A Love Letter To Community College
Community College, I’m so sorry you’re so over-hated.
Let’s stop pretending that somehow going to a community college says anything negative about your academic ability and intellect.
I’m a fairly high-achieving, smart, and studious person. In high school, many people thought I’d go to a fancy 4-year university, only for a lot of them to react with ‘?????’ when they found out I chose community college.
Let’s start with some quotes I vividly remember from my time. in high school regarding community college:
“Why would you go to community college? Aren’t you Indian?”
“I would go to community college, but it’s just, the image and association with it” *shakes head disapprovingly*
“Vrisha’s doing the smart thing and going to community college. My parents would never”
(This said by a teacher, of ALL people): “it’s a black hole”
There’s a lot to unpack here. A lot of people had varying viewpoints about community college. Most were negative, save for a few of my teachers that encouraged me and pushed that I strongly consider attending for the financial benefits it would lend me in the future. Those teachers understood that community college is just a small stepping stone in my overall academic career, and that in the long run, I’d be grateful for starting out there.
Stigma
Whether it be the student or the parent, stigma is one of the most pervasive reasons for hating community colleges.
Students don’t think they’ll get a good education, or want that overhyped “college experience” so badly they’d rather (most likely) struggle with financial debt in the future than spend a couple years in a community college and save some money. Some wouldn’t mind saving money, but the mere idea of associating with a community college is so heavily stigmatized as to indicate a lower-level of intelligence and academic ability, that students stray away from it. To them, community college is out of their league; they’re too good for it. From what I’ve seen, a lot of stigma is just from subtle peer pressure to avoid community college and do what everyone else is doing, making community college look like the last resort option for the academically unskilled.
With parents, many hold similar stigmatized views. Community college is viewed as a “lesser” option that their oh-so-intelligent child should never end up at. To some of them, going to community college at the big age of 18 basically means you’ve failed at life already. To them, community college gives not only the child, but also the parent, a bad image.
Like the first quote from earlier, some people have racialized ideas of who should be at community college, and it clearly isn’t South Asians like myself. I disagree. Anyone should and could go if they wanted to. Many POCs especially go to community college. Let’s stop making it look like going is such a bad thing, especially for already under-served groups of people that are trying to get an education to better their life. That’s admirable. They don’t deserve the bad rep.
Even professionally, some employers and workplaces still look down on community college. Seeing it on a CV or resumé somehow makes you less qualified for the job. The stigma around community college is far reaching and despicable.
The societal obsession with going to a 4-year university, especially Ivy Leagues, is incredibly damaging. Because of the increased importance the title of “Harvard graduate” and others seemingly give you, people put themselves in debt and overachieve to the point beyond burn-out at a young age. Teenagers today are suffering from worsening mental health, a build up of student debt, academic stress, and intense burn-out in part due to the effects of hustle culture, another damaging socially engrained phenomenon.
Personally, I love community college. If I could get my entire degree from there, I would. Smaller class sizes, flexibility, more involved and directly helpful professors, room to discover what you really wanna study, and of course, it’s cheaper. I’m incredibly lucky that I was in an honors program covering my full tuition, so I didn’t even pay anything in that regard.
The work here is just as difficult as it would have been in a 4-year school. Only thing here is that if I feel like I want to change my career path/major, I don’t have to feel as guilty or fearful for potentially “falling behind” or having spent a ton of money on now useless classes like I would have felt at a 4-year. If you’re going after a Bachelor, at the end of the day, the degree is still going to be at the 4-year university you transferred to.
Also in my experience, community colleges have wonderful extracurriculars and programs just like a 4-year institution would.
One of my favorite things is that the class populations are extremely diverse. I live in a lovely diverse area, and I communicate and work with incredibly diverse populations regarding race, gender, ability, and age. I’ve met folks much older than me and from drastically different walks of life and I honestly think that being exposed to their wisdom, experience, and stories at my age has allowed me to be more open-minded and worldly. Hearing that they’ve decided to go back to school or get an education at their particular stage in life is so inspiring to me. I appreciate education so much more because of them.
Overall, community college is a wonderful place to be. It’s an under-appreciated, over-hated route. If you’re thinking of going back to school, whatever age or background you have, I so strongly encourage you to! Knowledge is invaluable.
How do YOU feel about community college? What are some things you’ve heard about it in the past? Thanks so much for taking the time and reading :)
Check out a couple other stories of mine linked below if you’d like:
