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I have had an almost comically varied career path and have founded companies in the fields of education, robotics and beverages. The most surprising part of my résumé is the most mundane: I went to community college.
For me the logic was simple. I saved thousands of dollars and the credits counted just like those at Boston University, where I eventually got a bachelor’s degree in computer science and communications. As the son of a school teacher, savings meant the world to me. And they mean the world to many other students in the United States
Community college tuition costs about a tenth of what the average private four-year university costs, even less when you factor in on-campus accommodation. Financial aid can reduce the cost of one-to-one tuition, but it can also make community college almost free.
According to the American Association of Community Colleges, 41% of all students in the US are enrolled in community colleges, including 39% of freshmen. These numbers should be even higher. Most college students should begin their careers at community colleges so they can graduate from debt free.
What is stopping them? Community college students are embarrassed or they just don’t know enough about it. A recent graduate told me that he didn’t even know that community college, or “junior college” in his words, was a proper college until he was a junior at his state school. He thought it was a healing school for delinquents.
This stigma comes from concerns about how employers might view community college credits. This worry is wrong. Labor market data shows that a two-year associate’s degree from a community college increases student lifetime incomes significantly. After two years, students looking to earn a bachelor’s degree can simply switch to a traditional four-year college or university where they will attend class alongside students who have paid full price for four years.
In doing so, they can save between $ 12,000 and $ 54,000. The average student loan balance in the United States is $ 38,792. That means we could drastically reduce new student borrowing in the US by doing nothing but normalizing community college for the first two years of undergraduate studies.
The student debts devour the future of young people, limit their mobility for advancement and reduce their chances. How many promising careers have been stifled by the high cost of traditional college? How many students have chosen safe, lucrative, but unfulfilling careers only to pay off a grueling debt?
College debt reduces students’ chances of success and fulfillment. When you pay less for a degree, the way you view it changes fundamentally. Paying too much shifts the focus of fresh graduates to their return on investment. When exploring new avenues is cheap, higher education is more about what students want to study than how much money they could make in a particular subject.
Community college isn’t just for college graduates. My mother first went to college when she was 44 and raised five children. A job at an oil refinery helped her develop the confidence to return to school. She spent three and a half years taking general education courses at Diablo Valley College, initially at a self-storage company and later at Starbucks.
She then moved to California State University in East Bay, graduated with a degree in sociology, and now works for the US Veterans Affairs Department in a job she loves, relocating homeless vets.
My mother’s story isn’t commonplace enough because we haven’t given community college the dignity it deserves. Community College is the hidden, affordable gem of the American post-secondary education system. Every aspiring college student needs to know.
Mr. Rasmussen is the co-founder of MasterClass and the CEO and founder of Outlier.org.
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Published in the print edition of July 16, 2021.
source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/community-college-is-the-smart-choice/
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