Unpopular Opinion

Good unpopular opinion, because it's a horrible opinion.

There are many reasons to go to a community college over a college to start out.

I for one struggled with a full university and failed out my first year. I wasn't used to the workload, and I was used to more 1 on 1 attention from teachers in high school. Universities are the exact opposite, massive 1000 person lectures, TAs with barely any time to work with you. I went to a community college because I needed something to help me grow into being a college student.

Community college gave me smaller class sizes where I could actually ask the professors questions. It gave me opportunities to talk to them after hours, and ask questions. They were more accessible and took an interest in helping me succeed. After 2 years, I went on to finish my full degree back at a full sized university 2 years later.

and we haven't even talked about the cost. I spent about $2k on community college per semester. University wanted 15k per semester, and that's not even including books/food/housing.

Take it from me. That was all over 10 years ago that I was in college and doing that. What you're saying is a trope - it's arrogant and it's definitely coming from a standpoint of "Pushah, you aren't at a university, you're not even on my level". As a full university graduate who now is well into his career, doing pretty dang well, I firmly can tell you that this entire way of thinking is wrong, and arrogant.

People learn differently. That does not mean they are stupid, or that you are smarter. Some people absorb through reading, others through auditory, I was someone who needed examples and through question/answer. I learned the exact same information, but the difference was I had professors who took the time to make sure I understood the subjects, and gave me the tools to learn differently in university later.

Without community college I would have failed out like the standard 40% of the class did in the standard university classes. Community college got me standing upright again when University failed me. I graduated, and I am better because of it.

Edit: Out of curiosity, I went through your history and found your post:

I’m in a catch 22 situation. I want to go to a four year college, but I was previously placed in the remedial track and have a poor academic standing. If I go to a community college, I could improve my grades, but the material they cover is a replacement for high school classes and I’d be precluded from signing up for entry classes at the four year college. This seems like to would put me at a disadvantage when that finally happened and I would only be setting myself up for long term failure.

Friend, Community College is not where stupid people go. Going to community college, even after a university, is not a failing. It feels like a gut punch, trust me I went through it. It was a vastly different experience compared to university. If I'm making assumptions, you're facing something similar to what I was before.

You can keep thinking the way you're thinking, and refuse to actually try community college. You can fail out of a university and somehow think by not going to a 2 year school that you were still better. Or you can suck it up, accept life changes things, and adjust. I personally built a plan, and I knew going in that it was temporary, and that I would work my way back in, and I did.

This is 100% on you. There are no excuses anymore, there's no one to lay blame at this point. If you're truly facing this, then this is 100% in your head, and you need to figure out how you want to make your goals a reality. Maybe shitting on community college isn't really a long term plan. Maybe accepting and getting help if you need it is. I don't know, you have to decide.

I can speak for the last part: "This seems like to would put me at a disadvantage when that finally happened and I would only be setting myself up for long term failure.". This is absolutely not true. I have never once, in my entire life, had anyone ask me if I went to community college. Not that I'm shy about it, I'll happily tell people, I'm not ashamed of my past, but it doesn't come up. Colleges really try to convince you that your GPA and transcript matter. It really honestly doesn't. Maybe for your first job. I've never had anyone ask to see my transcript, my GPA, or any details about my college beyond selecting "B.S. Degree" from a dropdown.

There's easy classes and hard classes.

I took "swimnastics" at a real university, I assure you it was not difficult. If you wanted a harder class you should have taken a harder class.

And absolutely nothing is stopping someone from not transferring credits over. Hell, some people have done it from one university to another because they want a perfect GPA for their next level degree.

If you're trying to go to Harvard law and have a shot, but something fucks up your first semester, it's not unheard of.

In many CCs, the degree-track classes you take are going to be the same ones that you take at a 4-year school, because the schools are going to fall under the accreditation board. The big difference is that CCs tend to have more certificate programs, and two-year degree programs

The CC art classes were far harder than many of the art classes that I took in art school. Art school cares more about concept than just execution (outside of the commercial arts classes, where you need to be very technically proficient). I've seen plenty of e.g. painters with very mediocre technique that got rave reviews from professors in art school because they had a very compelling concept and approach, even though the execution was flawed. CC though? It was all about foundational techniques. If your technique sucked, you got a shitty grade, because there's no 'concept' when you're reproducing a still life that the teacher set up in the middle of the room. (I would post one of the self-portraits I did in a freshman CC class to give an example of what I mean by technique, but I'm way too identifiable to do that, even though it's been 20 years.)

My CC calc classes? Just as hard as four year. CC physics? Yup.

I went to a university that thinks of itself as prestigious - though not a US one. The teaching and the course were a bucketful of shite. All it really had was decent libraries. There was the odd smart person, but they all did mostly research and were hardly involved in teaching.

Admittedly, I chose a stupid subject that I now know to be useless, but the university shuld have known that and not offered the course in the first place. It was a massive waste of my time. Fortunately for me our Government covered most of the fees - but that just makes it a waste of other peoples money.

The whole thing seemed largely to be a badging excercise for a bunch of posh cunts.

Hmm. I have a degree from a CC and make good money and learned plenty. Your degree opens more doors and gets more interviews. It's not true for every single degree, but it is mostly true. And it saves on undergrad in bigger colleges.

This is not really unpopular, cc is looked down upon by most people