Having an underachieving student start at community college

[Anonymous]

What does your son want to study at the community college?
Once you know that you can look at their programs for that degree and see the colleges transfer agreements with 4 year schools.

[Anonymous]

Some of you community college bashers are not very intelligent. If a child can spend the first 2 years at community college taking prerequisites, then transfer to UVA,

why not do it?

The diploma will still read "UVA" and you will have saved many thousands of dollars. Who's the dummy?

Happiness
It's not as happy an experience.
We make decisions every day: money vs happiness
The car we drive - it gets us there. Why choose a nicer car?
If you have the money (and I said IF), parents often value providing a happier experience.

[Anonymous]

What constitutes a happy experience depends on the young adult in question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Some of you community college bashers are not very intelligent. If a child can spend the first 2 years at community college taking prerequisites, then transfer to UVA,

why not do it?

The diploma will still read "UVA" and you will have saved many thousands of dollars. Who's the dummy?

Happiness
It's not as happy an experience.
We make decisions every day: money vs happiness
The car we drive - it gets us there. Why choose a nicer car?
If you have the money (and I said IF), parents often value providing a happier experience.

Missing out on two years of college because my parents made me live at home and commute to a school full of junkies and waitresses? Good time. For the next 50 years whenever people talk about freshman year, dorms, college life... your kid can talk about trying to find a parking spot at the local junior college and mom making him BLTs for lunch.

[Anonymous]

?
I do not get it.
Money v. Happyness
Student debt vs sanity when you graduate

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Some of you community college bashers are not very intelligent. If a child can spend the first 2 years at community college taking prerequisites, then transfer to UVA,

why not do it?

The diploma will still read "UVA" and you will have saved many thousands of dollars. Who's the dummy?

Happiness
It's not as happy an experience.
We make decisions every day: money vs happiness
The car we drive - it gets us there. Why choose a nicer car?
If you have the money (and I said IF), parents often value providing a happier experience.

Missing out on two years of college because my parents made me live at home and commute to a school full of junkies and waitresses? Good time. For the next 50 years whenever people talk about freshman year, dorms, college life... your kid can talk about trying to find a parking spot at the local junior college and mom making him BLTs for lunch.

Both my brother and I started at a community college and transferred to UVA. I wouldn't change anything about the experience! During the two years at CC I enjoyed school, got prereqs out of the way and still had time to explore electives in multiple areas; I worked at an unusual and prestigious part-time job, published a short story, and spent three months traveling in Europe. When I got to UVA and met people my age who had never experienced any form of life beyond traditional school, I felt sorry for them.

[Anonymous]

My parents were going through a divorce and screwed me with tuition, so I had to begin at a CC. Ended up transferring to a solid university after. CC is a miserable experience and I missed out on a real freshman year. Still not over it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teaching is pretty good at most community colleges, as there is no incentive for research. The exception is English composition classes, which are now graded mostly by computer. Stay away from these, as students are often discouraged by the extremely rigid requirements of the computerized grading system (spacing, Harbrace Handbook footnote references). I've seen excellent writing graded down because students used split infinitives, didn't have three sentences per paragraph or two spaces after each period.

What school use these? I teach English at NVCC and have never even heard of computerized scoring. No one I know who teaches CC in Texas, New Jersey, or Virginia uses this system either...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My parents were going through a divorce and screwed me with tuition, so I had to begin at a CC. Ended up transferring to a solid university after. CC is a miserable experience and I missed out on a real freshman year. Still not over it.

How old are you, because it is time to get over it. You had three years of a good college experience and I imagine a good part of your CC misery had to do with the family situation at the time and not being able to get away from it. That is not necessarily the problem of the CC>

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My parents were going through a divorce and screwed me with tuition, so I had to begin at a CC. Ended up transferring to a solid university after. CC is a miserable experience and I missed out on a real freshman year. Still not over it.

If it was so important to you, why didn't you just grow up and pay for it yourself?

[Anonymous]

So would those of you that went to a 4 year school not bother to talk to me because I didnt go to college at all? Because we can't bond over our freshman experiences?
You are crazy people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it were my kid, I would send him to a 4 year school with the admonition that he keeps it together (2.5-3.0 at a minimum) or he is out.

A smaller liberal arts school would probably really help him, because the small size and small student body increases the likelihood that he will study when other people study. He will adopt his friends' study habits and find fewer distractions.

There are a ton of Midwestern LACs that will give a kid like that some scholarship money or make it affordable for a family that can afford in-state. - Kalamazoo, Knox, Augustana, Monmouth... look at the Associated Colleges of the Midwest

This is what I'd do too. A B+ is not underachieving.

THANK YOU!!!!

[Anonymous]

If it were my kid, I'd say he's doing great.

The grades are good enough for a kid with some learning issues.

Are you looking to punish?

You sound like an evil step mom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents were going through a divorce and screwed me with tuition, so I had to begin at a CC. Ended up transferring to a solid university after. CC is a miserable experience and I missed out on a real freshman year. Still not over it.

If it was so important to you, why didn't you just grow up and pay for it yourself?

Huh? PP acted like an adult. Went to a school she didn't want, got the grades and transferred. I think the "getting over it" is at least in part because her parents stole something from her. Not about the money since kids get over real things, but probably the way it went down.

[Anonymous]

I'm very, very proud of my own B+/1500 SAT kid. I think unless finances were a MAJOR consideration, CC would not be motivating enough a start for college. I am torn between my kid attending a smaller, more nurturing 4-year school, or pushing himself at a highly competitive school. I see benefits to both.