By Yesenia Coello
Campus News
Don’t get me wrong: there’s absolutely nothing wrong with attending a four-year school straight after graduation. In fact, it seems part of a natural transition for most young Americans — bust your butt working on your SATS and college applications, go to a four-year school, assimilate into that school’s social scene, blah, blah, blah.
But what about the rest of us? For whatever reason, who couldn’t attend a four-year school immediately after high school? Don’t worry, I intend to put your mind at ease by saying that there is absolutely nothing wrong with attending a two-year school over a four-year one.
There’s Less Risk Involved
It’s no secret that universities and liberal arts colleges can be insanely expensive. It’s also no secret that many young adults enter the college scene completely unprepared or daunted by the challenges they face. Hence, why we have stories about homesick teenagers who decided that they aren’t ready to be away from home and opt to attend a school closer to home. Whatever the case may be, there’s also the excruciating fact that parents or students may have had to take out a loan or pay thousands of dollars, only to withdraw midway through the semester.
When attending a two-year school, you can usually pay off your loans upfront (as I did) or, at the absolute worse, pay far less money than you would’ve if you attended a four-year school. This also means, if you’ve decided that college isn’t for you or are unprepared for it, you wouldn’t be losing as much by withdrawing.
There are Probably Fewer Distractions
One of the biggest problems I faced in my transition to a four-year school was the sheer amount of distractions that impaired my ability to do my schoolwork. Activities such as clubs and campus-wide game nights are fun for the first weeks of school, however, they can quickly become a distraction if left unchecked. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with these things; as anyone who’s been a part of a campus club will tell you, these are a great way to network and meet like-minded people. In my case, I found clubs to be more of a distraction as I would frequently turn to them in order to find some sort of reprieve from school. Perhaps this is more of a personal gripe (as someone who struggles with time management issues), but I feel more inclined to focus on my work when there’s less going on around me, and I don’t feel like I’m missing out on a good time. The thing with four-year schools (or at least the one I attend) is there’s always something going on.
That wasn’t the case at my community college. I was still involved in a club or two there, but it didn’t feel like nearly as much of a distraction in my experience. Without these distractions, I was able to focus on my work while still having a good time.
And yes, I was able to make friends both in community college and my four-year school.
The Hand-Holding
By hand-holding I mean, virtually every authority figure at a four-year college will treat you like a child driven by your id and hormones. This was one of the biggest issues I had to deal with as a transfer student who had some degree of experience in the adult world, particularly living on campus. I like to think that I’m not alone in this experience and that other community college transfer students have felt the same way. Needless to say, falling under the guardianship of an RA one or two years my junior was a bit odd, to say the least.
If you’re used to living independently or with your family at home, it can be a bit jarring to be stuffed in a communal living situation with hundreds or thousands of other students.
The Class Load is Essentially the Same at a Four-Year School.
There are rarely any stories of two-year transfers struggling to keep up with their work at a four-year school. This is in part due to the fact that courseload is virtually the same in both types of schools. The only difference (from my experience) is that the courses one generally takes after transferring are upper-division courses, which are more specialized and topic-focused than GE courses. Sure, maybe the papers are slightly longer and you may have to spend an hour or two longer doing homework, but it’s nothing that someone who’s attended college — whether at a two or four-year school — can’t handle.
Most four-year schools also have resources readily available to transfer students, and faculty is usually willing to help students adjust to the new academic environment.
What about your experiences? Have you enjoyed your time at a two-year school, or do you wish you could’ve gone to a four-year school instead? Tell us your story in the comment field below.
Yesenia Coello attended Schenectady County Community College and now attends SUNY New Paltz.
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