Community College

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I've taught at community colleges. What you're sharing is basically 1 in 500,000 odds.

Community colleges are disgusting - full of degenerates, mentally unstable, druggies, flunkies, ex cons, terminally unmotivated.

Of course a savvy kid can navigate and make something out of nothing, but why would you want your child to waste one minute of their life in that environment? Life is way too short.

Huge exaggeration.

When I went, there are tons of intelligent, lower middle class and working class kids. Maybe your observation is true in the northeast, where community colleges are stigmatized to the point that people will pay a fortune to go to a mediocre private before just doing the first two years at a CC and then transferring to a decent state school.

Sure, one in ten are scrappy lower middle and working class kids - handful of first-gen Asians transfer into the flagship public U. The other 80-90% are degenerate, going nowhere - completion rates back this up. Overall it's not a stimulating environment, classes are a joke, students are helpless. If you're desperate and it's your only option, do what you have to do. If you can avoid it, avoid it. That's all.

Yikes. I'm sure each cc has its own population, but I have a DC at a CC in this area and that is not our experience at all.

It's not a common experience in the DC area, where there are several excellent CCs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from someone (works for a high end consulting co) that said going to community college will affect future employment prospects with high end companies that typically go as far back as the High school you went to when doing their due diligence. Is this true or was he pulling a fast one?

This must be a joke.
I know several of my former high school students who went to community college, then transferred to UMD College park, then went to Medical School at John Hopkins, GW or Georgetown and are surgeons or department heads.

I've taught at community colleges. What you're sharing is basically 1 in 500,000 odds.

Community colleges are disgusting - full of degenerates, mentally unstable, druggies, flunkies, ex cons, terminally unmotivated.

Of course a savvy kid can navigate and make something out of nothing, but why would you want your child to waste one minute of their life in that environment? Life is way too short.

CCs have the SAME prerequisites. At our CC you have to test in to math and English classes. You really think that low lifes are hanging around CCs taking Analytic Geometry, Physics English Lit for the fun of it?

[Anonymous]

In my experience CCs run the gamut of backgrounds.

Some CC students are smart, and had decent grades, but it's just so much cheaper to do the first two years at a CC. There are also a large percentage of non-traditional, older students who are working their way through school, or making a career change. Lots of aspiring nurses.

In my experience, the truly dumb (or at least misguided) kids end up at for-profit schools, where they get ripped off and end up with worthless degrees that may not even be regionally accredited.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In my experience CCs run the gamut of backgrounds.

Some CC students are smart, and had decent grades, but it's just so much cheaper to do the first two years at a CC. There are also a large percentage of non-traditional, older students who are working their way through school, or making a career change. Lots of aspiring nurses.

In my experience, the truly dumb (or at least misguided) kids end up at for-profit schools, where they get ripped off and end up with worthless degrees that may not even be regionally accredited.

I should add that I do know some highly-intelligent people that went to notorious for-profit schools. In general, they already had decent careers and came from working/lower middle class backgrounds where people are less knowledgeable about higher education. A surprising amount of people are unaware that even the lowliest state schools, including community colleges, are more respectable that virtually any for-profit school.

[Anonymous]

"excellenct CCs" ha, nobody ever calls their baby ugly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:then you're have an immature, scaredy cat, degree-less child forever living with you.

What are you talking about?
Lots of people start at Community College. They have guaranteed admissions with lots of universities as long as the grades are up (minimum 2.5 GPA).
My kid got into various universities (one with 20% admissions) but I am considering community college because of the age/maturity/saving money.

Just understand there are a lot more hurdles to these transfers than is generally acknowledged in the statement "oh, Larla should go to CC for two years and then transfer."

Makes it sound like it's automatic, easy peasy. It's not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from someone (works for a high end consulting co) that said going to community college will affect future employment prospects with high end companies that typically go as far back as the High school you went to when doing their due diligence. Is this true or was he pulling a fast one?

This must be a joke.
I know several of my former high school students who went to community college, then transferred to UMD College park, then went to Medical School at John Hopkins, GW or Georgetown and are surgeons or department heads.

I've taught at community colleges. What you're sharing is basically 1 in 500,000 odds.

Community colleges are disgusting - full of degenerates, mentally unstable, druggies, flunkies, ex cons, terminally unmotivated.

Of course a savvy kid can navigate and make something out of nothing, but why would you want your child to waste one minute of their life in that environment? Life is way too short.

