Why you should go to community college FIRST

In the last year I have had about six friends decide to start college. This is terrific news; however, about five of them all decided to start off at a university.

When asked why it quickly became apparent that it seemed less overwhelming or that they wanted to go to a “well known” college. Understandably, when you get into the lingo of college and transfers it can become sort of confusing to a newb, but I promise you after one semester of college you will quickly catch on! As for those wanting to go to a reputable school, you can still get a degree from whatever prestigious facility you want, but it can be done at a fraction of the price if you just start with a community college.

The very first step in starting on your educational endeavors is choosing a school. Yes this is an obvious step, but it is also an important one. If you are going to school for a bachelor’s degree, please, please, PLEASE heed my warning and get AS MANY CREDITS from a community college FIRST. Unless of course you shit dolla bills….then go ahead yo, spend that 40k+ at a university for the same degree you could have gotten at a fraction of the cost. You will save a fuck ton by doing this.

Go to a community college for your associate degree

I did and here is why. Associate degrees generally require 60 credits. Typically, universities will accept up to 90 transfer credits. Now, let’s get things straight….I am a baller, but a baller on a budget.

For this reason, I went to a community college and obtained my Associate degree in psychology. Once completing that I went ahead and continued taking courses at that college for another year until I had right around 90 credits total.

Check it, in-state tuition for the community college I went to was $76 per credit hour. Which means for one, three credit hour class it was $228 (76×3), so one class was $228. Opposed to when I transferred to a university to finish my BA (bachelors of art), I paid $320 per ONE credit hour.

Let’s do some math real quick, the average one class is worth three credit hours which means the cost for three credit hours is $960 for ONE class (320×3). Do you see where I am going with this?? It saves so much money- $640 per class to be exact. Keep in mind, normally individuals take between two-five classes per semester.

For a full-time student taking four classes per semester, that would be saving $2560 a semester. Why people choose to go to a university for all four years is beyond me. Because guess what?? When you transfer those college credits over, and finish up those last few terms your bachelor’s degree is still going to have the universities heading. It is not like your future employers are going to know you did the first 90 credits at a community college and truthfully even if they did they would probably admire the financially savvy decisions.

I have a few friends who completed their Bachelor degree through a university and not a single one of them graduated with under 40k in debt (a couple even had around 50-60k). Whereas I graduated only owing just under 10k in student loans. 10k that I was able to pay off within the six months grace period, meaning interest free!!! Whereas those graduating with more debt, have all ended up paying interest on top of that loan amount. Do you really want to be paying on student loan debt for four or more years??

Please remember there are other fees associated with the semester. For example, books, student registration fees, and various other fees for students from the college itself. My experience with the community college was probably about $100 in fees per semester excluding books (which vary greatly).

Ultimately, the choice is yours..just at least now you can be more informed of making that decision!