Typically, but not exclusively, community colleges, confer the lowest post-secondary collegiate degree available. The associate’s of the arts degree. Sometimes community colleges are called ‘junior colleges,’ but I have seen that fall into disuse. The term ‘community’ college is in reference to its stated mission, to serve the educational needs of the community. That will mean non-degree conferring studies as well, if you want to become a paramedic, you will probably end up at a community college. If you need to learn to fix a car, community college. I do IT certification tests occasionally, back before online proctoring was ubiquitous I would take those exams at the local community college.
I say not exclusively because in some states you can earn some bachelor’s degrees at a community college. In my local area you can get your BSN (bachelor’s in the science of nursing) solely at the community college. The main mission of the community college is to reduce the barrier to education as well as provide options that are relevant, since nursing is in demand and the traditional college schedule is a major barrier, my state decided BSN should be able to be earned at the community college.
It is a great time to be a community college attendee. In my state, as well as others, the community colleges offer something called ‘dual enrollment’ to high schoolers. This means there are a non-zero number of high school graduates who, when they walk for high school graduation, also earn an associates degree. Since community colleges are often affiliated with local universities, you can often transfer the class with the grade to the university. It is how I did calc I-III, at a community college. The class code had -GT in it, which stands for my state’s little program for allowing classes to transfer without fuss.
If I were to mentor high school sophomores (and I had a colleague do this very path), I would suggest dual enrollment instead of AP, earn the associates (in my state the college credits are covered by the high school) with only -GT classes, enter college as an academic junior, earn your BA/BS by age 20 only paying for 2 years of in-state tuition. In some states, depending on family income, NY is a good example, you can actually get all 4 years done by 20 with *zero* tuition paid.
Community colleges do what public colleges were supposed to do, provide an affordable way to get an education.
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