BWW Blog: A Quality Education at a Quality School

Wherever you go for college, you are always going to face obstacles. This statement is a given. You will always have a midterm that you are trying to cram some final study time for, or a paper that you forgot was due so you have to write it the day before. You have to figure out when and where to grab food between classes, and not to mention the struggle to find cheap textbooks that aren't destroyed. This is the same situation for a student at a community college.

Life at community college is not as different as a student's life at a four year or more university. The only main difference is that we are cheaper, and we don't live on campus. The choice to go to a university has a good set of pros, but it also has its cons. The idea of this blog entry is to show what my life leading up to community college is like, and to show why community college is absolutely a valid choice in the college decision process.

I went to high school at Metea Valley High School in Aurora, Illinois. We have an amazing music and theatre program and I was involved in some way ever since freshman year. I started out in our beginner choir that every freshman male starts out in: Bass Choir. During my Sophomore year is when I was actually introduced to theatre. I was in the ensemble of Pirates of Penzance, which is a definitely older musical. After that first show, I was hooked. I started racking up experience in a variety of ensembles and backstage work, while doing other school activities and getting ready for college. I remember my senior year, I decided that I wasn't going to go into theatre as a major. WAIT, WHAT? Yeah I know. I was always told that the theatre business was too hard to get into and I would never find a job, and that I would live my entire life in my parents' house. This made me scared of majoring in theatre because who would want to be living in their parents' house? I decided that I was going to major in Environmental Science because before discovering theatre, I wanted to be a scientist.

So I ended up applying to a couple big universities to go to school for Environmental Science. I applied to a couple in-state, and a couple in surrounding states. After getting accepted to the schools that I wanted to go to, I made up my mind and I accepted my acceptance to the University of Iowa, where I would study Environmental Science.

You might be thinking right now, "Wait, if you got accepted to Iowa, then why aren't you studying in Iowa?" This is of course, a valid question. I ended up not going to Iowa because I realized how expensive it really is to go to a university right away. With unexpected family events, little scholarship money, and no being able to get money through FAFSA since my dad makes too much, I had to turn down the offer in the end. I now knew that I needed to still go to school. I decided to go to my local community college instead.

This has made a huge impact on my life. I now will only have to pay for about two years of school at a large university rather than four. At the end of the semester, I will have about 45 credits up my sleeve. A class that is three credits only costs 408 dollars per class, and I will only be paying about 7-8 thousand dollars for the two years that I stay here. I am transferring after this year to a school that has yet to be determined, but I know that studying at a community college has not hindered my education, nor will a transcript saying that I did attend one hurt any sort of job searching, or college application. This idea of quality education at a low price allows for people who would not normally attend school at least get on track to get an associates in anything, whether that be in theatre, criminal science, or zoology. Yes, even zoology.

Am I sad that I couldn't go to a four-year university right away, yes. But, I am thrilled to know that I would not be graduating from a four-year university with a mountain of debt like other people. I am so happy that I chose this path and I believe that this path should be taken more.

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