According to U. News , the average cost of annual tuition and fees in the academic year were:. The majority of community college students commute—and living at home can save on the expensive housing and meal plans found at four-year schools. Conversely, universities are much more selective in their admissions process, taking a host of factors into consideration when determining whether or not to admit a student—for example, grades, standardized test scores, extracurricular activities, and an essay.
Our free chancing calculator can predict your odds of acceptance at over schools. Admission to a university is more rigorous, but the time spent at community college can make it easier. For many students, community college provides a chance to bolster their grades, take part in internships and extracurricular activities, hold a job, and become a more interesting candidate.
Classes at community colleges are often smaller than comparable courses at universities, allowing students to have greater access to teachers, take a more active role in the classroom, and build relationships with their classmates. The students woke up and fought them off with firewood. And then the trustees of Dartmouth College won in the supreme court and moved back in, and Dartmouth University disappeared forever.
So did the professors go back to work and say they were sorry? Probably not. All this to say, Dartmouth College is prestigious Ivy League school that offers some of the highest quality graduate-level education in the country, but they really like being called a college.
John Wesley University has less than students. And that university is more than years old! To be fair though, it was called John Wesley College for 50 years, and it was called a plain old school before that. You could maybe call those differences guidelines, but it might be more appropriate to call them suggestions. Collegiate universities are essentially a collection of colleges that share a campus and an administration.
This nebulous classification traces its origins back to the twelfth century and is most popular in western Europe, but there are about thirty collegiate universities in the U. Traditionally, collegiate universities are either residential, meaning the students live at the college within the university, or non-residential, where the colleges play a primarily academic role. These colleges are often named after an influential person who was affiliated with the college.
The real question is: what do you want to do with your life? Your answer will help you find the right school for you , which could be a college, a university, or something else entirely. They may have exactly what you need to get into a highly specialized role in less than two years, and for less than a fortune.
With a little research, you can find the best schools in your desired field. Compare them to find what works best with your budget and goals. Starting school without a degree in mind can really mess you up.
You could wind up spending extra years of your life and thousands of dollars for a degree you could have planned for. This can be a great time to discover what you want to major in. The main disadvantage is that if you know what you want to do ahead of time, you can sometimes kill two birds with one class and find courses that count as both general requirements and part of your major.
Something else to consider: do you have enough money or financial aid options to afford four plus years of postsecondary education? Of course, people can change. You know yourself best. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Community colleges also serve as an access point into a traditional university for students who plan on continuing their education. A community college is exactly as the name implies: It is a higher education institution that primarily serves its surrounding community. Community colleges offer traditional academic classes like math and history that will transfer to a four-year college or university but also offers community programs like resume help to job seekers, or swim classes to children.
As community colleges grow in popularity they are serving more individuals both locally and from around the world. The main difference between a community college and a university is that most degrees at a community college only take two years to complete, while degrees at a four year university take four years to complete.
Why does it take four years to complete a degree at a university but only two years at community college? It will not be until your third and fourth year that you focus on your upper-level requirements which will be specific to your chosen degree program. Instead of doing the first two years at a university, some students will elect to do those two years of general education requirements at a community college first and then transfer to a traditional university to complete the last two years of their degree.
Instead, community colleges award certificates and associate degrees. Besides the time-frame needed to complete a degree, another big difference between a community college and a university is campus size. Universities are much larger than community colleges; some universities in the United States have over a hundred thousand students. By looking at the per-year cost, you have a better comparison between the two.
If you want to go to a university, you could spend five times more for a year than you would by going to a community college.
The differences may be even greater depending on the schools you compare. You will need to budget for books, technology fees, lab fees, health insurance and specific program fees. For instance, some professional programs may have extra fees to cover the costs of any tools or devices used in the course. Community colleges often have much smaller classes, especially compared to the first two years of a university. Many four-year colleges will have lecture classes in auditoriums to accommodate the hundreds of students in attendance.
However, community colleges have smaller student to teacher ratios. At Mount Wachusett Community College, we have small class sizes with a student to teacher ratio of In fact, at The Mount, classes cannot exceed 20 students enrolled.
You will take an assessment test after the community college admits you. This assessment determines which level of courses you can enroll in. You can still get into community college and focus on getting the best grades possible. Check with the school you want to transfer to for more specific details. Another benefit of community college is the low or no application fee. The Mount does not charge its prospective students to apply.
The convenient online application only takes 10 minutes to complete. However, many schools charge more. These fees are non-refundable, even if the school does not accept you. Plus, you will have to write essays, send in recommendation letters, submit SAT or ACT scores and your high school transcripts for each application.
The process can take hours per school you apply to. Despite the lower costs, smaller class sizes and easier admissions, community colleges may not offer all the same amenities that four-year universities do. These cons of community college may affect your decision, depending on what you plan to do during your college years:.
If you played sports in high school and want to continue to do so in college, you may want to consider a four-year university. For highly skilled players, sports-based scholarships could help you afford your education. However, if you still want to become involved in your school, you may be able to participate in clubs and meetings to socialize with other community college students.
Keep in mind these groups may not have the same high-profile, competitive nature that university sports and music have.
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