{"id":805,"date":"2017-05-02T07:00:42","date_gmt":"2017-05-02T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/?p=805"},"modified":"2017-11-14T08:45:58","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T13:45:58","slug":"pay-less-for-college-sure-if","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2017\/05\/02\/pay-less-for-college-sure-if\/","title":{"rendered":"Pay Less for College? Sure, if…"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"iStock\"
iStock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ed<\/em>itor\u2019s note: A version of post was first published on <\/em>Counselors\u2019 Corner<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Spring is a season of mixed emotions for school counselors. As students come in to share the exciting news of college acceptances and generous scholarships, an equal number of families come in with questions that are harder to answer:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat more were they looking for?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t they know this isn\u2019t enough to cover my needs?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy does college cost so much?\u201d<\/p>\n

It turns out this last question has a pretty clear answer\u2014it\u2019s complicated, but it\u2019s clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to cost this much, if you start at a community college and transfer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly every community college costs less than a four-year institution, especially since most community college students live at home. Students who do well at many community colleges can become members of\u00a0Phi Theta Kappa<\/a>, the community college honor society, which qualifies them for transfer scholarships reserved for PTK students at many four-year colleges. Finally, while it isn\u2019t true for every four-year college, there are a good number of colleges where transfer students are more likely to earn a bachelor\u2019s degree than students who have attended the college right out of high school.<\/p>\n

You spend less money, you get more money, and you\u2019re more likely to finish. What can go wrong?<\/p>\n

Actually, quite a bit. While the path from community college to a four-year degree sounds simple, only about\u00a0one in seven<\/a>\u00a0community college students complete that path\u00a0in six years. It\u2019s hard to say how many of these same students would finish if they had started at a four-year school, but you get the idea. If we\u2019re going to encourage students to consider starting at a community college, we need to make sure they are armed with information, and a plan.<\/p>\n

Talk to your advisers. Yes, that\u2019s plural.\u00a0<\/strong>The biggest challenge community college transfer students face is remembering that their goal is to graduate from a\u00a0four<\/em>-year college, not from community college. If you end up taking classes that don\u2019t count toward your bachelor\u2019s degree, you\u2019re wasting the time and money you had hoped community college would save you.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why it\u2019s important to stay in touch with the transfer adviser of the four-year college you\u2019re headed to. Even if you don\u2019t know what your major will be, this adviser can give you the best advice about which courses you should take and when. Community colleges have transfer agreements with some four-year schools, but those aren\u2019t always enforced; that\u2019s why it\u2019s best to hear what the four-year adviser says. You also meet with a community college adviser to make sure you\u2019re taking a course load you can handle, and you\u2019re meeting all other college requirements.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t work too much.\u00a0<\/strong>Several studies indicate students at all college levels are less likely to complete their studies the more they work\u2014and once work time gets to more than 20 hours a week, the failure rate is alarming. Yes, they need money to live on, but if the goal is college completion, making more money can come at the expense of paying for classes they won\u2019t complete.<\/p>\n

Improve transfer transparency.\u00a0<\/strong>Most community college credits will transfer, but too many transfer as elective credits\u2014and students don\u2019t need many of those at four-year colleges. What we need is a smartphone app where a student types in their community college\u2019s name; the four-year college\u2019s name they\u2019re heading to, and the degree they want to earn. This app would then generate a list of every class this student should take that\u2019s guaranteed to apply to that degree.<\/p>\n

Imagine what that would do for all of us.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>NACAC Past President Patrick O\u2019Connor is associate dean of college counseling at Cranbrook Schools (MI). He has served as president of the Michigan Association for College Admission Counseling and is the author of two books \u2014 <\/em>College Counseling for School Counselors: Delivering Quality, Personalized College Advice to Every Student on Your (Sometimes Huge) Caseload and <\/em>College is Yours 2.0: Preparing, Applying, and Paying for Colleges Perfect for You. You can read more from O\u2019Connor\u2019s on <\/em>The Huffington Post<\/a> and <\/em>Counselors\u2019 Corner<\/a> blog.<\/em>\"\"<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: A version of post was first published on Counselors\u2019 Corner. Spring is a season of mixed emotions for school counselors. As students come in to share the exciting news of college acceptances and generous scholarships, an equal number of families come in with questions that are harder to answer: \u201cWhat more were they … Continue reading Pay Less for College? Sure, if…<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,111,24,21],"tags":[105,315,316],"class_list":["post-805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college-admission","category-college-completion","category-paying-for-college","category-transfer","tag-community-college","tag-patrick-oconnor","tag-transfer"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Patrick O'Connor","author_link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/author\/patrick-oconnor\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peWmJq-cZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}