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Jill Nicholson
11/22/2005
Listing Essay
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Every year, millions of students apply to colleges. How can a student make the best choice? If you are trying to decide which college to go to, it helps to know what options are available to you. Depending on your educational and occupational goals and requirements, you may decide on a community college, a (regular) college or a university. |
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A community college is sometimes called a junior college; they are the same thing. They offer many low-cost, non-credit classes to the community, various job training or certificate programs, as well as adult basic education classes such as GED preparation and English as a Second Language classes. In addition, they also offer two years (freshman and sophomore) of regular college credit classes, which can lead to an A.A., an Associate’s of Arts degree. A student can stop with the two-year Associate’s degree, the most basic of college degrees, or transfer to a regular four-year college for the last two years (junior and senior). Some reasons for attending a community college first include cost, class size and admissions requirements. Community colleges offer classes mornings, afternoons and nights, sometimes even on weekends, to accommodate their students, many of whom work and have family responsibilities. Because community colleges serve students primarily from the immediate community, they usually do not offer student housing, like dormitories. |
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If a student who has finished her freshman and sophomore years at a community college then completes her junior and senior year requirements at a regular college, she will receive a Bachelor’s degree, the standard four-year college degree, from that college. This “undergraduate” degree can be a B.A., or Bachelor of Arts, or a B.S., a Bachelor of Science, depending on the major field of study. Of course a student can attend all four years at the same 4-year college instead of only the last two. If tuition and other college expenses are not an issue, and if the student can gain admission to a more selective 4-year college right out of high school, he may decide to go directly to the regular college starting his freshman year. Many undergraduate students choose a college far from home, maybe even on the other side of the country. Most live in dormitories or other student housing near campus, so that they can experience college life to the fullest.
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Many professional jobs today require more than a Bachelor’s degree: they require a Master’s degree (M.A. or M.S.) or even a Ph.D. A university is the place for these graduate degrees, so a university is a college that, in addition to conferring Bachelor’s degrees, also awards Master’s degrees, and in some cases Doctorates (Ph.D.s). Generally, graduate studies leading to a Master’s degree take two years. A Doctorate can take an additional two years or more beyond the Master’s. A professional degree, such as an M.D. for a physician, can take even longer.
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So, depending on your career plans, you may spend as few as two years, and as many as eight years, in college. Don’t let that stop you! The years will pass whether you’re in college or not—the difference will be whether you have a college degree after those years—or not.
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