Facing Down the ‘Snob Factor’

Facing Down the ‘Snob Factor’

For years, education experts have been saying that community colleges offer an underutilized path in higher education. States spend less money per student there and tuition is much lower. The institutions’ emphasis on teaching and on recruiting low-income and minority students means that they reach and graduate many students overlooked by flagships or who can’t afford them. While many efforts in recent years have tried to ease transfer from two- to four-year institutions, elite colleges haven’t always been part of the equation.

http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/05/05/transfer

 

Indiana

I pushed hard to get IVY Tech State College Credits to transfer to Purdue. I wrote the local newspaper and voiced my concerns in the "Voice of the People" column. I also wrote the Governor and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.

I guess it helped because an Articulation Agreement was signed with Purdue.

 

I have a very similar plan - we have the same HS/College option in Chicago.

 

CC's are Great

and I think the plan to have your kids do their first two years at a CC, and then go on to a 4 year university is a good one.

I hope to convince my two sons to do the same (along with the military reserves, hehehehe). With college costs so high, it is a great option. I went to a CC with a direct transfer agreement to the state college. It does not state on my WSU diploma that I only went to school there for 2 years. My diploma looks just like the ones that people have who attended for 4 years.

Most areas, it seems, have the last 2 years HS=2 years of CC deal. Awesome option for those kids that do it.

 

Re: CC's are Great

Don't do it. There's a personal transformation that comes with being in a university environment for fours years that just can't be duplicated in a CC or 2+2 plan. Do the full four years in a B&M school if possible. All these DL and 2+2 and credit+testout schemes have their place, but should be done only if there is a good reason not to attend a B&M School, IMV.

 

Re: Re: CC's are Great

And there is considerable validity in that view - to the point I'm not sure I want my kids going to a US primary or secondary school.

 

Re: Re: CC's are Great

I guess to each his own, but in my opinion, one doesn't come out of a 4 year college (after doing all of undergrad there) as a more well rounded or more highly transformed person than a person who has done 2+2. If the concern is for the kid to have the most fun possible, then ok, I can see your point. The social scenes at most 4 year schools leaves the ones at most CC's in the dust, but that's about it.

 

I suppose it depends on the schools?

NMSU runs a branch campus in Alamogordo NM that is not described as a "community college"; they just refer to it as "NMSU-Alamo". They offer only lower division coursework at NMSU-A but there isn't any sort of "articulation agreement" or "credit transfer policy"; credits at main campus in Las Cruces are EXACTLY equivalent to credits earned at NMSU-Alamo.

And it's a heckuva deal, too. Tuition at NMSU-A runs about half what it runs on the main campus.

I've taken Spanish classes both at NMSU-A and on the main campus. The students and instructors seemed about the same.

I wouldn't hesitate to do my first two years at NMSU-A.

 

"All these DL and 2+2 and credit+testout schemes"

Schemes, what is that suppost to mean?

So, if one conducts their education as YOU see fit then it is legitimate, otherwise it is a scheme? That sir, is pure close-minded nonsense.

Kalos, you do know this is a scheming DL forum right? You appear a bit confused as to where you are

 

Dude, relax! Scheme just means plan.

 

Dudette!!!

Pertaining to your statement, my answer is: DEPENDING on context.

Actually, it has several meanings-


Have a nice day

 

I bet I would have had one of those transformational experiences if I had gone to a small private college, perhaps in an isolated or rural setting. Going to the University of Washington, a 30,000 student single-campus commuter school in Seattle, and working half-time to boot, I was too busy and too much of a very small fish in a very large pond to transform a lot.

Having also taken classes at community colleges in the local area, it seems like a smaller and more interactive setting than a 500 student lecture hall taught by a TA.

 

Michael, I was probably in those 500 student classes at UW with you. I hated those TA classes. And working full time+ too.

It would have been better for me if I had gone to a small college. But the experience helps me give my kids better advice than I got from my parents. (My daughter wants to go to Whitman.)

My dad said, "If you don't keep your high school grades up you'll have to go to BCC" which is where I teach now! It might have been a better route anyway, with guaranteed admission to the UW (although that is not guaranteed anymore, is it?).

 

I live just a few miles north of the UW Bothell branch campus, and ride my bicycle through there all the time. My son screwed around through high school and did not have the grades for admission to the UW, and has no current plans to attend college. My daughter is still in high school and is mulling her options.

Depending on the major, I think you could have a much more intimate college experience at the branch campus. And I would say that at the UW, by the time I was a junior and senior, I was with the same cohort of 15 students as we all took the same chemistry classes together. It was the 100 and 200 level classes outside the major that were the cattle calls. My experience was over 25 years ago, but I suspect it has not dramatically changed in the interim.

 

I think the biggest distinction is between BS/BA FTF programs and online - and to a lessor extent graduate school.

I think a large part of the "transformational" process for a person is at the undergrad level and is largely missed in DL programs.