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The only issues I see with this is the peer effect, where students play to their playing field. Intelligent and motivated students placing themselves around les

The only issues I see with this is the peer effect, where students play to their playing field. Intelligent and motivated students placing themselves around less intelligent and less motivated students will often find themselves doing worse too, even up to not graduating. I myself know I am susceptible to this and try to push myself be being around other talented people. Not saying that there aren't intelligent and talented people in community college, but it may have an impact on your performance. The other issue is missing out on extracurriculars. I learned a lot on my student news organization and got to experiment with building websites and trying out new special features (this was back when news orgs were a lot more cautious on the Web). It helped me get my first few jobs. It also helped me make a lot of connections (same with just going to the same school for four straight years). If you go through with this plan, join some organizations as a junior at your four-year institution and get to know people outside of class. Connections matter a lot. Also, join professional organizations and go to conferences. You don't have to start doing that while a student, but it can't hurt either. Luckily you're in Maryland where we aren't cutting higher education left and right. College Park is one of the better state schools, and it's pretty affordable still.

gph 13y ago
Good points, I suppose I was looking at it from my POV. Even before I started going to college I've loved learning on my own and developed an enjoyment of computers, so it doesn't matter much to me motivationally who my classmates are. Not to sound cocky, but the Intro classes I'm going through are already below my knowledge level (except some of the Math). By the time I'm hitting the higher level courses I'll be at the 4-year university. I guess it depends on the community college, but I imagine most of the larger ones in major metro areas have extracurriculars that somewhat rival large universities. Here in Baltimore Co. there are a lot of clubs and the student newspaper is a pretty decent production[1]. Still I get what you mean about connections, especially in some of the more social disciplines like business. But for me (Comp Sci) it wouldn't be worth the extra 60k+, and I actually already have some connections into the field through family. Nepotism works for me :D [1]http://blog.ccbcmd.edu/connection/ http://blog.ccbcmd.edu/connection/

gph 13y ago

Good points, I suppose I was looking at it from my POV. Even before I started going to college I've loved learning on my own and developed an enjoyment of computers, so it doesn't matter much to me motivationally who my classmates are. Not to sound cocky, but the Intro classes I'm going through are already below my knowledge level (except some of the Math). By the time I'm hitting the higher level courses I'll be at the 4-year university. I guess it depends on the community college, but I imagine most of the larger ones in major metro areas have extracurriculars that somewhat rival large universities. Here in Baltimore Co. there are a lot of clubs and the student newspaper is a pretty decent production[1]. Still I get what you mean about connections, especially in some of the more social disciplines like business. But for me (Comp Sci) it wouldn't be worth the extra 60k+, and I actually already have some connections into the field through family. Nepotism works for me :D [1]http://blog.ccbcmd.edu/connection/ http://blog.ccbcmd.edu/connection/