So you think you’d like to attend community college before transferring to another college or university! Many students enjoy taking this step. Typically, students who begin their education at a community college save money, as their intro classes are completed for a lower cost than they would be at a college or university. Community college students also enjoy a less dramatic transition as they go from being a high school student to a college student. Community college also gives you the chance to feel out different major possibilities before you ultimately make the decision to declare. But just because you’re attending a community college doesn’t mean the decision on where to go is crystal clear! There might be many community colleges in your area. Check out these tips on how to pick the right one:
Get the 411 On Transfer Credits
Regardless of why you’ve chosen to attend a community college before applying to another college or university, you want your time in school to count. Before choosing a community college, learn more about which courses will transfer. If you know what school you’ll eventually want to attend, find out if your classes will transfer specifically to that school. You don’t want to have to spend more time and money repeating the same courses because your credits didn’t transfer.
Consider Your Future Plan
You might be going to community college so you can knock out your basic coursework quickly before entering a major university where you can focus solely on your program. You could be starting here because you don’t know what you’d like to do, and you don’t want to pay the cost of university tuition to find out. Maybe you think an associates degree in one area and a major in another will help you find a job. Just as if you were searching for a four-year degree program, consider the programs offered at community colleges, and how they can best suit your needs. You’ll find a variety of options, all of which can prepare you for what whatever plan you’d like to pursue!
Consider Your Future Field
While there are community colleges for general areas of study, some focus on particular fields, such as technology or business. If you know you’d like to get into a certain field, and there’s a community college that specializes in that, you’ll probably want to consider starting there!
Consider Whom From High School Will Be There
Community college can sometimes feel like high school, part two. Whether or not that’s a good thing is for you to decide! If a third of your class is attending the closest community college, and you want the opportunity to break away, you may want to try for another college up the road. If like the thought of having all of your friends from high school in the same place again, you’ll probably be very happy attending a college with a high percentage of your graduating class.
Cappex can help you search for community colleges!
