As a high school student, I have experienced so many encounters in which students or adults around me have talked about going to community college instead of directly to a four year college or university in a negative way. However, as a society, we need to change the way we view community college.

Community colleges, also called junior colleges, are typically two-year public education institutions that are intended for anyone to enter anytime after completing high school. They offer direct training for students to prepare to enter the workforce in just two years and classes to transfer to four-year institutions. In our area, there are a variety of community colleges, including Sierra College and American River College.

The average tuition of community colleges is much cheaper than both public and private higher education institutions that are in-state or out-of-state. 

In California, graduating seniors are eligible for two years of free tuition at community colleges, lowering the overall cost greatly. The money saved through free tuition can allow students to save more money in the long run and lower the amount of student loans needed.

With higher education in such demand in today’s world and more people being expected to have a college education, many students feel that they need to go to prestigious colleges in order to be a cut above the rest. As a result, many students feel that going to a community college makes them less than those who go straight to four-year colleges. By going to these prestigious schools, students and their families spend much more money on their education, which can be done for much less at a community college. 

Many people believe that community colleges do not offer quality education because they are so inexpensive. With much smaller average class sizes compared to most four-year colleges, students are usually able to get individualized feedback on assignments. This better prepares them for their degrees because they can learn from their mistakes easier than those in large lecture classes.

Additionally, a large amount of people feel that community colleges are solely for people who are not smart enough to go to a four-year college straight out of high school. However, the majority of students who attend a community college do it to save money. Society should not designate community college students as “failures” for choosing to go to a two-year institution instead of straight to a four-year college. Many view going straight to a four-year college as a way of determining how smart or hard-working someone is, but this heavily relies on what resources that student has.

The stigma that comes with community college needs to be destroyed for a variety of reasons. The stigma causes people to feel ashamed of their education, usually because community college is viewed as being for those with a lower socioeconomic status or for people who are “not smart enough” to go straight to a four-year college. 

 Just getting higher education, no matter what kind of school it is from, should be celebrated and commended. Community colleges provide more affordable opportunities for people, which makes it such a great choice for many students.

By dismantling the stigma of community colleges and getting rid of the negative assumptions about community colleges, we can start to focus more on the people that receive more opportunities from being able to attend community colleges. Focusing on the people that get more opportunities will lead us to seeing others as equal, no matter where they start their college journey at.