Episode 16: Community College (Part I)

I firmly believe in the value of structured education.
There is a trend or a movement or whatever in this time period where people coming up through high school and looking at what their next steps might be
aren't sure that college is worth the investment, and we'll talk about that in a minute.
I think there is an argument to be made there, but at the end of the day, regardless of whether it's college or – that's the model we know.
We know, particularly in America, that the path you take, quote-unquote, is primary school into secondary school into higher education,
and that's what sets you up, quote-unquote, the best for a good job, a good life, all that kind of stuff.
Now, a lot of that can be called into question with changes in economies and all the rest of it that has happened, particularly over the last, let's call it, decade.
But that's been the path for a long time, and I do believe in a well-rounded structured education.
I come from a background both attending and ultimately working at a community college.
So let's talk about that for a second.
Community college, also referred to as junior college back in the day, also referred to as two-year college.
I mean, it has a bunch of names, but the idea is they do not provide typically full bachelor's degrees, like a four-year degree.
Typically, they only offer associate's degrees, which is your two-year degree.
They're often built around having technical programs and these associate's programs that are also designed to transfer you out to move on to a four-year school.
So you have – and sometimes schools offer both of these things, and sometimes schools really specialize in one or the other.
So you can have students that come up through who have – their goal might be to get to a four-year school.
So you as a student would go in and spend some variable amount of time.
The community college would prefer that you spend a full two years there and get an associate's degree.
A lot of people come in for a semester or two and transfer out at that point.
But one way or another, the student ends up going on to a four-year school.
That's sort of one path.
Another path is that, again, a lot of them do sort of more technical-oriented programs.
So you might come out with some sort of technical degree or technical certification or whatever that moves you on.
I'm speaking in kind of broad strokes here.
There's a lot of nuance to that, and there's a lot of different things that a community college might do.
So nursing programs, non-credit-style programming.
I'm mostly just talking about credit kind of stuff, accredited program things.
But there's a whole non-credit thing to dive into.
Community college is really, in a lot of ways, at least a robust community college, in a lot of ways is sort of a jack-of-all-trades.
You can go in there and do any number of things and, in theory, be better for it.
Now, this all differs quite a bit from four-year schools.
Four-year schools traditionally have been much more selective, although that has changed over the years.
They offer you that bachelor's-level degree at the very least, and many of them, of course, go on to allow you to take master's and doctorates and all the rest of it.
Many of them are research-based.
There are different flavors, of course, of four-year schools as well.
But the overall point here is that there is this whole world of community colleges, which tend to be lower on the totem pole than a four-year school.
Now, I think this is a mistake, first of all, but beyond that, and I'm probably biased, right, for a whole number of reasons.
First of all, community college really gave me a second shot in life to begin with.
I came up through high school, really didn't put much effort in.
If I put effort in anywhere, you could argue that I put effort into failing more than I put effort into actually succeeding.
But, you know, at the very least, I didn't put any effort into doing anything particularly good there.
Came out with pretty terrible GPA, not a lot – at that time, not a lot of college prospects.
Watched a lot of my friends go off to either schools of their dreams or at least schools to go and progress their life.
And I was – I ended up, quote-unquote, being forced to go to a community college.
I did that for a year, turned myself around, and then transferred out.
And after that point in time, I took my higher education experience very seriously.
And I did very well, and I ended up in a good career.
All things pointed up.
So, without getting into too much detail about it all, I think you could argue I am a community college success story.
Or rather, my successful story is due to a community college.
I'm not sure you could count me as a statistic in favor of community colleges because of the fact that I transferred after a year.
And there's a whole, you know, issue around that.
But for me, it helped me really change the course of my life.
Community colleges are really struggling right now.
Right now, in the country, higher education in general, to setting aside anything going on politically,
just demographically, there are fewer college-age kids right now.
The ones that are that age are – many of them are deciding not to go to college.
So, that brings the number of students available to these schools down.
So, schools are having to be competitive, and I'm talking both four-year and two-year,
in a way that they never have been before.
And that's going on countrywide.
It's even particularly extreme in the Northeast, which is where I – the region that I'm in.
And then within the Northeast, it's even particularly extreme for community colleges.
So, it's like fighting on multiple vectors all at the same time.
