"going to college" In America questions

[Vault101]

so anyway having always been fed a steady stream of American TV it seems there's always this huge thing in america to "go to college" (same as university right?)

I mean this obsession with college...well its not quite the same here in Aus, its not like you have to go to university to be a success (it would be a waste of time for alot of people) I dont really know much about America, it just seems that no college=failure, mabye a degree is a pre-requisite for more jobs

and whats this thing with "comunity college"? is that basically free/public college? I suspect it has somthing of a reputation, is it that bad? I dont think theres an equivalnt in Australia the cost of our education I think we pay back over time

anyway I dontknow why this interests me but after watchign alot of TV and movies its interestign to compare it to Australia

 

[Senaro]

Community college is the college for people who can't shell out ridiculous amounts of cash out of their bank accounts. It doesn't have a bad reputation, it's like not wearing name-brand clothing while your co-workers wear Abercrombie.

 

[Flames66]

We have colleges which are the same as university where you attend for four years. A community is a two year college covering general subjects, and most students who attend them end up switching to a proper college after their second year.

A college degree is considered necessary to get a job that earns more wages than a laborer or service staff at a restaurant.

So you can't get any job above minimum wage level without a degree? Seems like a pretty poor system to me. University is not for everyone and there are plenty of jobs that really don't need that level of academic dedication.

 

[Vault101]

We have colleges which are the same as university where you attend for four years. A community is a two year college covering general subjects, and most students who attend them end up switching to a proper college after their second year.

A college degree is considered necessary to get a job that earns more wages than a laborer or service staff at a restaurant.

College in the U.S. is extremely expensive, and most students end up leaving not only with a degree, but also a heaping pile of debt that's nearly impossible to get rid of.

There's also a cutthroat applications process and students are pressured from an early age to excel and join as many extracurricular activities (varsity athletics, honor societies, student governments, etc.) in order to fill up their application.

what about like trades or somthing? like a plumber or a mechanic Im sure they earn more than minimum wage

that sounds...awful...life is so hard somtimes...I wonder how all this compares to Australia

 

[Lilani]

"Community college" is also known as "junior college." It tends to have more general education classes, and rarely offers any majors outside of the major ones (psychology, business, etc.). It costs less, and it's not what you'd call a "university community." There are very few, if any, student organizations, there is no on-campus living, and it tends to reside in only one or two buildings rather than multiple ones. Community colleges mostly offer undergraduate degrees in the major areas. Anything more specialized (such as my major, computer animation) or if you want to get a graduate degree you'd have to go to a full-on university for.

Also, community college is more open to the general public than university is. By that I mean just about anybody willing to pay the fee can attend the classes, and you don't have to make any other major commitments to the school. A lot of those classes tend to be gen eds, like college algebra, for older adults looking to catch up on a few credits to try their hand at college again.

They tend to be trade schools, as well, where people get their education to be carpenters, surveyors, plumbers/heating and cooling men and the like. Trades that require education for licenses and whatnot, but also rely heavily on experience in the field.

And there are community education classes there, as well. These are things like handgun/concealed weapon education classes, using Macintosh or Microsoft Office, etc. Classes that are for educating people about specific subjects, but are usually taken for education on that specific thing rather than simply for the college credit.

 

[Cpu46]

Im not sure how accurate a TV show is about colleges (yea pretty much the same as Universities) but it seems to be on the mark. There is a big push for college here in the states. A lot of jobs won't even consider you if you don't have a degree, however what that degree actually is for doesn't really matter most of the time. When I was trying to decide a major my dad told me stories about people who got into the airline business using Agriculture degrees.

As for your second point, Community college is not free but it is cheap compared to the larger Universities.

 

[KaidenDager]

Think of colleges as a business that improves your being employable. It doesn't guarantee anything, but they sell the chance to automatically get ahead of anyone that has not taken advantage of their service or their competitors.

Now within colleges, there is a muddled hierarchy. While going to community college or "lesser schools" will put you ahead of anyone that only graduated high school, going to the top tier will also automatically put you ahead of anyone that went to schools deemed "less prestigious".

Calling the collegiate system academic is like calling McDonald's charitable for feeding the poor. Colleges sell opportunity. The collegiate system wants its students to graduate in order to keep the gears of "getting ahead" turning, in truth the entire system is superfluous. Colleges are not in place to test you academically or insure your "readiness for life", but to be a self-propagating business model.

Learning is what Google is for.

 

[Drakane]

We have colleges which are the same as university where you attend for four years. A community is a two year college covering general subjects, and most students who attend them end up switching to a proper college after their second year.

A college degree is considered necessary to get a job that earns more wages than a laborer or service staff at a restaurant.

