish than the kids on the famous path.

The kids who work with Harvard Professors through the Extension school probably get the same knowledge from the professor and they may even get more from their classmates who often have more experience than an 18 year old. But they don’t get that elitist clubiness nurtured in the kids on the famous track. The kids supposedly form tight bonds with each other and use these bonds as they dominate the country if not the world. The Extension students don’t get this.

I think the transfers miss out on the freshman and sophomore year experience at Bryn Mawr and U. Penn. Yes, it’s a bunch of sturm and drang– both in the dating gossip and in the papers about literature– but it’s sort of that foxhole thing.

So is it worth it to hire a kid who finished up at a fancy college after two years at a community school? I’m going to say “Yes.” In reality, it all depends upon the kid and school has little to do with it, but I feel the need to come to some concrete conclusion. (Too many essays in my past.) So I’m going to say, “Yes. It’s a good idea.”

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Related posts:

  1. Rich kids flock to community colleges
  2. Zac Bissonnette says the smartest kids go to community college
  3. More high schools giving out community college degrees for free
  4. More community college options appear in the academic industrial complex
  5. Kids choosing community college over big bucks universities!

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This entry was written by admin and posted on April 18, 2012 at 11:17 am and filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

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4 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

  1. Community colleges and universities are worlds apart.

    For one thing, they require vastly differing faculty credentials of their instructors. Community colleges in the South may have as much as one-third of their instructors (mostly part-timers) teaching out-of-field. This has been true since the last study in the 1960s, and continues to be a problem.

    As for the adjuctification at the CC’s, check here:
    http://www.mla.org/acad_work_results

    Now, I’m not saying every CC is like that. Even outstanding adjuncts (like myself) can be found at the CC.

    What is missing is transparency. You should be able to go online and check the credentials of your instructor. Until this happens, Caveat Emptor.

    1. higby on April 18th, 2012 at 1:19 pm

  2. Universities can have complex policies about transferring community college credits, some being quite strict about upholding standards. Of course only a crazy cynic would suspect they are being anti-competitive….

    2. BB on April 18th, 2012 at 5:31 pm

  3. I think universities should lower their fees! It is completely unfair to let peoples financial background decide how much they can learn! The government in the US should be more proactive in supporting those who wish to study further, take a leaf out of the English government (I know there are huge fee raises in the UK at the moment but anybody can still get a student loan which is interest free from the government if they want!)

    3. Smart Student on April 19th, 2012 at 2:39 am

  4. There is no evidence that students or their parents want the students to attend $50,000 a year Ivy League colleges in order to study anything or learn anything. They are there to party and drink with the aim of networking and matchmaking.

    If you attend a CC and do well, there is no reason to think about transferring to a fancy $50,000/yr school. As you estimate, the little swots will stone you and won’t be able to network or matchmake.

    If you want to learn something useful after your 2 years at CC, go to the best university in your states system. The teaching is just as good as it is at Harvard, tuition is a lot cheaper, and you are much more likely to spend quality time with faculty at State, than you are at Harvard.

    4. Walter Sobchak on April 19th, 2012 at 3:56 am