Student Issues / Attending College

This summer will be wrapping up before we know of it, and your first semester at community college is rapidly approaching. Are you ready for it?

According to American College Testing (ACT), one out of every four college students will end up leaving college before finishing their sophomore year. With statistics like these, it’s easy to see why the first year of community college is critical to success. This is a chance to build not only an academic foundation, but a real-world foundation that will carry through college, career and the rest of your life. Todd Rhoad, Managing Director at Blitz Team Consulting, perhaps puts it best, “Students should begin community college with an open mind as this is their opportunity to begin to see the world in a whole new light and begin to develop a view of the world of possibilities.”

Community college presents different challenges and experiences than most four year universities, Todd believes. “Community Colleges aren’t as glamorous and flamboyant as the bigger campuses, which seem to be more interested in their architectural coherence and student social experience. Community colleges focus on the one thing that new students need; that is, the learning experience.”

If you’re getting ready to prep for your first semester, you’re in luck, because we’ve assembled four crucial tips to get you started.

1. Set Your Goals and Have a Vision

The first step to success in community college is having a

The essential difference between competency-based education (CBE) and traditional programs is that CBE measures learning without regard to time. They utilize direct measures of assessment to determine understanding of content, as opposed to requiring a certain number of credits or contact hours of class time in order to earn a letter grade. Students instead demonstrate what they know when they know it well enough to be deemed competent. In essence, it is much like an AP exam, only on a far larger scale: AP students must pass a test with a certain level of competency in order to earn credit for the course. Students in a competency-based program must do the same for each course they undertake.

The first program completely based on competencies rather than credits was green-lighted by the Department of Education in August of 2013 at College of America, a community college associated with Southern New Hampshire University. Since then, there has been a push for this type of system to be implemented at community colleges across the country. This movement is the result of several shifts in the landscape of higher education in recent years. As the cost of a college education continues to rise, community colleges, universities, federal agencies, and private entities have been exploring a less expensive way for students to obtain a degree or certification. The individualized pacing of CBE is seen by many as a solution to this problem, as it is a system of learning completely free of time-based

Community college is often the choice for women seeking higher education. These institutions typically provide many features adult female students need, including proximity to their homes and affordable tuition rates. However, one primary barrier consistently interferes with a woman’s ability to complete her community college education, according to a recent report.

Primary Barrier for Student Parents: Affordable Child Care

The majority of student parents at community colleges today are women who are trying to juggle family, work and school responsibilities as they pursue higher education. A new report released by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) shows that the largest obstacle facing this student demographic is access to affordable child care. Unfortunately, Raw Story reports that these findings have been released at a time when federal funding for child care is dwindling across the country.

In this TEDTalk, Heather Wylie, a first-generation college student from a low income, rural Northern California community, talks about how she became a college professor in large part because of connections she made with individuals, ideas, and communities. In this talk, she challenges us to change the conversation from community colleges as places of last resort to institutions of innovation inspiration and social change.

The report, titled, “Women in Community Colleges: Access to Success,” was officially released just before Mother’s Day. The authors of the report, Andresse St. Rose and Catherine Hill, used a variety of

While most students are getting to wind down for the summer months, community colleges are gearing up with a whole new set of learning opportunities for college students and community residents. From camps for kids to summer school for struggling college students, these campuses continue to bustle with activity all summer long. Check out how some community colleges across the country are planning to spend their summer “vacation” this year.

This video offers some suggestions for summer programs.

Summer School Comes Back to California Schools

It wasn’t that long ago that community colleges in California were forced to cut summer school options due to dismal bottom lines. The good news is that summer school is back in action for California students this year, according to The Business Journal. Thanks to additional funding from Prop. 30, schools across the state will be offering a handful of courses to students who want to continue their studies during the summer months.

College of the Sequoias will be offering around 40 classes this summer, including many basic courses students are required to take for degree completion programs. While the number may not be close to the dozens of courses available prior to the budget cuts, it will ease the strain on many students who have had difficulty getting into classes required for graduation. Because of the high demand for summer classes, waitlist and priority registration has already been

Online learning is developing a more widespread presence at community colleges across the country. The ability to offer classes via the Internet allows for a greater number of students to take the courses on their own time. Flexibility is the big buzzword, with online options providing students the ability to work higher education around work and family responsibilities. However, these new online offerings have their drawbacks as well as their benefits, which have prevented students from embracing them as a full-time college choice.

Study Shows Online Learning Works in Some Situations

A recent study from the Community College Research Center and Columbia University’s Teachers College found that students prefer online classes in some situations, but not all the time. According to Inside Higher Ed, students preferred face-to-face contact with instructors if the classes were especially challenging or the subject matter was complex or important. Students told researchers they did not feel they learned the material in a class as thoroughly when the class was taught online.

This TEDTalk discusses online learning.

For the study, researchers talked to 46 students at two different community colleges in Virginia. Students surveyed had taken both online and face-to-face classes on their college campuses. While the number of students included in the study was relatively small, researchers believe they demonstrated a valid representation of community college students across the country.

U.S. News reported that the