Is it good to attend a community college in America?
I have been engaged in educational research and continuing education guidance in the United States for more than 20 years, and have never recommended to students and parents to go to community colleges in the United States. Because I want to study in the United States, the students and parents who consulted me like famous schools. I focus on helping students get into famous American schools. Obviously, no community college in the United States is a famous university in the general sense. Although many students with poor academic performance in high school enroll in community colleges after graduation, they hope to transfer to a famous four-year university two years later. But in fact, among the 3,654,380,000 high school graduates in the United States every year, 840,000 freshmen study in community colleges, and less than 30% of them can transfer to four-year universities to complete their bachelor's degrees, and most of them have not transferred to famous universities. Obviously, community colleges are definitely not ordinary good universities.
However, there are indeed many outstanding talents in the history of community colleges. For example, Eileen Collins, the first female astronaut in the United States who went to heaven twice, once studied at a community college; George lucas, the most successful American director and producer of Star Wars, went to a community college. Jim Lehrer, the famous anchor and host of PBS who won the Amy Prize twice, studied in community college. Even Robert Bruce Merrifield, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, studied at Pasadena City College, a community college in California, and then transferred to UCLA to complete his undergraduate and postgraduate studies.
Many China students go to the United States to study in community colleges mainly for the purpose of transferring their credits to better four-year universities in the future and fulfilling their bachelor's degrees and dreams of prestigious schools. The average age of community college students is older than that of ordinary four-year universities. With more mature students, we can better understand life and know the hardships of life, which will help them mature faster. In addition to this often overlooked advantage, the advantages of community colleges can be summarized as follows: saving tuition fees and having lower requirements for studying abroad; The entrance conditions are low, and the requirements for school performance and foreign languages during middle school are also low; Small class teaching is helpful to the communication between students and teachers; Specialized courses are more practical; Students with low pre-school level can easily transfer to a better university through hard work; Credits and courses are more flexible.
The obvious shortcomings of community colleges can not be ignored: because of the low entrance requirements, many students are not at a high level and the teaching difficulty is relatively low; Compared with famous universities, there are fewer teachers and hardware resources, and there are fewer well-known professors in community universities. Generally, lecturers are faculty members, and a high proportion of teachers are part-time teachers.
In addition to the above-mentioned world celebrities who have walked through community colleges, I have also seen some students who have studied in community colleges for one or two years successfully transfer to four-year universities, including the famous University of California, Berkeley University, Cornell University and so on. At present, many community colleges have reached cooperation projects with neighboring universities or four-year universities in our state to ensure that students can transfer to four-year universities when their grades reach a certain level. Although the number of students transferred to top universities is extremely limited, it still brings hope to many students who have no chance to directly enter prestigious schools. Even some students enter the top prestigious schools for further study after completing their undergraduate studies, and realize their dream of prestigious schools.
As the world's first maker of artificial life cells, John Craig Venter was twice rated as 100 by Time magazine as the most influential person in the world. During the Vietnam War, he served in the United States Navy. After retiring, he entered the College of San Mateo, a California community college, and then transferred to the University of California, San Diego, where he received a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and a doctorate in physiology and pharmacology. He is the most famous synthetic biologist and genomics scientist in the world, and he is the first person to complete the sequencing of human genes and "create life" through synthetic genes.
However, the scientific giant did badly in middle school. He once told himself that he had severe ADHD in middle school, and his grades in eighth grade were all C and D. Later, by testing his genes, he found that he had ADHD genes. As you can imagine, the grades in middle school are very poor, and there are few choices for soldiers who retired after the war. He had to go to a community college with low admission conditions.
Li Anguo, a professor in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering of the University of Hong Kong, got excellent grades when he was a middle school student in Hong Kong, and his family was average. He won a two-year scholarship, studied at a community college in Indiana, transferred to MIT two years later, and finally got a doctorate from MIT. After being a professor at the University of Southern California for more than 65,438+00 years, he went to teach at the University of Hong Kong.
Zhu, who went to the United States from Taiwan Province Province in his early years, positioned himself as a first-class fashion designer in Asia and America. He studied in new york and is now a leader in fashion education in new york. At that time, the new york Fashion Institute (FIT) was still a community college, and later co-founded the casual clothing brand NODICA, which achieved annual sales of $2 billion.
The purpose of listing these successful cases is to show that under unsatisfactory conditions, a small number of people have made their mark through hard work. They all applied to community colleges for their own special reasons, some because their grades were not good at that time, some because the tuition fees in community colleges were low, and some because the majors in community colleges completely met their personal interests.
However, many people are too optimistic about the expectation of transferring from community colleges to prestigious schools. In fact, they can't transfer to a good four-year university or joint school project because of their poor academic performance in community colleges. Those with top academic performance may not be able to transfer to top prestigious schools. For example, some students want to transfer to Berkeley in the future and go to the community college in California first. I don't know. Almost all international students need an A when transferring to Berkeley. Some students get into bad habits because they are with the underachievers in community colleges. They stayed in the community college for several years, and their dreams in those years were completely shattered.
Students who plan to go to community colleges in the United States should learn English well before going abroad and be prepared to study hard and live independently. Students who plan to transfer to a four-year university after two years will continue to study the necessary courses for transferring to a four-year university during their studies.
