Advantages and Disadvantages of a Community College

Many community colleges offer excellent courses for post secondary education. Community colleges play an important role in providing many affordable courses and play a major role in continuing education. Many people who could not afford the time or cost of a university education have benefited from courses offered by community colleges. The following are some of the advantages and disadvantages of community college.

Advantages

One of the major benefits offered by community colleges is that their courses cost considerably less than regular degree courses. A professional degree at many colleges and universities can cost you upwards of $100,000. You can get a similar type of education at a small fraction of the cost and many people who cannot afford regular college or university education can benefit. You can actually end up saving a lot on tuition fee.

Community colleges enable you take preparatory classes before moving on to a regular bachelor's program at a regular college or university. Now many colleges and universities allow the transfer of credits from community colleges. This is very useful when you are unable to join a college immediately for any number of reasons. Most courses offered at colleges and universities are too general and specialized courses offered at a community college can prepare you better for a particular job. They can also help you to hone your professional skills and upgrade them in these times of fast changing technologies.

It is not always possible for colleges and universities to change their curriculum to include the latest workplace techniques and this is where community colleges step in by providing vocational training in specialized careers. The duration of these courses may be too short to be offered at a regular college or university. They can also provide necessary training for career advancement. Thus community colleges provide a valuable service for those who are in jobs already and cannot take advantage of university or college education.

An important advantage of community colleges is that their teachers are more dedicated to teaching the particular course as they are usually not involved in research work or writing books. They can give more time to their students and guidance to the weaker students. These teachers have themselves undergone specialized training in highly focused areas which can be an advantage sometimes. As the classes at community colleges are usually small there is usually more one on one interaction between the instructor and students.

Disadvantages

One of the disadvantages of community colleges is that many of their courses are not compatible with the university course requirements. This becomes important if you are planning to use the community college course as a springboard for further university education. To make sure you should find out from the university or college whether the course you are considering is compatible for transferring seamlessly to a degree course.

Many community colleges don't offer residential facilities as they have mostly commuter campuses. This may offset any cost saving that might have accrued. The career opportunities after community college are rather limited and you should always consider transferring to a university for higher learning for better career opportunities. Most community colleges are equipped with small libraries and this may hinder research work. On the other hand universities offer extensive library and research facilities.