Rejects? No.

Someone on my floor said that people at community colleges are rejects. And he said that teachers at community colleges are only teaching there because they couldn't get a job at a "real" college.

Ummm.... how about no? The ignorance of some people never ceases to amaze me.

I did two years at a community college before transferring to the school I'm at now. I didn't go to a community college because I was rejected by other schools. Truth of the matter is that I went there because I slacked off my senior year and kept procrastinating applying anywhere ("I've still got time... I've still got time...") until finally I realized it was about April and I hadn't applied anywhere, which was just about the biggest "Oh crap I messed up big time!" moment of my life.

But you know what? I'm glad I did two years there. Now that I'm here, at a four year school, I realize that I probably would not have been able to handle this right out of high school. I wasn't ready at all for this. There's a lot of people who are ready for this experience right out of high school; I wasn't one of those people.

I loved it at the community college I went to. Yeah, there's a sort of stigma against them, community colleges in general, but if you can get past that... it's a great place. It's a good stepping stone from high school into a four year school. And, it saved money. It's cheaper to go there, and you can live at home which means that as well as paying less per credit than you would at a four year school, you also don't have to pay for housing or a meal plan. Just because it costs less doesn't mean it's less of a school. Cost isn't a factor of how good something is. And, with saving money, it costs like $50 just to apply to a lot of schools. I didn't have to pay that because if you were transferring after completing two years at the community college I went to, that $50 fee was waived for up to five schools. I applied to three, saving myself (my parents, actually...) $150.

The classes there were, for the most part, a little bit bigger than classes in high school (some were actually smaller than my high school classes!). The work was slightly harder than that in high school, but it wasn't too bad.

As for me, I grew so much as a person there. I'm shy and quiet around people who I don't know. I'm awkward and never know what to say. I was a tutor at that community college, and that helped me. Through helping others learn, I also got a better understanding of the material and I didn't know any of the people I was tutoring before I met them. I couldn't be shy or quiet with them. I had to do my job, which helped me a little bit to get over that shyness around new people. I still am, but I know now that I can do it.

Ok, and now on to the teachers at community colleges. They're not there because they couldn't get a job at a "real" college. First off, community colleges are real colleges. And the teachers there? I loved the teachers there better than most of the teachers here. The teachers seemed to care a lot more there, about everything. You could tell they liked the subjects they were teaching, and they cared about the students. Not too many teachers here are like that. Here, the majority of the teachers don't even know their students' names. They don't care about us, not like the teachers at the community college I went to did.

Most of the teachers I had at community college were better teachers than some of the teachers I've had here. That's a fact.

Community colleges aren't full of rejects. Like I said at the beginning of this, people's ignorance just drives me mad. Keep your self-righteous opinions to yourself, thanks. To be honest, no one else wants to hear it.