re: #511 MandyManners

When I dropped out of UW after I was raped, I went to a community college for two or so quarters but, since I was specifically pursuing a B.A. so I didn’t pay attention to the technical/employment-oriented classes so I cannot speak about that angle.

However, I’ve seen plenty of ads across the Internet for technical schools saying “FCBBHO wants single moms to go back to school”. They’re using him as a money-making tool. Who will pay for the tuition of those students? Federal and state loans? What will be the percentage of defaults?

When I went, I knew exactly what I wanted - a BS in computer science. The community college didn’t offer that, but it let me punch down two full years of completely transferable credits at a fraction of the cost of the state university I wound up getting my bachelor’s from. And I had no problem keeping up when I transfered - I got every bit as good an education, maybe better, as I would have gotten at the big leagues. In fact, cc instructors tend to be there for one reason and one reason only - to teach. Unlike universities, where instructors are there to do research, and often view their mandatory class load as a burden.

A full load at a community college will set you back around five hundred bucks per semester hereabouts; you can probably toss in another two or three hundred for books and supplies. If you can’t scrape together eight hundred bucks to improve your life, you probably don’t belong in college yet.