College Thoughts

There are four very important decisions in life, church(religion), marriage partner, career, and college education. Getting a college degree is an important part of one's life, since it affects your entire life. All degrees require a set of basic courses that are normally taken the first two years of college. These can be taken at a junior college, a four-year public university, or a private university. In 1994, USA Today showed the monetary value of schooling beyond high school. The expected lifetime earnings for a high school graduate is $820,870 while a person with a BS can expect to earn $1,420,850. So, the question is where will you attend and what path you will take getting a degree. The question is really what is the best avenue for earning the first two years of base college credits. Since I am biased, I must tell you now that I believe that for most students, the junior college route is the best avenue to take.

There are several factors to be considered when considering a college choice. These include 1)Admission competitiveness, 2)Costs, 3)Learning Environment, 4)Social Setting, and 5)Family tradition.

Unless a student has a very good SAT/ACT score and an excellent grade point average, admission to many universities is limited. A couple of years ago, only 65% of those applying to the University of Texas were accepted and only 25% of those applying to Rice. At that time, the Univ. of Texas had SAT 1222/ACT 26 scores and Baylor had SAT 1100/ACT 24 scores.

Another important factor is that of Cost. The least expensive option is to attend a local community college for 2 years, at about $1000 a year, and transfer to a 4 year institution to complete your bachelors degree. If you check the Profiles of American Colleges(2001), they show that a 2 year college costs around $1700/year while the 4 year public university runs around $3500, and a private university can run $16K(These numbers are for in state students). The numbers are out of date, but all have gone up since the research was done.

If a person is attending to learn, then the Learning Environment is very important. There are several factors to consider when thinking about attending a junior college. The local junior college has an average class size of 18 students per class. You get to know the professors at a junior college and they know you. You also get to know other students because of class size. The emphasis is on the basics with the intent of giving you a jump start so you can move on to a 4 year university. All the professors have a master's degree and enjoy teaching. Their libraries are geared for the students with little emphasis on research.

It is possible to learn at a large university, but may be more difficult than expected. Many classes at the larger universities may have 500 or more students in a class. The student is a number and doesn't really get to know the professor, and the professor definitely doesn't know all the students. Many of the professors have no interest in teaching, but are required to while doing their research projects. In many of the basic courses, graduate assistants will teach the classes. They are not trained to teach and have a primary focus on obtaining their advanced degrees. To further complicate the issue, some of those teaching the undergraduate courses do not have English as their first language. Many are very difficult to understand. The libraries at these larger universities have an emphasis on research. Some courses are designed to eliminate the students who are not serious students, rather than build the basics to succeed.

Another factor is that of social setting. If the student and parents want the student to experience being away from home and being able to grow up, then going away to a large university may be the best avenue to take. This could also be accomplished by attending a junior college away from the student's home, but because many of students who attend junior colleges live at home, there is an entirely different social setting than at a large university.

Some families want their children to attend the same colleges and university that they attended. This may bring pride to the parent, but can be the wrong solution for a student. The student is the one attending class, expected to study, and has to be happy with the decision of where to attend. At the same time, choosing a college because a friend or girl friend is attending there can also be a mistake.

So, the question is the local junior college always the best/preferred route for your teenager? This may not be the best choice. The affiliations with a larger universities is very important[do the credits all transfer to that university?] Look at the factors mentioned above. How do the cost compare between the junior college and a large university? What is the admission policy/criteria? What is the quality of the learning environment? i.e. What is the class size, instructor's education level, is English their first language, are the instructors doing research or pursuing advanced degrees, have they won any awards for teaching? And, can the student get through the admission process.

In industry, few if any employeers will ever ask were you went to college your first two years. First, they are interested in your highest degree and where it was obtained. After joining a business, most are interested in PERFORMANCE and could care less about what degree you have or where you received it. About the only time this would come into play is if your college of choice belonged to the good ole boy's club, i.e., here in Texas, we have the A&M Aggie club and the UT Horns club which are both informal organizations that sometimes enter into business relationships.

Another misconception is that attending a prestigious university will make it easier to get into a medical, law, or vet school. Unless you have an inside connection on the selection committee, there are 2 major driving factors into getting past the admission hurdle. For the medical or vet school, the MCAT score and for law school, the LSAT score is the MAJOR factor in both. A distant second factor is the overall grade point average. In the research that I done, there was never any weighting factor applied to the grade point as a reflection of where the candidate attended undergraduate school. [I might also add that if you are a white male, you are at the bottom of the food chain as far as entrance preference goes.]

The choice of college is important and should be not made on emotion, or because family and friends have or are attending that school. If you would like me to visit your church or youth group and go through a presentation on the advantages of attending a junior college, please send me an email for more information.