It is a damn good thing you no longer teach at CC. The students deserve much better than you. Couldn't you get a "real" job with non-disgusting, mentally stable students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:then you're have an immature, scaredy cat, degree-less child forever living with you.

What are you talking about?
Lots of people start at Community College. They have guaranteed admissions with lots of universities as long as the grades are up (minimum 2.5 GPA).
My kid got into various universities (one with 20% admissions) but I am considering community college because of the age/maturity/saving money.

Just understand there are a lot more hurdles to these transfers than is generally acknowledged in the statement "oh, Larla should go to CC for two years and then transfer."

Makes it sound like it's automatic, easy peasy. It's not.

So a student who graduates with an AA with all the prerequisites for a guaranteed admission may be denied?
DC did not get into USC (56.000 applicants for 3000 places). The letter advised us to get enrolled into a community college, take all the prerequisites and apply again in a year

[Anonymous]

^^^most admission letters advise kids to do that. Same answer I received when I was rejected from my dream school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from someone (works for a high end consulting co) that said going to community college will affect future employment prospects with high end companies that typically go as far back as the High school you went to when doing their due diligence. Is this true or was he pulling a fast one?

This must be a joke.
I know several of my former high school students who went to community college, then transferred to UMD College park, then went to Medical School at John Hopkins, GW or Georgetown and are surgeons or department heads.

NP here ... Do you have an opinion which is a better route to medical school: Montgomery College or a bottom 25% tier school where DC has a full academic scholarship?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:then you're have an immature, scaredy cat, degree-less child forever living with you.

What are you talking about?
Lots of people start at Community College. They have guaranteed admissions with lots of universities as long as the grades are up (minimum 2.5 GPA).
My kid got into various universities (one with 20% admissions) but I am considering community college because of the age/maturity/saving money.

Just understand there are a lot more hurdles to these transfers than is generally acknowledged in the statement "oh, Larla should go to CC for two years and then transfer."

Makes it sound like it's automatic, easy peasy. It's not.

So a student who graduates with an AA with all the prerequisites for a guaranteed admission may be denied?
DC did not get into USC (56.000 applicants for 3000 places). The letter advised us to get enrolled into a community college, take all the prerequisites and apply again in a year

It's not "automatic," but it's usually easier to transfer in with an AA than to get in as a freshman. You still have to complete the prerequisite coursework and get the minimum GPA (which is usually fairly low). If the intended major is "limited access," meaning that it is competitive and there are more applicants than available seats, meeting the minimum prerequisites is not a guarantee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard from someone (works for a high end consulting co) that said going to community college will affect future employment prospects with high end companies that typically go as far back as the High school you went to when doing their due diligence. Is this true or was he pulling a fast one?

Most college students don't get into the "serious," major-specific coursework until they start taking upper division (junior and senior level) courses. If you end up with a degree in Computer Science, no one is going to care if you took English 101 at Pasadena Community College or UCLA.

Personally, I would be more impressed by someone with a BA from a good school, who started out at some no-name community college and transferred than I would be by someone who went to Philips Exeter and started at that same school as a freshman. I would be impressed either way, but CC student probably came from a more modest background and had to swim upstream to get to the same place.

[Anonymous]

The only issue I have with attend CC for 2 years is the lack of social n=being and meeting your core group of friends.

Entering a 4-year institution your junior year will be hard to meet a set group of friends; students already established their "clicks".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard from someone (works for a high end consulting co) that said going to community college will affect future employment prospects with high end companies that typically go as far back as the High school you went to when doing their due diligence. Is this true or was he pulling a fast one?

I work in legal where academic snobbery is extreme, and, as long as the actual degree is from a good university, that's what people care about. I would advise anyone who does community college and transfers to just include the bachelor's degree (same as someone who transferred between 4-years in the middle of a degree - I only care where you finished it, not that you went to X school freshman year).

The very few places that are going back to pull your HS information are people who are looking for socioeconomic markers that you're "one of them" not your education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard from someone (works for a high end consulting co) that said going to community college will affect future employment prospects with high end companies that typically go as far back as the High school you went to when doing their due diligence. Is this true or was he pulling a fast one?

I work in legal where academic snobbery is extreme, and, as long as the actual degree is from a good university, that's what people care about. I would advise anyone who does community college and transfers to just include the bachelor's degree (same as someone who transferred between 4-years in the middle of a degree - I only care where you finished it, not that you went to X school freshman year).

The very few places that are going back to pull your HS information are people who are looking for socioeconomic markers that you're "one of them" not your education.

+1

This sounds more accurate.