The history of American community colleges can be traced back to the idea of university 2+2 education mode and the concept of "junior college" put forward by William Renee Harper, the first president of the University of Chicago at the end of 19. The ideological basis of this idea is that liberal arts education, which originated in medieval Europe, should be promoted in the first two years of the university, which is what we often call general education, and then enter special education in the second two years. Joliet Junior College, located in Illinois, USA, was founded in 190 1, and the first community college in the United States to teach junior college courses entered the historical stage. However, with the great economic recession in 1930s, community colleges began to offer practical professional courses to alleviate the unemployment problem at that time. After the end of World War II, a large number of military industries transformed to produce consumer goods, and there was a great demand for technicians. Veterans need to learn skills when they return home to find jobs and make a living; 1944 GI Act encouraged veterans to return to school for education and training, which promoted the vigorous development of vocational training courses in community colleges.
Before 1970s, this two-year university was generally called "junior college". Because the college attracts a large number of local students, and a lot of funds come from local taxes, the name of the college has gradually evolved into a community college (or community college).
According to the American Association of Community Colleges, by the end of 20 12, there were 1 132 community colleges in the United States, including 986 public ones, 5 private ones and 3 tribes. In the autumn of 2009, there were130,000 students studying in community colleges, including 5.46 million full-time students and 7.54 million part-time students.
Community colleges are all over the United States, and every state has established a complete system of community colleges. However, the development of community colleges in different regions is not balanced. Similar to traditional American universities, although community colleges are blooming everywhere, they also show the phenomenon of gathering around the east and west coasts of the United States and the Great Lakes, which is consistent with the population distribution in the United States and fully reflects the nature and characteristics of running a community college.
Nowadays, as an important part of American higher education system, the emergence and development of community colleges have filled some gaps in American traditional university education system. Nowadays, community college has developed from the initial simple entrance education to an education system involving vocational education, entrance education, continuing education and community service. This not only makes the layout of multi-level and multi-type educational institutions in the United States more reasonable, meets the diverse talent needs, but also promotes the American higher education from elite to popular. However, parents and students need to seriously consider whether it is suitable for China students to complete their dream of prestigious schools.
Functions and characteristics of community colleges
1. Transfer to preparatory education: Two-year community colleges lay the foundation for senior students in four-year universities, and students prepare for transferring to four-year universities and studying for bachelor's degrees in the future.
2. Professional education: professional education in community colleges, obtaining associate degree, and directly entering the job market after graduation. For example, studying nursing and computer graphics in community colleges.
3. Make-up education: For those students who didn't study hard in high school and didn't prepare for college. Lay a good foundation and prepare them for going to college in the future.
4. Continuing education: Community colleges offer some non-credit continuing education courses to provide learning opportunities for those who study purely for self-improvement and personal interests. Continuing education has low requirements for students' admission qualifications.
5. Industrial training: Some community colleges sign contracts with companies to provide training in certain designated subjects, such as computer maintenance, finance, machining, programming, secretarial work, etc.
6. Distance education: Computer online distance education has become an important part of community colleges. The federal government's financial aid for students' education can be used across States, which makes community colleges go beyond the concept of "community".
Relevant data of American community colleges
Application time: the admission time is flexible.
Application conditions: graduated from high school; Foreign students have a certain foundation in English and generally require TOEFL scores.
Total number of students:130,000, and about 630,000 people get associate degree every year.
There are more than 1 100 community colleges in the United States, including:
986 public institutions
Private-1 15 institute
Tribe -3 1 station
Total: 1 132.
Credit students: 8 million 6 1.5%
Students without credits: 5 million, 38.5%.
Total number of students:130,000.
Part-time students: 7.54 million 58%
Full-time students: 5.46 million 42%
Student age:
Average age: 28 years old
Median age: 23 years old
Less than or equal to 2 1 year: 39%
22-39 years old: 45%
Over 40 years old: 15%
Race:
White: 54%
Hispanic: 16%
Black: 14%
Asians: 6%
Indigenous Indians 1%
Other: 10%
The first generation goes to college: 42%
Single parent: 13%
Non-US citizens: 6%
Veterans: 3%
Disabled students: 12%
Proportion among all college students:
Percentage of all college students: 44%
Accounting for 43% of the total number of freshmen.
Total number of native American college students: 54%
Hispanic: 5 1%
Asian: 45%
Black: 44%
Students' working status:
Full-time students are working full-time: 2 1%
Part-time jobs for full-time students: 59%
Full-time jobs for part-time students: 40%
Part-time jobs for part-time students: 47%
Scholarship application:
Various subsidies: 59%
Federal assistance: 42%
Funds received by community colleges:
Various subsidies: 46%
Federal aid: 2 1%
Joint loan: 10%
Institutional funds: 1 1%
Average annual tuition (20 1 1-20 12):
Community College (public): $2,963
Four-year university (public): $8,244
Awarded degrees and certificates: (2008-2009)
Associate degree: 630,000
Certificate: 425,000
Bachelor's degree: 48 public colleges and 82 independent colleges
Budget source:
State government funds: 34%
Local funds: 20%
Tuition and miscellaneous fees: 16%
Federal government: 16%
Other: 13%