Community Colleges Lure 4-Year Students BRIEFCASE

In U.S. higher education, community colleges are known as steppingstones for marginal or cash-strapped students to a “real” education at a more desirable, and more expensive, institution. But now a lesser-known pool of students is heading the other way: They start at university and switch to a community college, largely because they perceive that the local college delivers better value for money.

Community colleges lure 4-year students

The rapid rise in university fees tuition, room and board now top $45,000 a year at some private institutions is pushing students, and parents who pay the bills, to consider a respite at a lower-priced community college, said George Boggs, president of the American Association of Community Colleges.

Some “reverse transfers,” as they are known, also discover belatedly that four years of semiotics and sociology is not for them, and they seek practical expertise that can translate into secure jobs. An analysis by Boggs’s association using data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study of 2003-2004, a survey sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics, found that 32 percent of community college students had previously attended a four-year college. Boggs said the number was most likely even higher. Ridley Gunderson, a 2003 graduate of the Bronx High School of Science in New York, is an example of the trend. He said Boston College had recruited him, but a year there left him disenchanted: Professors seemed too busy, graduate students taught most of his classes, and the students struck him as pampered and shallow. Last autumn, Gunderson enrolled at a local community college, where all of his courses were taught by professors and he found his fellow students to be more down to earth. (NYT)