Benefits of Community-Type College

Back in My Day, if you went to community-type college, it was like going to thirteenth grade, a mere extension of senior year, somewhere to go when you didn’t know what else to do with yourself.  Many years, later, community-type colleges have virtually remade themselves.

Here are seven reasons (and a chart) why:

1. It has become a place where you can start your education, taking all of your BDR courses (Baccalaureate Degree Requirements-- courses that are common to all freshmen and sophomores in any college) for a fraction of the cost of even state schools.  Up to your junior year you're talking all of the BDR classes anyway... you usually don't even SEE your major until year three (so why pay huge prices to take English, math, and science when you can pay 1/10th and get the same thing);

2. Instead of transferring after two years, you could get an associate’s degree for your time spent (did you know that our local community-type college has one of the top nursing programs in the state, and it is extremely hard to get into, with a large waiting list?);

3. It is (almost) impossible to get overwhelmed and drop out like a large portion of kids who start right into four-year colleges, because though it is big (14,000 students at the main campus of our local community-type college), you still have relatively small class sizes, which leads to more individual help as needed;

4. Students who attend a community-type college before transferring on to a four-year institution, on the whole, are much better prepared by the time they enter their junior year;

5. A lot of the adjunct teachers at community-type colleges are from four year institutions like Villanova, PSU, Penn, and Drexel anyway;

6. It is unfathomably cheaper:

2012-2013  Full Year Costs

                                               

                                  Commute  Reside       Four-Years

                                                                    (3% annual increase)

Private Schools

University of Penn         $49,000    $59,000      $205,000 / $248,000

Widener University        $43,000    $53,000      $181,000 / $223,000

Villanova University      $42,000    $54,000       $177,000 / $227,000

Cabrini College              $28,000    $36,000       $118,000 / $151,000

State Schools

Penn State University       $16,000   $25,000       $67,000 / $105,000

Kutztown University         $8,000    $14,000       $34,000 / $59,000

Shippensburg University   $9,000    $17,000        $38,000 / $71,000

West Chester University    $7,000    $16,000        $29,000 / $67,000

Local Community-Type

College                            $4,000     n/a                $17,000 (based on 4 years)

7.  And the biggie for students:  DCCC won't show on a diploma- if you transfer to PSU, you get a PSU diploma!