Two Years and Out - Community colleges are trimming the time and money students spend at major universities
Wish you could enter college with two semesters under your belt and thousands of dollars in tuition saved? As four-year public and private universities continue to increase tuition and fees, more and more students are attending smaller community colleges before attending larger institutions.
After all, by attending a community college, the savings can be exponential. They usually offer lower tuition, more scholarships, and lower living expenses.
According to the American Association of Community Colleges, the average annual tuition and fees for a community college are $2,272. The average tuition and fees at a public, four-year university are $5,836, more than double the cost of a community college. In addition to tuition for a four-year university, there are often added expenses – food, rent, utilities and miscellaneous expenditures. Students can forego this by attending their local community college and living at home – and save thousands of dollars.
Jennifer Powell completed about 36 credit hours at her local community college and will now only spend three years in college to get her nursing degree. This equated with more than $7,200 in tuition savings.
In high school, she took anatomy and physiology, college algebra, English composition, and sociology. Her high school and the local community college had an exchange program that allowed students to receive high school and college credit for courses at the community college.
Powell is now trying to knock out classes she will eventually have to complete. She is currently attending Coffeyville Community College in Coffeyville, Kan., and will be attending Pittsburg State University in 2008.
“I’m essentially taking anything that’s basic and that will transfer,” Powell said. This makes sense, considering that tuition at her current community college is only $75 per credit hour, while it is more than $200 per credit hour at Pittsburg State.
In addition to lower tuition and fees, many community colleges administer more grants and scholarships than the average four-year university. AACC research shows at least 47 percent of community college students receive some type of financial aid. The schools often have so many scholarships and grants that they actively seek out the recipients.
Though community colleges can give a great start and transition to a larger university, students need to remember three things: have an idea of which universities accept which credits, how many credits they are allowed to transfer to their university of interest, and what prerequisites they will need to knock out within their first year at school.
- Before enrolling in courses, contact your four-year university and ask about transferring community college credits. Many universities will have a database of nearby community colleges and can provide a list of courses that will transfer.
- Most universities will only allow a certain number of credits to be transferred; know that limit. Attending a community college before a university is intended to get prerequisites out of the way so you can concentrate on core-curriculum classes at the university. For example, a particular college might not allow someone to transfer 45 of the necessary 48 credits to graduate from their architecture program.
- Understand what prerequisites need to be completed for your degree. If a physical education class is required for a liberal arts degree, it would be a good idea to get that out of the way before attending a university.
