Rachel McDermaid

4 November 2014
ENG 111: Paul Anderson
Rough Draft
Debt or No Debt?
Today, there is a controversy on whether or not a Community College is
okay to go to rather than a College University. Some say community colleges
are a way better place to start off due to costs and because you receive the
same education, whereas others say that students can only receive the most
quality education at college universities and its worth the thousands of dollars
in debt. This essay will show both sides: those who are in support of going to
community colleges before a four-year institution, and those who believe going
to a university first will be more beneficial to the students education, and it
will also show specific opinions, for example, some students get made fun of for
attending a community college after high school. Clive R. Belfield and Thomas
Bailey will discuss the benefits of community colleges, Mark Blankenship will
explain why people think community colleges are fake colleges, and the
audience of this essay is geared toward students that are trying to decide
which path they would like to go down; starting at a community college, or
university first, and learning the pros and cons in others opinions. However,
students today are told that attending a community college prior to a university

is recommended because they provide near the same education as universities

do during the first two years of education, with a far less cost of tuition, and
most, if not all, transfer to a University that a student will go to after finishing
classes at the two-year college first.
Benefits of a Two-year College Over a University
The article entitled Something to Fall Back On: Community Colleges as
a Safety Net by Demetra Kalogrides and Eric Grodsky gives a large amount of
benefits towards attending a two-year college rather than a four-year college.
They explain that many students who attend a four-year institution that fail to
continue, or obtain the grades needed to succeed, have a two-year college to
fall back on, and they most likely end up doing a lot better. Also explained in
the article is when a student transfers to a two-year college, or starts off at one,
and obtains the skills and ability needed, they then will transfer back to a fouryear college and pursue their desired degree; while doing so, they help save
themselves a lot of debt (Kalogrides and Grodsky, Something to Fall Back On:
Community Colleges as a Safety Net).
One major benefit of attending a community college before an actual
four-year college, that is no secret, is the cost of tuition. Students that start off
at a university put themselves into tens of thousands of dollars in debt their
first year of college, and a majority do not achieve their pursued degree.
Attending a two-year college will help with study habits and persistence and
will prepare students for when, or if, they transfer to a four-year college. Also,

many students that start off at a University get overwhelmed with the new
environment they are living in and find it difficult to focus on schoolwork or
their degree, whereas starting off at a community college helps with the
transition from high school to college in many ways (Belfield and Bailey, "The
Benefits of Attending Community College: A Review of the Evidence.")
Similar to Belfield and Baileys claim that there are many benefits to
attending a community college, Blankenship asserts that it is very beneficial
and there are many more reasons, such as; most community colleges will work
with their students and their families. Their incredibly cheap cost per credit
hour helps families that are struggling financially. According to a 2005 study
by the U.S. Department of Education, nearly half of all undergraduate students
are enrolled in two-year institutions, and millions of them are from low-income
or immigrant families. That means community colleges are not only enrolling
students, but also helping them to become upwardly mobile for the first time
(Blankenship, Is Community College Really College?). Mark Blankenship
writes in his article that studies have shown that a majority of the students
that obtained certain degrees at Universities have started out at a community
college, which shows (and we assume) that most students that attend
community colleges take their education seriously.
The articles, essays, and works of these authors have told us mainly the
same thing but they each go about it in different, unique ways. They have all
shown that attending a community college before attending a college university

can be very beneficial to the student, and sometimes also the students family.
Even though each has come to the same conclusion, the difference between
each of them is shown in their examples. Each author gives different, specific,
and unique examples on why they think it is beneficial to attend a community
college before a four-year, although, they conclude the same thing.
Drawbacks of a Two-year Community College
Everybody treats a community college differently than any other private
college or University. According to Doug Bryan in The Advantages and
Disadvantages to Attending Community College many students treat a
community college as an extension of high school, whereas the professors
expect students to show up to class on time, and participate in activities that
will be held. He states that it is a place where students get exposed to the real
world (Bryan, The Advantages and Disadvantages to Attending Community
College). Bryan also tells us that when students go off to college, they develop
life skills like cooking and doing laundry on their own because they dont have
their parents living at school with them, but while attending a community
college, the students dont get to develop these life skills since they are still
living at home.
Blankenship, similar to Bryan, believes that community colleges have
their drawbacks, but, unlike Bryan, Blankenship claims that there are certain
reasons some students dont like going to a community college at first and one
of those reasons is because they feel ashamed. Community college students

sometimes get made fun of for going to a two-year school because many say
that its not really college or tease them for going to school so close to home
and not getting the real college experience. There is also a new hit T.V. show
airing right now on NBC called Community which deliberately makes fun of
community colleges by stereotypically displaying their characters as students,
professors, and administrators that mess around and dont take the
community college life seriously, while making jokes they entire way through
the show (Blankenship, Is Community College Real College).
One other reason people and students think that a University is better
than attending a community college is because they think they are wasting
their time. Community colleges only offer a select amount of courses, some of
which may or may not transfer to the desired four-year college they plan to go
to after. Most say that it would make more sense if the students would just
start out at a university where they know for sure their desired major with the
courses they need are an option.
Blankenship and Bryan agree on the point that attending a community
college is not as beneficial as attending a university first, but each of them
portray their opinions in different ways. Blankenship tells us that students try
to refrain from attending a community college because they think they will get
made fun of, whereas Bryan explains that students who attend a community
college dont get the experience of living on their own, and do not develop their
life skills that they will need in their future. Instead, he says that while

attending a community college, and living at home, they will depend on their
parents to be responsible for laundry, cooking, etc. As you can see, both
sources agree with each other on the subject but have different perspectives
and opinions on why they think Universities are more beneficial.
Conclusion
In conclusion, attending a community college is a good thing and helps
students pursue the degree they are most interested in. As you can see, there
are far more benefits regarding attending a community college rather than
drawbacks. Today, students are encouraged to attend a two-year college before
transferring to a four-year because they will receive the same credits they
would at a university, the classes are nearly the same, the cost of tuition will
save them thousands of dollars the two years that they do go, and the credits
taken will most likely transfer to their desired four-year institution. Therefore,
this essay should help students who are trying to decide if they want to attend
a community college before a college university or not.

Works Cited
Belfield, Clive R., and Thomas Bailey. "The Benefits of Attending Community
College: A Review of the Evidence." ProQuest. North Carolina State
University, Department of Adult and Community College Education, Jan.
2011. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.
<http://search.proquest.com/docview/851302628/AD10829B213440F9
PQ/3?accountid=35715>.
Blankenship, Mark. "Is Community College Really College?" ProQuest. Prakken
Publications, Feb. 2011. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.
<http://search.proquest.com/docview/848640708/A93690D1C4504FE0
PQ/1?accountid=35715>.
Bryan, Doug. "The Advantages and Disadvantages to Attending Community
College." Ducerus. Ducerus Company Blog, 10 Aug. 2013. Web. 20 Nov.
2014. <http://ducerus.com/hq/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-toattending-community-college/>.
Kalogrides, Demetra, and Eric Grodsky. "Something to Fall Back On:
Community Colleges as a Safety Net." ProQuest. University of North
Carolina Press, Mar. 2011. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.
<http://search.proquest.com/docview/867406558/D26005A88E424E99
PQ/1?accountid=35715>.