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Another anecdote on the power of community college: Back in 2009 I enrolled at Community College of San Francisco. I was 19 and had no idea what I wanted to do
by jesseclay 12y ago
Another anecdote on the power of community college:
Back in 2009 I enrolled at Community College of San Francisco. I was 19 and had no idea what I wanted to do career wise, so I took broad and rigorous curriculum focused on transferring to UC-Berkeley.
The 2 years I spent there were some of the best of my life. I was frequently pushed and challenged by excellent professors who had true passion for their subjects (a few even had Ph.D.s). I grew a passion for learning Spanish (a subject that I had found painful in high school) among many others and got involved with several extracurricular groups. By my second year I was an elected student government senator and president of the business club. I was amazed by all the school had to offer hungry students and I took advantage of every opportunity. Not to mention I met some of my closet friends in life geeking out in study groups.
When it came time to apply to 4 year universities (fall and spring of my second and final year) I decided to apply to Stanford in addition to my originally intended UC-Berkeley. Just a few months later I was shocked to accept Stanford’s offer of transfer admission to complete my undergraduate degree. Going to a place like Stanford would have been unthinkable for me just a few years earlier in high school, back then I had pretty average grades (around a 3.4) and mediocre test scores. Community college let me re-invent myself as a student and start with a completely fresh slate.
When I got into Stanford I eventually started to focus in on a major and skill-set, taking a ton of CS classes in the process. While I hadn’t studied CS in community college (although I think they do offer it), I strongly feel the high level of general curriculum I took prepared me to major in nearly anything I would have liked at Stanford. I now work as a full-time software engineer, something I had no knowledge of whatsoever when I first started community college.
No doubt my admission to Stanford is an outlier for community college students (only a tiny percentage are admitted), however a ton of very intelligent and eager students transfer to 4 year universities every year, including several of my close friends. They have now entered the workforce and are highly contributing members to society and the tax-base.
I could go on forever about the benefits of community college (and in some ways how certain things were better than at a place like Stanford), however the short of it is that indeed, I also owe it all to community college, too.
- capedape 12y agoI recently took some classes at city college in SF as well. One of my professors teaches the same class at Stanford and said he doesn't water the curriculum down for the CC class. I agree with others that this has a lot to do with location. The classes I took were as rigorous as any other non-community college I've attended outside the bay area.
- zachberger 12y agoI was frequently pushed and challenged by excellent professors who had true passion for their subjects I'm paying $47,336 to go to a private institution and wish this was true. Internal politics and tenure have ensured friends of department chairs have gotten the jobs irregardless of teaching ability, skill, research, knowledge in the subject area..
- markdown 12y agoOT: > irregardless regardless is fine.
- benihana 12y agoso is irregardless. Can I ask why you take the time to correct someone when it was perfectly clear what the intent of the sentence was?
- jdnier 12y agoNo, not really. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irregardless http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irregardless
- icebraining 12y agoAs a non-native speaker, I like when people correct me; it makes me sad to see them downvoted. On the other hand, it could be argued that since I already write well enough to be understood, I should disregard further improvements, but I just can't agree with that.
- rifung 12y agoWhy wouldn't you want to help the person improve his/her English?
- cbd1984 12y agoBecause it isn't an improvement, much like how getting someone who spells it 'color' to spell the word 'colour' or vice-versa.
- jdhawk 12y agoNot all community colleges are the same. If you live in close proximity to universities with high academic standards, most of the professors are going to be recent graduates of those programs, or educators picking up extra cash and some experience teaching at CC. BFE Community College will not have the same level of academic excellence.
- jesseclay 12y agoAgreed -- little doubt that the Bay Area attracts teaching talent that colleges in less desirable areas aren't able to. That said, I feel strongly in the potential for community colleges nation wide to raise their standards and become places of first choice for citizens not entirely set on an expensive 4 year university with questionable value.
- nether 12y agoI've heard some profs at Santa Monica College also teach at USC.
- jdhawk 12y agoSure, Austin Community College is littered with University of Texas people.
- Kalium 12y agoYup. It's all about proximity to strong universities. If there's one nearby, the local CCs will be excellent. However, this is not the typical case.
- burger_moon 12y agoYes when I attended CC some of my instructors taught during the day at a private university that is ranked very high. One would always joke about how we were getting the same education as the students at the private school but for a third of the price since it was the same curriculum he taught there.
- alexisnorman 12y agoYeah, while I think community college is great, the one I attended (GCC, in AZ) basically felt like high school all over again. Horrible professors, worse students, boring (and ridiculously easy) material; I hated it so much that I ditched college for two years before deciding to go back to school at a university. As soon as I was taking university classes I started to wonder why I hadn't just started at a university to begin with. It's good to hear there's community colleges out there that emit the same level of passion in students/professors though.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- rosstex 12y agoThat's a wonderful story of choosing Stanford over Berkeley, but as a Berkeley student... congrats!
- ww520 12y agoCCSF is an excellent community college. One of the best in the country. Too bad it's mired in political fight over state accreditation and students are scared away.
- joedavison 12y agoCongratulations man! You earned it.