howtogrowthefuckup:

A user just messaged us asking if we could talk about community college and I cannot resist this topic. I’m about to go full-on rant in favor of community colleges, so sit tight.

Community college is fucking amazing. It’s a great way to get all of your prerequisites out of the way and kind of feel out the whole college experience without having to amass a lifetime of debt in the process. People give community college kids hell because they think it’s somehow lesser or makes you trash and I hope you spit on those people. I hope you laugh at their crushing debt. I hope you make them cry. Leave community college kids alone. They are doing the best they can and they are the ones who are out there taking advantage of what little their country is doing to help them with education and they deserve your respect. Anyone who wants to further their own education in any way deserves your respect and you damn well better recognize.

I was extremely fortunate to go to community college and have the state completely pay for it  completely (sometimes it pays to be poor). That’s right: the state of Illinois, that money leech of a state, actually paid for 2.5 years of my education and even let me keep what money I didn’t use on tuition for books and clothes and gas and all that other shit that colleges don’t tell you about when they tell you how great they are. These grants would not be possible had I not gone to a community college and that allowed me to knock off all those classes I didn’t want to take. At community college, you take all the low-level shit like math and bio so you don’t need to worry about taking them at a 4-year university, should you decide to transfer later.

The best thing is that there’s less risk. Sure, you still need to take specific classes to earn your associate’s degree, if that’s the route you want to take, but if there’s a class that interests you, you can take it and it won’t cost very much. No education is completely cost free or guilt free, but community colleges come pretty damn close. The best thing to do to figure out your major, I think, is take the lower level classes in areas you might want to major/minor in and then see if you actually like them.

I’ve known so many people who go to a 4-year college for a specific major only to find out they like it in theory, but fucking hate it in reality, and then they’re totally fucked because the major they want to switch to doesn’t exist at their university. That issue doesn’t come up so much with community colleges because everything is generalized. Community colleges want to serve the community at large, not focus in on specifics. 

Another thing to remember is that there are multiple paths available to you with community college. You can earn a 2-year degree and transfer somewhere without them looking too closely at your piss-poor high school grades. Actually, if you have a degree, most schools won’t even ask for your high school transcript, which is lucky for you, I’m sure. The other thing is that you don’t need a degree, you can just transfer because like my counsellor once said: once you have your bachelor’s, no one fucking cares about anything you earned before that.

But hey, maybe you don’t want to transfer to a 4-year school, that’s okay too! There are plenty of fields that only require a 2-year degree. You can be an LTA or a vet tech or whatever the hell program it is that your community college is really trying to sell you on. Not every job needs a 4-year degree, which no one seems to tell kids anymore. Yes, a college education is important, but not all college educations are the same. But that doesn’t mean people should look down on your associate’s degree. Seriously, fuck anyone who disses you for wanting to better yourself.

Another pro for community colleges: campus resources. Not everyone who goes to college is just out of high school, so not everyone has access to all the super cool shit that you ungrateful bastards are currently ignoring in your career services office. Maybe you’re just finishing high school and you’re now realizing what a dipshit you were to think you could figure out your college plans after graduation. It’s okay! Community colleges have your back. Community colleges have excellent career advisors and college counsellors on staff to help you make the most of community college and make it easier transition to a 4-year university—or into your field of choice. Again, your life is your own fucking life, you get to choose what you fucking deal with it, but they’re here to help you. They will help you do research, find the best schools, help you find money, tell you about internships in the area, and help you get your shit together and hide the evidence of your previous academic career. They’ll full-on Pygmalion you, if you let them.

Another great campus resource for figuring out your major/life are school activities. There’s such a wide variety of things offered on campus that can help you try things out without having to take classes or pay out the nose. And they make your resume look good. I wrote like three book reviews for the school paper and they still let me put it on my resume forever that I was involved even though I was too damn lazy to attend a single meeting and colleges ate that shit up. Plus, you can have a lot of fun and make lifelong friendships and meet the person of your dreams and all that high school hallmark shit that teen tv shows try to sell you on.

Community college is for everyone, it’s about making the community as a whole a better, more educated place. Its sole purpose is to take sadsacks like yourself and turn you into decent members of society (or at least half-decent, they’re not miracle workers and some of you need a shit ton of help). They help newly graduated teens and they help stay at home moms who want to get back to school and they’re even there for the people who don’t want a degree, who just want to learn how to swear in French so they can understand the locals when they travel abroad. There are so many options offered by community colleges!

So, I say again: stop shitting on community college kids. Or community college adults. Stop shitting on people for wanting to better themselves. Stop shitting on people for trying to get a better education. Stop shitting on people for trying to save money. Stop shitting on people for making the best of their situations. Just stop fucking shitting on people and grow the fuck up.