College in the U.S. is extremely expensive, and most students end up leaving not only with a degree, but also a heaping pile of debt that's nearly impossible to get rid of.

There's also a cutthroat applications process and students are pressured from an early age to excel and join as many extracurricular activities (varsity athletics, honor societies, student governments, etc.) in order to fill up their application.

what about like trades or somthing? like a plumber or a mechanic Im sure they earn more than minimum wage

that sounds...awful...life is so hard somtimes...I wonder how all this compares to Australia

They are being a little bleak at what you can accomplish w/o a degree. If you get your foot in the door and work hard you can work your way up to a very nice living, it will just be more difficult. As for plumbers and mechanics, some learn hands on but things like electricians I know for sure have to be certified which will usually occur in a trade school, often its much like the community college, 2 years and less expensive only focusing on more hands on things such as welding.

Edit: Also electricians and plumbers make can make a ton of money... I know they charge enough too.

 

[Vault101]

We have colleges which are the same as university where you attend for four years. A community is a two year college covering general subjects, and most students who attend them end up switching to a proper college after their second year.

A college degree is considered necessary to get a job that earns more wages than a laborer or service staff at a restaurant.

College in the U.S. is extremely expensive, and most students end up leaving not only with a degree, but also a heaping pile of debt that's nearly impossible to get rid of.

There's also a cutthroat applications process and students are pressured from an early age to excel and join as many extracurricular activities (varsity athletics, honor societies, student governments, etc.) in order to fill up their application.

what about like trades or somthing? like a plumber or a mechanic Im sure they earn more than minimum wage

that sounds...awful...life is so hard somtimes...I wonder how all this compares to Australia

There are trade schools in America, and they cost less as well. Only thing is, nobody wants to go to a trade school because it's got a sort of stigma attached to it. To go to a trade school is in many ways admitting defeat. Hence why we've got so many waiters saving up "to go back to school." Going to a trade school has much more permanence to it.

so basically theres a stigma attatched to being a tradesmen or "blue collar" worker? thats jsut stupid

over here tradesmen are often very well paid and dont get me started about the people "working on the mines" big big money there ....well somtimes it seems a silly Idea to waste your time at university

 

[silversnake4133]

Bah, college is for people to basically "fill the void" that spans graduating high school to actually leaving home. It's expensive to most families anymore and with how the economy is many promising people can't even get grants or scholarships unless they are prodigies. Families are having to resort to scraping the bottom of the barrel just to put their kids through middle and high school (and now they have to fight each other to put their kids into kindergarden. Watch "Waiting for Superman" for more info on this matter.)

And for those who saved up their whole lives to go to college can mostly be guaranteed with mediocre education and the same censored textbooks that are all over-priced. Art and Med students probably have it the worst when trying to get through college because of how much they are required to spend. And even if they make it through schooling and get their Associates or a Bachelors, they are never guaranteed a job ( if they manage to get one, they are extremely lucky or know a shit ton of people), and most often have to go back to waiting tables in order to pay off their huge student loan debts.

Yes it's true that community college is cheaper, but so is the education. I go to a community college and so far the only thing I've learned is how God awful the place is run. Not to mention they practically abolished my major while I was half-way through all the classes I had to take and for no good God-damnable reason. The teachers who teach there make it bluntly obvious that they're only there to collect their checks and often believe that their students are to devote all of their free time to that class regardless of whether or not they have four or five other classes to maintain.

Oh, and students are required to submit applications to graduate. (which is stupid and point-less in and of itself, hell some colleges even make the graduating students pay close to 100$ just for the privilege of walking.)

So all in all, college is nothing but a place to fill a void. It is often over-priced and not worth the money you could otherwise be saving for retirement. With everything "switching to digital" anymore college can pretty much be a waste of time and money especially since you can find anything and everything you could ever need to learn about online. And I can guess that it's way easier to find a job online then it is in the market place today.

As a side note, television series only highlight college life and social situations. Rarely do they ever actually venture into the classroom unless they want to play on stereotypes, cliches, and common school archetypes. So you can basically say that television shows are based around the biased view of a starry-eyed prospective student whom has yet to submit an application.

 

[loadingdread]

So community college is pretty much the american version of TAFE in Australia?

 

[Shynobee]

Yeah, community college isn't a bad thing at all. When it comes down to it, the main question employers ask you, is, do you have a degree?

In the US, having at least an associates or bachelors degree is very important, if you want to work for more than minimum wage that is.

Also, there is the whole "college experience," parties, meeting new people, etc...

 

[Zakarath]

Well, Here's some hard data on the subject:

You can see that having a college degree really helps with both employment and wages, especially with a bachelor's (4 years) degree and up. Below that, the changes in wages aren't generally significant, but the employment rate is.

