Reasons to Choose Community College Over University

This is something I wish I had considered before going to an engineering school. Not only could I have gotten practically the same education at the local community college for much less, I may have avoided the 100+ student lecture classes my freshman and sophomore years. This was probably the most difficult adjustment for me when starting college (along with the lopsided gender ratio in engineering).<p>Unfortunately, as a senior at an expensive college-prep school, choosing community college would have been a huge blow to my ego. It also would have ashamed my parents, who are immigrants and place much emphasis on having the best (read: most prestigious) education possible for their children.

I went to a community college before going to UCB. I treasure my time at both, but for the first two years I am totally glad I was at a CC. There is no comparison to the attention you can get, if you want it, at a CC. I made more friends at CC, too. I found UCB a cold and competitive place compared to CC.

Not thoroughly addressed was connections. You could make arguments about the relatively equal quality of education (usually not the case), but the social capital and connections you get from attending elite universities has great value in our world. The morality of that can be debated, but it is true nonetheless.

I don't agree with many of the assertions made in this post.<p>&#62; and you will receive just as good of an education<p>It depends on what you're being educated on. For the cookie-cutter classes every first- and second-year undergrad has to take, yes, I agree. For courses dealing in something you're deeply interested in or which involve advanced theory, it's more of a mixed bag.<p>&#62; No crowded dorms, no roommate issues, know more people<p>For me, learning to deal with situations where I'm just a face in a crowd, having to deal with roommates I didn't always get along with, and having to make new friends because I didn't know <i>anybody</i> were all valuable parts of my education.<p>&#62; You don’t need to take the ACT or SAT<p>Depends on the school.<p>&#62; Employers don’t care what college you got your degree from<p>Depends on the employer. In an ideal world, each candidate would be judged entirely on merit and accomplishments rather than on things like schooling. However, even then going to a university will provide more opportunities to get involved with cool projects or to experiment with emergent technologies.

&#62; you will receive just as good of an education<p>Not if one wants to get involved in academia or research. Frankly, I have gotten far more from working/talking with various professors and grad students then from actual class (in CS). Networking, I think, is another reason one might attend a better university. Otherwise, I would argue that most skills can be self-taught (or self-refined), and I agree that the author has some valid points.

"you will receive just as good of an education."<p>Pretty bold statement. In my personal experience, having good professors, and smart hard working students in a class with me makes all the difference in terms of how much I learn. While its true, just because a professor or student is at a university doesn't mean he/she is good (just like community college doesn't automatically equal bad) a university (particularly a good university), because of its admissions policies and hiring practices is going to weed out a lot of the bad. A community college will weed out hardly anyone. Not saying a community college isn't the right choice for a lot of people, just saying that there's a lot more of a difference than this top 10 list admits.

Interesting article that brings up some valid points but did this author attend a community college? Whenever I see a generic "Top 10" post on a blog I get really suspicious.<p>This is going to sound condescending, but remember those kids who had no inclination to try in school and go to a good 4 year college? That's going to be at least 75% of the students there. My brother took some summer classes there and he said they were a joke.<p>I've heard that teaching at one sucks, and the one or two students that are truly motivated really make the job worthwhile.<p>I would expect to find this especially true for a math-oriented subject like programming or engineering.

Definitely an option, and for some it may be the only practical way to afford college. Certainly you'll come out of college with less debt.

Many of the arguments seem to assume a large university. While there are large universities, there are also some fairly small ones. While Berkeley has 25k undergrads. Stanford has 6k, and there's always Reed and so on.<p>At the smaller universities, many of the early classes are quite small. And, yes it's possible for 1st years to get quality time with "name" professors.

#9 Employers don’t care what college you got your degree from, only that you have a degree. Why go into debt paying for university when it won’t help you in the long run?<p>I could not disagree more.