As a faculty member at Cañada College in Redwood City, I read with interest the column “Community versus four-year college” by high school senior Brooke Hanshaw in your Oct. 13 edition. While she gets many things right in her piece, there are several common misperceptions in there as well.
Miss Hanshaw asserts that a four-year college education provides a “overall higher level of education” than can be achieved by starting at a community college. This simply isn’t true. Many students choose to attend a college like Cañada for their lower division classes; classes that are routinely accepted by both the UC and CSU systems (as well as many private institutions) as being comparable to the courses offered at those campuses. Additionally, many faculty in the San Mateo County Community College District are nationally-recognized educators, garnering awards and accolades for their teaching excellence.
“Faster job readiness preparation” was also cited as a reason to attend a four-year school. In fact, community colleges offer career education tracks as well as lower-division courses. These tracks culminate in well-paying jobs that don’t required four-year degrees. And in cases where a four-year degree is required, a student attending a community college full-time can still complete a four-year degree in a comparable amount of time as one that starts at a four-year school. Through well-established transfer programs with the UC and CSU systems, transfer students who complete receive the same Bachelors degree as their classmates who have never attended a community college.
Additionally, students who have completed a four-year program frequently end up taking classes at a community college after graduation to build job skills. I have had many degree-holding students in my classes over the years that needed specific skills to be marketable to employers — skills they did not acquire at their alma mater for any number of reasons. Once they had the tools they needed, they moved into well-paying jobs at leading technology and entertainment companies.
The lower cost of a community college like Cañada allows students to explore different subjects and avenues, therefore discovering what they are truly interested in without accumulating tremendous amounts of student debt. One of my faculty teaches a class for us and for a prestigious private institution. Same class, same material, same instructor. At the other school, students pay several thousand dollars in tuition for that class; here at Cañada, they pay about $150 for the same material.
Miss Hanshaw is correct when she says that in the Bay Area, community colleges are frequently seen as “not enough” to succeed. This is strictly a perception issue, however, fostered by the well-meaning belief of parents and family that a student must go to a prestigious four-year school from the outset in order to have a chance at success. Nothing could be further from the truth. In my department, our faculty has over 100 years of industry experience in our fields that we routinely share with our students, who have gone on to win major awards with their work, transfer to top-flight schools, and land jobs at leading companies in their fields.
Community college isn’t just for those who struggled in high school, have financial issues, or are lifelong learners. It’s for everyone who’s looking for a quality education close to home for a fraction of what four-year institutions charge.
Paul Naas, MFA, is professor and program coordinator of Digital Art and Animation at Cañada College in Redwood City.
(5) comments
Community College - a place you can change your major when you change your mind, without the pain you'd have at a 4 year. Save money - use it for your Master's. It's a no-brainer.
Thank you! As a Graduate of CSM. Cal Davis and M.A. Middlebury College Middlebury Vermont and Madrid, Spain I praise the Cal system of Jr. Colleges, State Universities and Universities. My friends flunked out of the 4 year schools rebounding to CSM , Canada...This state is blessed with this educational system. When the competition my kid is going to this and that Ivy Leaque School I add I learned I want three things for my kids: get a job, keep it and have benefits. No more looking at a crib and seeing a Doctor, lawyer..
Get a job , keep it and have benefits.
One of the best classes I ever took was a Photo Composition class at Canada College in the late '80s when I was a young mother. It was taught by a professional photographer. His tips have stayed with me, I so enjoyed the field assignments, and the class was very reasonably priced. Well-written column--thank you!
I totally agree with all of this piece. I didn't know what I wanted to do after high school, but found both myself and a future path at community college. My years at community college not only got me ready for transfer to a four-year university, but I found the classes comparable in difficulty -- especially after I graduated and came back to community college as a lifetime learner.
I've taken classes at all three local campuses (CSM, Skyline and Cañada), as well as CCSF and Glendale College, and have nothing but kudos to all our community college teachers and staff.
Professor Nass - Thanks! The four year prestige university sales job is a fraud. The idea that so many students graduate with crushing student loan debt is a shame. As you pointed out so clearly - what matters is the quality of the instructors, and the motivation of the students more than anything else.
When I went off to university in 1971, I had no idea what the heck I wanted to do. I knew I was fed up with school, but my parents insisted I should go. The first things I learned there: 1) I had not learned how to study during my years in middle and high school. 2) the basic subject material was the same bore I was sick of in high school, 3) no one cared if I got up, ate, went to class, or dropped out, and 4) I learned what actual hunger was all about over the weekends when I had no food, and no money.
There is a young rapper who has a super video out now about education: I think his name is Prince AM. A big talent who tells the truth about what real education means.
Our Junior Colleges, or City Colleges, ought to be renamed to show them the respect they deserve, and have earned.
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