Speaking For Change

For many students graduating high school, a 4-year college is their clear path. For others, it’s a vocational school, military, or the workforce, or a 2-year/community college. But for those that are undecided between swinging for a 4-year or starting at a 2-year, here are some factors that can help shape your decision. 

2-year vs. 4-year factors:

• Academic readiness
• Money
• What you want to do after school
• Prestige
• The College Life

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Academic Readiness

In general, 4-year colleges will bring higher academic standards, more work, larger classes, less attention from professors, and an environment that may be more distracting. This makes the academic part of college more challenging. And it shows: almost 50 percent of college students never graduate.

So, how prepared are you to survive in that environment? Are your reading, writing, math, and science skills enough that you will be able to keep up in a fast-paced curriculum, or would you benefit by more individualized attention and possibly some foundational classes?

The risk is if you are uncertain and go to a 4-year, you may quickly fall behind and end up dropping out and wasting thousands on tuition. If your academic skills could use a little reinforcement, a community college may be the place to take the required courses and get your academic skills honed for the increased workloads.

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Affordability and pay-off

First look into scholarships. Secondly, consider the amount of money you would save if you spent a couple years taking courses at a community college instead of paying more for them at a 4-year. You can compare the curriculums and do your research to make sure the credits transfer. If your GPA from high school is a little shaky – a community college is a great opportunity to improve your grades which is helpful when applying for scholarships.

Also note that in many careers, if you finish at a 4-year institution, your salary will be in the same range regardless of if you started at a community college or not. Employers may require that you have a bachelor’s – but I have yet to see one that requires you take a certain path to obtain it. So you can save a lot of money on your education and come out making a similar salary if you perform well at the community college level.

How much more will it cost you short-term and in loans to take the 4-year route?

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What you want to do after school

If going to a 4-year college will provide you with the education that will substantially help you in your career, it would be a sound choice. However, if the career paths you have in mind does not demand the rigors of a 4-year education, you may simply not need it.

Each field is different of course – in some cases it makes sense to get a 4-year degree and work at lower wages after college in preparation to pay dues in a field or prepare for graduate school. What is less financially advisable is getting a 4-year degree in a field of study you are not passionate about pursuing then taking a job that has nothing to do with that field which you could have gotten without the degree.

So what do you want to do after school? Is a 4-year college the best path towards that?

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Prestige

The prestige and social recognition of attending a 4-year can be very alluring compared to a community college. Only you know how much you value that prestige and cache. Here are a couple things to keep in mind though: First, if you are going to transfer, it’s just one or two years without those bragging rights and hoodies with your school name on it. Secondly, if you do the 4-year route and end up dropping out or without a job, that prestige and school pride isn’t going to pay your Visa bill.  So, how important is the prestige of a 4-year to you?

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The College Life

One of the key advantages to a 4-year college is the “college life”.  It’s an experience filled with late night parties, early morning parties, hanging out in dorms, 4AM trips for Chinese food, tailgating for football games, coeds, concerts, cultural shows, high profile guest lectures, leading research projects, and tons of school spirit. If you want to spend some time in this world, the 4-year is the place to go and it’s good to start as a freshman.

Living on campus also puts you in a unique position for personal growth. You have the chance to pick from a very wide variety of people to make friends with and hang out with; you set your own schedule; you learn to work with and interact with people from many different backgrounds; you select from a large range of extra curricular activities; you have a whole new environment to establish a sort of identity for yourself. There is something to be said for the well-roundedness that you develop from four years in this type of environment.

So, how important is the “college life” worth to you?

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Final thought

If you’re reading this site and got to the end of this article, I will go out on a limb and assume that you are proactive in managing your academic career. If that is your mindset and attitude, regardless of the path you choose, you will most likely be fine.

Trust in your ability to learn from mistakes, explore new possibilities, and do your best and you will have a successful and enjoyable set of years ahead of you.

Visit campuses. Talk to students at both community college and 4-year institutions, and also recent graduates of both. There is plenty of information available to help you make this decision.  After considering the factors above – pick a path, and run with it.

(image: http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/wp-content/uploads/decision.jpg)