 

[Ham_authority95]

and whats this thing with "comunity college"? is that basically free/public college? I suspect it has somthing of a reputation, is it that bad? I dont think theres an equivalnt in Australia the cost of our education I think we pay back over time

anyway I dontknow why this interests me but after watchign alot of TV and movies its interestign to compare it to Australia

"Community College" is basically a Technical College with a wider array of subjects. They also tend to "represent" the immidiate area instead of a state.

I can't completely answer the question of why people are obsessed with it, to tell you the truth. To people it's a hell of a lot better than just working a really meager job, though.

 

[Ham_authority95]

So you can't get any job above minimum wage level without a degree? Seems like a pretty poor system to me. University is not for everyone and there are plenty of jobs that really don't need that level of academic dedication.

Actually, the poster you quoted has been brainwashed by the school system into thinking that college is the only way. It really isn't the only way.

If you're really smart, you can out-earn a "smart" person who spent 6 years at college.

 

[Skuffyshootster]

Community college is usually a two-year college for people who didn't make the grades to get into a "proper" school, or who want to save money on their higher education (for a bachelor's degree, you'd spend the other two at a more expensive college). It is pretty cheap, I think the local one around here is around 2k for the full tuition, which compared to +20k for just a state school is quite a bargain.

It does usually have negative connotation to it, but again, the one around here enrolls 72,000 students over three campuses.

 

[Dr Snakeman]

We have colleges which are the same as university where you attend for four years. A community is a two year college covering general subjects, and most students who attend them end up switching to a proper college after their second year.

A college degree is considered necessary to get a job that earns more wages than a laborer or service staff at a restaurant.

College in the U.S. is extremely expensive, and most students end up leaving not only with a degree, but also a heaping pile of debt that's nearly impossible to get rid of.

There's also a cutthroat applications process and students are pressured from an early age to excel and join as many extracurricular activities (varsity athletics, honor societies, student governments, etc.) in order to fill up their application.

Culturally, going to college is basically a child leaving home for the first time as an adult.

Don't listen to this guy.

Bah, college is for people to basically "fill the void" that spans graduating high school to actually leaving home. It's expensive to most families anymore and with how the economy is many promising people can't even get grants or scholarships unless they are prodigies. Families are having to resort to scraping the bottom of the barrel just to put their kids through middle and high school (and now they have to fight each other to put their kids into kindergarden. Watch "Waiting for Superman" for more info on this matter.)

And for those who saved up their whole lives to go to college can mostly be guaranteed with mediocre education and the same censored textbooks that are all over-priced. Art and Med students probably have it the worst when trying to get through college because of how much they are required to spend. And even if they make it through schooling and get their Associates or a Bachelors, they are never guaranteed a job ( if they manage to get one, they are extremely lucky or know a shit ton of people), and most often have to go back to waiting tables in order to pay off their huge student loan debts.

Yes it's true that community college is cheaper, but so is the education. I go to a community college and so far the only thing I've learned is how God awful the place is run. Not to mention they practically abolished my major while I was half-way through all the classes I had to take and for no good God-damnable reason. The teachers who teach there make it bluntly obvious that they're only there to collect their checks and often believe that their students are to devote all of their free time to that class regardless of whether or not they have four or five other classes to maintain.

Oh, and students are required to submit applications to graduate. (which is stupid and point-less in and of itself, hell some colleges even make the graduating students pay close to 100$ just for the privilege of walking.)

So all in all, college is nothing but a place to fill a void. It is often over-priced and not worth the money you could otherwise be saving for retirement. With everything "switching to digital" anymore college can pretty much be a waste of time and money especially since you can find anything and everything you could ever need to learn about online. And I can guess that it's way easier to find a job online then it is in the market place today.

As a side note, television series only highlight college life and social situations. Rarely do they ever actually venture into the classroom unless they want to play on stereotypes, cliches, and common school archetypes. So you can basically say that television shows are based around the biased view of a starry-eyed prospective student whom has yet to submit an application.

Or this guy. The truth is somewhere in between. College is useful, and a bachelor's degree makes youu competitive in the job market. You will normally make more money with a university degree. That said, there are plenty of ways to make a living with a two-year associate's degree, or even just a high school education.

Also, the application process isn't anywhere near as "cutthroat" as BudZer seems to think. I got into a school that was supposed to have very stringent entrance requirements with no extracurricular activities to speak of, and an average GPA. I did make the SAT my *****, though...

But even then, there are a lot of really, really stupid people here. You can get accepted just about anywhere (except the Ivy League or the service academies) by just being a decent student.

Now scholarships, on the other hand, are pretty competitive, but that's not the same as acceptance.