This is probably the biggest difference. When you go to a really selective college, you're in a community that values academic achievement. I'm at a community

This is probably the biggest difference. When you go to a really selective college, you're in a community that values academic achievement. I'm at a community college right now, doing gen-eds, and I absolutely dread all group work because the vast majority of my classmates are a) completely unprepared for the class or b) completely indifferent to actually working. Some of it is immaturity, but a lot of it is the fact that kids at a community college tend to be lower-caliber students. There are some who are doing the exact same thing as me - saving money, saving the commute - but they're outnumbered by the "Welp, I couldn't get into Yale, but Mommy and Daddy want me to go to college, so here I am." As a result, I'm a try-hard in classes that I'm paying for. I mostly grin and bear it, as I'm saving several thousand dollars per year by taking gen-eds at the CC, but there are times that I think, "You know, if I were in class with people who actually gave a shit, I'd probably get more out of it."