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Oct 28, 2009 -- Look to community colleges to keep tuition expenses down
College tuition is spiraling out of control. While the economy experienced deflation in 2009, tuition is up an average of about five percent!
The problem is that there's too much loan money floating around. If people had to pay upfront for their education, they'd likely be smarter consumers. But the kaleidoscope of available loans doesn't exactly encourage price sensitivity.
In addition, if we did not have easy access to student loan money, colleges would be forced to run more efficiently and keep their costs down.
That's why you'll get more bang for your buck at community colleges and so-called "directional colleges." The latter is simply any school with a description of where it is geographically located in the name, such as Clark's alma mater Central Michigan U. These kinds of schools tend to devote more of their money to educating students instead of running a bloated operation.
Consider spending your first two years at a low-cost community college before going on to finish up your degree at a prestigious university.
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Unless you're planning to go beyond a bachelors degree whether you're an overachiever or not, community college is the best way to go. Almost any university will accept your community college credentials if you need to say go 2 years at community for an associates and then finish your bachelors in a university, and in many community colleges you can complete your bachelors in your select field there without the need to transfer to a university. Those who say community colleges cannot provide a superior education to people are just wrong. The great thing about many 2-year, associate degree programs, is one can complete their degrees sooner and get into their work field ASAP. We need to take some of that war and corporate welfare cash and put it into community colleges and workforce centers. Community college is almost as American as apple pie.
Best deals...
Community college is cheap, but it's likely to be just 2 more years of high school, with no contact with anything or anyone important.
Instead, I think the best deals are at second-tier state universities (U of West Georgia and the others you call "directional"), especially those that have been upgraded in recent years. Look for an emphasis on teaching and a good advisement system (to make sure students get into the right courses at the right times).
Avoid "boutique colleges," private institutions that aren't Harvard or Yale or Duke or Emory but are just as expensive as if they were.
community college
Community Colleges are great to start out with. It slowly transitions you to the university life without jumping straight into a university setting. The class size is smaller & you get more personal experience. You can make sure all of your classes transfer by looking ahead and making sure your advisor is reliable and making the right decisions for your future. Community Colleges will save you an average of $8000 a year, which makes a big difference.
It works & you'll need to do your research
This is by far the best way to save. If only I knew to do this myself. Several of my Georgetown work-study students did this and are nearly 100K less in debt than their peers. Make sure you know what the schools you'd like to transfer to accept credit wise. And only concentrate on the general requirement courses, most schools accept the English, Literature, Math, History, etc. courses all liberal arts schools require for their students. Don't forget to learn your dream school's magic number, the total number of transfer credits they will accept. Many schools will not permit more than 50 credits. Moral: If you do your research and ask questions you can save big.
short falls of community college
It didn't work out for us. My daughter attended community college and once at the university found some of her classes were not accepted. Plus the degree she wanted, started classes year one. So she was behind and had to stay and extra year at the university to complete her degree.
Cost of community college
Community colleges are cheaper because they are subsidized my taxpayers, just looka t your real estate tax big. Clark have you been on a coomunity college campus lately? The operations are very bloated, look at their athletic program.
