What is wrong with community college

[Throwback24]

I don't understand why it has such a bad wrap, do employers frown upon associate degrees?

[aggie]

there is nothing wrong with them...it is a good thing that they are available for students who may not have other alternatives.

some are even now trying to offer 4 year degrees.

it can get you started for maybe a university later on...you definitely can get the training you need for many things from nursing degrees to vocational trade training to law enforcement.

it is an unfortunate stigma that they have and in some cases because mom and dad are paying or someone comes from a particular socio economic background...you don't always get the most dedicated students and unfortunately there can be some predjudice involved.

my husband is a wonderful science professor that was well loved at the community college he worked at for 13 loved him.

unfortunately with change of administration and cut backs...the money coming in and going out becomes more important than the education of the students....

if possible get references, info from past students, if they have any placement programs, sometimes you can go on line and get a run down on the professor's rating.

basically you have to find out what inmates are running the asylum...good luck!

[Dogs]

The problem with community college is quite similar to everything else the government touches.

It's about money. Problem with that is, when it's about money a nation becomes divided by a natural instinct to cover your own ass, and good luck to anyone else. Money is the new food, water, shelter, travel, knowledge, etc.. Money is everything you're exposed to, and for every reason you're exposed to it, is because someone wants more money.

How this translates into human behavior in an organization is you're swamped with employees that want money, and not much else - maybe because they thought aboutt it, and money is really the only thing left to "get" out of life as far as progress goes, or maybe they buy into this business model and support it out of ignorance, or maybe it's fun enough to work real hard, real long, for no purpose other than to watch numbers accumulate. I can program a counter for that, and get the same feeling as dumping a paycheck worth around 70-80 hours of blood sweat and smiles into the bank account.

What this does, is when you ask one of these people for information about their job, and how it pertains to you - the guy with the money EVERYONE IS AFTER - is "uhh.. *honest reply=I have no idea, I just work here... *Dishonest answer=2+2=5, I promise. I wouldn't lie to you about that kind of thing.."

With unionized jobs, there's little to no motivation to do anything at all, unless of course you just started the job and the company you're working for is full of highly highly paid moochers that don't do jack or **** for anybody, and it's you - the hard working newbie - that gets laid off.

You get a job somewhere else, and the bosses don't care anymore than you do about the fact you just thoroughly screwed the customer.. He might say, "Avoid this behavior in the future, but don't worry about this one.. afterall, it's just money walking through the door."

I've dropped 4 classes for one reason alone.. The "professor" started "professing" that day, fresh out of graduation from that college after studying teaching, and instead of doing anything productive, like explaining the material realistically, the "professor" can't do that, can't answer questions, can hardly read the book, and can't control the classroom..

now, this is the type of crap we had back in gradeschool, but the difference between gradeschool and college is that you're forced to pay taxes on the gradeschool regardless of whether or not you attend, have kids that attend, or anything else.. Who could complain about the crappy nature of that system, when there's no individual control over it? school=daycare and a crash course in self-destruction, in some cases it might kill you.

What's different about community college is that YOU pay for the classes, and this is the **** you get for your money. Some doofus who barely graduated as a "teacher" trying to "teach" you something the "teacher" doesn't have any idea about, but boy can he "teach"..

yeah right.

Ultimately, it all boils down to one thing. When you go anywhere, you can safely assume the company probably sucks - until proven otherwise.

What doesn't suck, is the select few individuals who actually do a good job in spite of all the hoops you have to jump through to do it, such as actually being interested in something other than money, and even rarer is that they're actually interested in what they teach.

It's a tough deal, though, because I know firsthand how much it sucks to love your job, and have some ignorant goofball griping about every little detail in very irrational sorts of ways..

"BLAH BLAH BLAH I ORDERED THIS CRAP AND YOU NEED TO GIVE IT TO ME AND BLAH BLAH PROFANITIES AND THE LIKE"

"Ma'am, this is what I go by, and this is what it says you ordered, however, as much as I expect you to be completely clueless as to ANYTHING I might say, I also assume that the clueless idiots that handled the order probably only cared about money, and told you exactly what you needed to hear to confirm the transaction.. After that, the salesman thinks to himself, "We'll let the technician handle the details."

The details are this - Customer hates me, hates my company, hates life, hates EVERYTHING because of all the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, and no straight answers. Me, OTOH, I give a real good description of the way the situation actually is, which is everything is about money, and you need to get used to it, or do something about it.

but basically, for community college, you need to individually speak with the professor you're considering learning from, and make sure the dude knows what he's doing, and hopefully teaches well, otherwise you'll probably end up like I did, and everyone else I know did.. screwed out of your time twice..

The hours you worked to make all the money necessary to go to school, and the hours you spend reading a book that, in an amazingly sterile sort of way, explains what you're trying to learn.

Now, these books cost a lot, and typically when you start the class with a good professor, he'll say, "I hate this book, but .gov makes us use it in order to have this course. sorry."

