A Look into Community College

I remember three main things about Freshman Orientation:

1) Meeting so many new people

2) Talking SO FAST in order to meet all of these people

3) Getting countless pieces of paperwork and informational packets

And of these informational packets (how to manage your time in college, how to meet professors, how to make friends, the usual How To’s), I received a handout that outlined the next four years of college—as a biological sciences major.

“Take these four classes this semester. Take these the next,” and so on… until you graduate college in 2013. And the verbal advice that I was given:

Freshman/ Sophomore Year: Begin volunteering in a hospital or get lab experience. Or better yet, do both!

Junior Year: Prep for your MCATS. Take your MCATs.

Senior Year: Apply! And make sure you get in.

It didn’t quite occur to me then, but achieving a science degree is honestly a science in itself: Do this. Do that. Don’t do that, and you’re golden!

And now, back to my current situation, and fast-forwarded two full years..

While many of my friends have started taking their MCAT preparatory classes—or have even taken the test already—I have just started on the volunteering stage. I am now a volunteer in the post-partum department of a hospital in Santa Monica where I have met other student volunteers, also on the pre-med path.

Two of the girls I work with both go to community colleges, and told me that they had specifically chosen that route to medical school—rather than just going to a four-year undergraduate university. They said: with smaller classroom sizes, it’s much easier to meet professors and receive one-on-one help on materialà better grades, better letters of rec, and thus, admission into other undergraduate schools or to medical school.

(Now, this definitely got me a little riled up. I specifically remember USC tour guides boasting of an average classroom size of 26 students. I’m pretty sure every single one of my science classes has had an average of 300 students…… Just putting that out there.)

And it was pretty clear after talking to these girls that they had no doubt about acceptance into USC and UCLA in the next year, and possibly into an Ivy. It seemed like a done deal, and definitely a less stressful path to university/med school (only two courses a semester!)

After hearing about the advantages of community college, I was reminded of a Facebook status posted by this guy from my high school. Honestly, I didn’t know this kid well, but from what I did know, he had no interest in academia, did a lot of drugs, and partied a little too much in high school. He ended up not attending a four-year university, and eventually enrolled in a nearby community college. This past summer he wrote this status:

“Talked to the UC Davis counselor today…I’m going to be going in the fall…LMAO to all the nerds who got into UC Davis straight outta high school…I’ve been doing whatever the fuck I want and now I’m where you guys are at…and I’ll be going even higher.”

Hmm…

So here, I’ve come across polar personalities that have gone through the community college route in order to get to a 4-year university. Obviously, I know it requires a lot of hard work to succeed in any given environment, but I just wonder why 4-year colleges are so highly regarded. It’s like we’re all ending up at the same place! Regardless of our backgrounds, we are ending up at the same schools, and with the same credentials. What specifically are college institutions providing for us, other than just a good reputation?

Something I’ve been thinking about..