We're fighting a national trend.
We're fighting the fact that we're a community college to begin with.
And then we're also fighting because the demographics in the Northeast are bad,
are particularly extreme on these fronts.
Now, let's talk about four years for a second.
I have two kids coming up, making their way up.
They're, you know, around the 10-year-old mark at the moment.
So, in the next seven, eight, nine years, there will be most likely they are college-bound kids.
Just statistically, based on all the variables, most likely they end up in college.
Man, have four-year colleges gotten expensive.
I remember saying that when I was on my way into college.
But it has just exploded.
Between the additional pressure to bring money in because of all of the issues that I've been kind of talking about here,
plus, you know, inflationary kind of stuff,
plus just the movement of things towards more expensive services in general,
plus the cost of living.
You put it all together, it has gotten so expensive.
When I saw some of the dollar amounts that I was likely to have to be paying in 10 years,
it was just jaw-dropping.
For a long time, I kind of ragged, even though I worked in community colleges,
I kind of ragged on the concept overall.
And the position that I came to this from was really that an associate's degree doesn't get you anywhere.
So, no matter what you do, you have to get to a four-year school.
And many community colleges do not offer some of the experiences that an 18-, 19-, 20-year-old person could take advantage of.
Like being that sort of independent living on your own.
Getting away from your house to kind of start your path towards independence.
More of a college life experience.
Like there's a lot of things that a four-year school can provide that a community college can.
So I kind of ragged on this a bit.
And one of their premises that I had was it's all funny money to an 18-year-old.
An 18-year-old, when I was 18, I couldn't come up with $500 any better than I could come up with $5,000 any better than I could come up with $50,000.
It didn't matter what the dollar total was.
It was all funny money to me because I didn't have any of it.
It was no different to me really if someone said, oh, this class cost $500 versus this class cost $5,000 because I didn't have either of those things.
It was going to be a loan no matter what.
It was all kind of this abstract concept of money and it was like whatever.
So if you have this abstract concept of money and it doesn't – you just – you can't afford either of them.
Why not go to the one that better positions you and gives you more of the pieces you might want.
I have since turned around on this.
I think community colleges really serve – and frankly, there's more here for me to talk about than just a single episode of this show.
So as I'm thinking through this, there's a lot of details that I want to get into that are just too down in the weeds for this conversation.
At the end of the day, I think the point I'm trying to make is community college – it's kind of a two- or three-fold point.
Community colleges give people a second chance who otherwise would not have gotten a second chance.
That's point one.
Point two, they do so at a fraction of the cost of what it might take a person to go to a four-year school to figure out similar things.
That's sort of point – the second piece of things.
And they offer a wider usually variety of things that you could learn about, get into, explore.
So if you're able to explore more for less money while turning – you know, giving yourself a second chance on things, those are all things that should be celebrated.
Those are things that should be heralded as great reasons to go down this path.
And instead, we focus on the stigmas.
We watch – you know, we laugh at shows like the sitcom Community, for instance.
And we think that that's what it's all about is that if you don't get to a four-year school, you've failed.
When in fact, I think we are getting to a point in society where four-year schools are deeply failing us.
And perhaps community colleges are the last holdout to what an education really could be or at least what an education could start as beyond your, you know, high school experience.
If you don't know much about this sector, you would be forgiven.
It is largely a hidden behind-the-scenes thing that has many stigmas attached to it.
But if you have children moving their way into college years or if you yourself are someone who is around this age or just want to re-educate or just want to see what higher ed is all about,
I would very much encourage you to take a look at a quality community college in your area.
No one who goes to them walks away typically feeling bad about their experience.
It's always positive.
But getting in the door has a lot of challenges because of so many social stigmas attached to it.
But I have come to believe over the years that they might be the last remaining holdout of how a quality education can start in a way that the general public can actually accessibly walk into.
So I would encourage everyone to at least, anyone who this is relevant to, to at least take a look.
Go check it out.
See what it's all about.
Maybe the ones in your area aren't great.
That, you know, and I get that.
And I'm not saying this is a one-size-fits-all thing.
But there's so much more there that they offer than people are aware of.
And all I'm trying to do is get that word out a little.
All I'm trying to do is get that word out a little.