My dd is like your dd--very high achieving. Honestly I cannot imagine her doing two years at cc first. I think she'd be bored to tears. But if she really wanted to do it... I don't know, I'd struggle too.
My ds might be a bettter case for 2+2 unless he does some major maturing. Although we have a major state university nearby which might be another option (he'd probably live at home).
My youngest chose to do community college first, and this stigma hurt her. She got a lot of side-eye from her classmates,
as if they wanted to say, "But why would you make this choice? You're smart, you take all honors classes, and you're not poor." She could see their gears turning, wondering if they'd misjudged her /wondering if she wasn't really doing well academically.
I remember the day she chose: we'd talked about options, and she was very unsure of herself. We were in her guidance counselor's office, and she just burst out in tears saying, "I just want to start at community college. I'm not ready for all the rest of this, but, Mom, I don't want you to be disappointed." I wasn't disappointed, but that was her fear.
It was the right choice for. It was about being emotionally ready to leave home; she needed those two more years at home -- and when she went to university, she was ready.
Things that were good about community college for her:
- Being a big fish in a small pond, she got a full scholarship. While we were totally able to pay, this meant we were able to save /splurge on her last two years in university.
- She started in the wrong major, and she figured that out in community college.
- Math is her albatross, and she got it out of the way at community college. She made a C in math, but since the credit-but-not-grade transferred, she graduated with a 4.0 from university.
- She's a quiet, timid kid, and she's "young for her age". Community college is a "smaller experience" /an appropriate stepping stone for her. When she went to university, she was READY /more mature. I really think if she'd gone to university right out of high school, she would have come home mid-semester, and it would've been a massive hit to her self-esteem.
- Her classes were good to very good, but probably not
great. She was challenged, she learned academics, she learned how to be a college student. She connected to her professors. She did well academically.
- She worked during her community college years, and she built up a very solid savings account.
Things that were bad about community college (or less than ideal):
- She had to make a second college choice /had to apply twice. She had to learn a new system, get her vaccination records in, learn about parking, find the bookstore, and all those little things ... TWICE.
- She received next-to-no academic guidance. If I hadn't helped her seek out information online, she would have just guessed at classes and would not have finished in two years.
- She had two universities in mind for "after", and their requirements weren't the same; for example, one university required more math than the other university -- my girl cared about that one. But, the point is, if you're not sure about your next stop, it's hard to take the right classes.
- The university you're planning to attend later can change its requirements, and if you're not yet a student, you're screwed. This isn't likely to mean more than one additional class, but it's an example of how CC students are kind of shooting at a moving target.
- A related problem: to meet the requirements for the AA/AS at community college AND the requirements to get into your major at university requires planning; it's not rocket science or anything, but making the right choices for CC & university does require more planning than going straight to university and only ever having one list of requirements.
My daughter's university roommate also came from community college (they didn't know each other until university), but she didn't plan. She poked around community college 4 years taking this and that class until it ended up earning her a degree. Now she's in her 6th semester at university and still has to go back for one more semester in the fall. She's a good student. She's highly invested in her classes, and she makes As and Bs. She isn't changing her major -- but she doesn't pay enough attention to the classes she needs to take. So she ended up without the pre-req for this or that class, and then she thought Japanese would be fun, so she took it instead of classes in her major. She's not happy with her lengthy stay in college, and she says, "No one told me to take this class instead of that class." She can't see the problem. While she's an extreme case, I think MOST people don't do 2+2 ... I think most people end up with 2+2 1/2 or 2+3 or whatever.
- She enjoyed classes at community college, but she really LOVED university. She loved living in the dorms, she loved being part of campus life -- and then it was cut short by Covid. So she really only had three semesters at university. She left "wanting more".
Overall, the community college choice was good for my daughter, but it definitely had its pros and cons.
Listen to the subtext of this. My youngest went 1500 miles away, farther than any of their classmates - because they wanted zero chance for their classmates to end up in class with them.
My students talk about this concept pretty frequently, and I think -- unless you're going to a small school -- the fear is overblown. I think they don't grasp the difference in the size of high school vs. the size of college.
I went to a large university close to home. Because of its proximity to home (and its reasonable tuition), it was
the most commonly chosen option in my graduating class. I roomed with a girl I knew from high school (our choice, not an accident), and I occasionally ran into a male high school friend who lived in the next-door dorm -- but I literally never saw most of my high school classmates on campus. Not once.
Mine did their Senior year of High School at a local Community College. And we have decent community colleges. But it was NOT on the same level as her Freshman coursework at her selective University - and the Freshman and Sophomore work has prepared them for their more intense Junior and Senior level coursework - had they done two years at CC and transferred, they'd be completely out of their depth.
I agree that my youngest's classes at community college were not as "deep" as the classes she took at university ... BUT it didn't matter:
- At the community college she took English classes, in which she excels; she made As on all the papers she went on to write at university.
- She took math, and she never took math again at university, so no problem about not being prepared for higher math.
- She took Anthropology and Political Science (maybe other classes), which were pre-reqs for getting into her major, but -- again -- no follow-up classes.
When she started university, she ONLY took classes in her major. She had no problems.
As an engineer, I will say that definitely, an engineer needs 4 years of engineering school. There's no substitute.
My husband would disagree. He had no intention of continuing his education past high school, and he didn't have a transcript that would support entrance into university. Then (because of a small birth defect) the military wouldn't take him. SURPRISE! Community college became his best option. He got serious about his grades, then transferred to university and has just retired after a 3-decade engineering career.
The problem my DS is running into with going in with most of the general ed credits is that he does not know what he wants to major in yet and had a heck of a time finding classes that he could take for any engineer major as a freshman. I almost wish he could be filling out his schedule with those general ed classes because I do believe most of them don't go in knowing exactly what they want to do.
I agree that most of my high school students have no idea what they want to do -- and/or are unrealistic with their goals. Sorry, kids, but if your high school GPA is 2.2, you're solidly on your way to a high school diploma, but you're not going to be a doctor or lawyer. And the idea of double majoring in medicine and social work just doesn't make academic or career sense. I try to give them good advice. Really, I do, but they don't listen.
. But I don't blame you for wanting you to be done with paying tuition a year earlier!
