In recent years, many students have been choosing to go to community colleges rather than state-schools. What’s causing the trend?

Money

   With the cost of tuition at four year schools rising into the hundreds of thousands, many students are finding community college to be a better option, financially.

   At Camden Community College (CCC), yearly tuition costs $4,000. In comparison, a school like NYU costs $46,000 for yearly tuition.

   Kevin Farrow, Eastern math teacher and Statistics 1 teacher at CCC, says that students have a lot to gain financially at community colleges.

   “I have a lot of friends that have thousand dollar a month student loan payments. It’s significant. That’s like a rent, mortgage, whatever they have that keeps them for ten-twenty years, from being able to pay things off.”

   Payton Glunt, a second year student at Camden Community College (CCC), uses the low tuition prices at CCC to her advantage.

   “I wanted to make sure I was going to school in the most financially responsible way possible so I’m not drowning in student debt by the time I graduate,” she said.

   Community college is a great option for saving money in college.

Flexibility

   Community colleges are a great option because of the flexibility they offer students.

   Jason Susko, Supervisor of Guidance at Eastern, said “students may not be ready to leave home yet at 18 years old. And that’s okay, not everybody is. They may not know what they want to do, what they want to study, what career they want to pursue.”

   The flexibility at Community College is working out great for Eastern grad, Nick Catrino.

    “I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to study,” said Catrino. “[Community college] was a great place to find out.”

   At community college, students can take their time to learn what they want to do, so they don’t have to switch majors at a four year school, which can potentially cost more time and money. Nick utilized this ability to switch majors; first he declared his major as criminal justice, but then changed it to history.

   Glunt is using the flexibility that community college offers to work on the side.

“I’m able to build my schedule around work,” said Glunt, “They give a lot of options for class times and days.” By working on the side, she is able to save up money and get workplace experience.

Personalized Attention

   Some college classes at four year schools can get into the hundreds. Going to community college can give students a more intimate learning experience, which may be beneficial to the way they learn.

   “My experience at CCC has been a great one,” said Catrino. “I love most of my classes, the teacher knows us by name, and the schedule is great.”

   “The class sizes are a lot similar to high school,” said Glunt. “I feel like the professors are a lot more open to helping you and guiding you because of that.

Transferable Credits

   Going to community college can be beneficial to students wanting to get credits at a cheaper price than four year schools.

   “Community colleges are specifically gearing their classes to fit a wide variety of colleges and universities,” says Susko.

   Because many credits are transferable, students can take the same classes at CCC, and still have them apply to schools like Rowan, Stockton, and Rutgers.

   “Really, it’s not about where you start, it’s where you finish university because those are the one issuing the degree,” said Susko. “It’s not going to say ‘Rutgers University via Camden County College’, your degree is going to say ‘Rutgers University’ no matter where you start.