My Personal Experience at a Community College

When I first attended Delaware Technical Community College, I was 18 years old. I was a bit naive at the time and didn't realize the amount of commitment necessary to attend college. I'm sure I'm not alone. There are thousands of young adults who find they think they are ready to go to school and when they arrive they just want to party.

The number one problem I found with myself was discipline. Transitioning from high school to college seems like a liberation at first. There are less rules and you have more leeway with interaction with the professors. Unfortunately, one finds themselves getting so used to these new lax rules that it seems to permeate one's attitude as well. For instance, if I don't want to go to class, I don't have to. There is not going to be any mail sent to my parents about truancy.

It also seems more bureaucratic. I had to make sure I had my transcripts, medical documentation, and pass preliminary exams to attend certain college level classes. This can be daunting, especially without help from parents. There is a deadline to have all these prerequisites submitted. After that, then you can sign up for classes. At first it seems like you have to gather up information. Then try to get every piece of documentation. If you open up an official transcript, then it becomes worthless. I made that mistake and had to go back to my high school and retrieve another official transcript to present to the college. The medical records were another trip and back to my doctor's office. If you decide to take a semester break in between high school and college, you might find all that knowledge you accumulated not as easy to remember. They will give you a preliminary exam and if you don't pass it then you must take remedial classes before going further.

After all this is finished, then it gets even harder. Now there is a certain format that has to be applied to all of your essays. You must make sure you have one inch borders and have indentation on the first line and double spacing in between. Your professors are weary of accepting late papers and possibly will give you a zero for them. Those classes are not free mind you. You paid out of pocket for every class. So, if you don't pass, then you just threw your money out the window. Next, the selection of professors at hand can either be of a high caliber and love to teach or mediocre teachers just wanting to make a living. I had a mix of excellent and poor instructors. I was enrolled in the Intro to Law degree. The professors of my specific field were excellent. They really made you think and made you see social interactions in a different way. The professors who taught the general prerequisite classes where lack luster at best.

I eventually changed my degree three more times: one more time in the community college and two more at another University. You really have to think about what you see yourself doing. Changing majors over and over again is not a good thing. You will end up taking up more of your time trying to fulfill the classes needed for each additional degree. It's a much better idea to take prerequisite classes first and then determine whether you like to write or do you like mathematics better. Do you like being outdoors or prefer being seated at a cubicle.

Before attending college at all, make sure it's for you. Academics are not suited for everyone. It's a major investment of time and money. You could attend college for two years and then decide not to go at all afterwards. You could have applied that money and time elsewhere in the form of a certification in a trade career or acquired capital to start a business. Both of these options do not require a degree. If you want to round yourself up intellectually and have a degree to match your interests in order to get your foot through the door in a potential field, then discipline in abundance is necessary for this endeavor.