For those without the academic bona fides to earn a merit scholarship, two years at a community college, followed by a transfer to a state school should work just fine. A 40-hour-a-week worker taking two courses per semester, three times a year should take 2 1/3 years for the first half of a degree (and an associates) and 2 1/3 years for the second half of a degree (and a bachelor’s).
That’s actually quicker than the now common five-year plan through a supposedly four-year institution. It should also leave the student debt-free and readily employable with a substantial work history in 4 2/3 years time.
That’s another ‘trap’ that I’ve seen many of the best and brightest of my children’s generation fall into.
Here’s the math:
You’re offered a $10,000 scholarship to a state school, leaving you with a $15,000 student loan at the end of the first year. You keep your grades up and have the same thing at the end of the second year. You’ve got $30,000 in loans for your Associates.
The community college is $4,500 for tuition and books. And about $5000 for room and board. At the end of two years, you’ve got a student loan (providing that was your only method of funding) of $19,000 for an Associates.
But these kids are convinced that it’s better to have that extra $11,000 in debt for the same education because they got a scholarship and somehow it would be wrong to ‘waste’ it.
And nobody’s even brought up the fact that college isn’t for everybody and most of these kids washout and never finish anyway. (That’s why the actual average for student loans is $29,000 per student. More than half drop out and never even get the degree. All they get is debt.)