I've yet to ever even read one of the text books I've bought. I much prefer google, because I can skip all the non-speak instruction from a textbook for the course, and get some real, fast, accurate information in seconds.

but I didn't know that it was always going to be like that.. I eventually just stopped buying the books, and I still made the same A's I did with the books I bought but never used. The professors usually read directly from the book, write notes directly from the book, and discuss questions the book addresses, and typically the class doesn't have the mental capacity to ask any abstract questions geared toward a deeper understand of the subject, but instead rely on the professor to drive every bit of it..

but, professor can't in some cases, so you're stuck listening to someone twice as dull as the voice in your own head read a book to you. He reads a book you could read to yourself to you, for money.

wonderful.

The community college I go to put a note in their schedules, "If you get a job with your degree, and you're fired for gross incompetence, we will run you back through the system again for free."

hahaha.. well, if it failed once, it can't fail twice, right?

We've all got a lot more to worry about than community college, but it's necessary to realize the woes of the world are interconnected, and community college is screwed up in the same way everything else is.

Bad people = bad business.

[aggie]

it is true...all gets down to money...and the people running the show. people who don't know squat about teaching and don't care. any warm body will do sometimes. and yes you get the dull, droning, read the book,test you later attitude....

really a shame when, while some students are there for the social life...there are other serious students who are liteally begging for knowledge and a decent education.

they would rather lay off experienced, well liked, competent tenured professors as my husband was....to cut expenses and pensions and hire someone...who at times now are required to have a doctorate to start, who can't teach worth s**t!

community college, at least in florida, has become grade 13....not a good thing.

[Throwback24]

Wow lol. I honestly thank you for that very lengthy reply, both of you.

[Dreamline]

Lengthy. Whew. You ain't kidding.

There is nothing wrong with community college. If you encounter someone who has a problem with it, that means they have way more candidates for their job openings than they can deal with, so they start to winnow down the list as best they can. In other words, they start looking for ANYTHING to help them arbitrarily decide who gets called and who gets tossed.

Most of my education came from community college. I was a manager within a year, an operations manager within ten and have outearned my entire family, with four year big college degrees, who can't seem to say un-laid off.

I had none of the complaints our friend here in this thread did. My instructors were excellent and probably overqualified for their positions. I never lacked for their assistance if I needed it. I graduated with honors. But the best part was, my entire education, from tuition to books right down to my cap and gown, cost me $3,500 total. Zero student loans. I was making 50K within five years. Excellent ROI, no?

I highly recommend the experience to anyone who doesn't have an inheritance or trust fund. But you have to be smart about your career choice with regard to what the world needs vs what it has plenty of. I was not attached, passionately, to any particular field. I'm not saying don't follow your passion, but if you choose to, you have just potentially limited your earning ability so don't complain later.

I don't understand why it has such a bad wrap, do employers frown upon associate degrees?

PS: just teasing here but it may be because by the time you graduate from Yale after your third fellowship, you probably know that "bad wrap" is actually spelled "bad rap."

Jennifer

[Daffy Duck]

My experience is a positive one, similar to Jennifer's thoughts above. Many great and intelligent people at my local community college.

[aggie]

maybe it is a regional thing....

[Daffy Duck]

I'm sure. Heck, there are probably some community colleges that are better than some universities.

I am in Florida, by the way.

[pjhaggerty]

There's nothing wrong with them. In fact, for me community college is better than a resesarch university because a community college is focused more on practical skills, classes you can use, instead of cutting edge research that has very few practical uses for the next few years, or liberal arts which are not as down to earth. I'm at community college right now, getting a real estate license, which is something that other schools don't even necessarily offer. So there's nothing wrong with community college at all, especially if you can use it to save money for two years before going to a four year college. Then you get the best of both worlds.

[amj]

I had a good community college experience. I went to community colleges and a university. The students and professors seemed more genuine, authentic and willing to help at the community college than at the university I attended.

[yesman]

It all depends on what field you plan on getting yourself into. If you want to be a lawyer or doctor, you obviously have no other choice but to go to university. If you plan on taking something like engineering at a community college, then you'll have to keep in mind that you'll be competing with people with degrees once you leave, so it will be tough finding something in your field.

For the majority of highly skilled and highly paid jobs, university would be the way to go. However, if all you're looking for is a good paying job (with potential to be great paying) and are turned off by the high cost and length of university, then community college is the way to go imo.

Community colleges have come a long way, well, in my area at least (Toronto, Canada). Colleges have so many specialized programs geared specifically toward a particular job, and that is something that is very appealing to employers. You can't honestly tell me that a degree in sociology or philosophy would be more relevant in the workforce than having a specialized diploma in computer networking, graphic design, lab technologists, etc. I know many people who got degrees in science, humanities, psychology etc. who are working in jobs they hate and have nothing to do with what they studied. And on the other hand, I know people who graduated from colleges and got specialized diplomas which landed them jobs (which are in their field of study) as designers, IT professionals, health care workers, lab technicians and they all get compensated really well.

In general, universities are better. The teachers are better, the course load is a lot tougher and there's better potential to earn more money. However, don't let people convince you that community college is a joke. I've seen too many people graduate from community colleges and get good jobs within their field for me to actually believe it's a joke.