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My wife went to a CC before going to a 4-year university. The challenge of studying in a CC, at least to some students, is that CC's courses are not rigorous en
by g9yuayon 4y ago
My wife went to a CC before going to a 4-year university. The challenge of studying in a CC, at least to some students, is that CC's courses are not rigorous enough. The courses are on par with those AP courses. For instance, their Calculus class focused on derivatives and integrations, while spending far less time discussing fundamentals like definition of limits, convergent functions, series, or boundary conditions in differential equations. Needless to say, they touched little on proofs, either. Their linear algebra class focuses more on matrix calculation than properties of vector space. Similarly, there were few proofs in their Discrete Maths course, little discussion on computational complexity or computability in algorithms class, no comprehensive projects on data structures like balanced trees, or graph algorithms beyond simple search.
These are not inherent problems with CC, but lacking rigorous course does impose a challenge to the students who aspire to be transferred to a 4-year college to study STEM, as they often felt insufficiently equipped to take more advanced courses in universities.
- ah27182 4y agoYea, this was my experience as well. There is a remarkable gap between a community college and a 4-year when it comes to rigor. One of my most favorite teachers back in CC was one with a super terrible ratemyprofessor score, because he expected a whole lot more out of us than just shallow learning.
- ldiracdelta 4y agoI went to a cc as part of a high school program. The math department was sooo much better at teaching and having passion for the subject than when I arrived at univesity.
- badRNG 4y agoThis was my experience as well. I went to cc prior to going to a 4-year institution for CS. The instruction in the math classes at my local community college were far more impressive than anything I've ever taken anywhere else. My theory on why this is the case is that they are prepared to teach math to 30-somethings who haven't cracked open a math textbook in a decade+.
- ldiracdelta 4y ago50% of my cc student body was high school students in that program. That cohort was higher achieving than the average hs student. I think the big difference was that they were there to teach, not do research. They would have left for engineering or s/w jobs long ago I they didn't actually love teaching
- badRNG 4y agoMaybe my experience was in part shaped by the fact that I took classes at night. Were the classes you took exclusive to members of the dual credit program? It does make sense, as basically every teacher I had at my cc was phenomenal. Though I did go to a truly massive cc.
- jay3ss 4y agoThis is anecdotal, but this is the opposite of my experience. I attended a community college in Los Angeles and its math and science courses were very rigorous. I had no trouble keeping up when I eventually transferred to a CSU (California State University).