Community colleges: an affordable springboard to educational success
Luckily, the US higher education platform has several alternate avenues that lead to academic qualifications.
When I attend overseas education exhibitions in Pakistan, students say things like: “Study in the United States (US)? I would love to, but with the exchange rate, I can’t afford it,” or “I want to study in America, but don’t know if I can cope with the academic intensity of university education there.”
Luckily, the US higher education platform has several alternate avenues that lead to higher academic qualifications. Two-year community colleges are a natural springboard to the US traditional four-year universities. These two-year colleges have agreements where student’s credits transfer to a four-year programme, and the student gets a bachelor’s degree issued by the university, where they can complete their academic programme.
It is common for American students to attend a community college for two years and then transfer to a four-year institution to complete their degree. Nearly 40 per cent of all US undergraduate students attend these community colleges and alumni include people from business, education, politics, and even Hollywood actors like Tom Hanks and Clint Eastwood.
Foreign students are starting to discover this route to realise their dreams of education in the US in a more affordable and accessible way. Nearly 100,000 international students are currently enrolled at community colleges in the US and at least 40 two-year colleges have foreign student populations of 500 or more in their student bodies.
Smaller and less expensive colleges do not necessarily mean that a student is compromising on quality. Community colleges can be as intense in their scrutiny of an application as a four-year university and international students are also often required to take standardised tests as part of their application requirements.
There are benefits specific to international students too. If a student needs help with English, these colleges provide intensive English classes to get them to the level of their native-speaking classmates quickly. Other advantages include small class size and costs which are considerably less than most four-year universities. The more intimate community environment is very welcoming and local residents often host international students for American traditional holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
International Student Offices are also vital resources in helping international students at US colleges. They help them in arranging housing, academic tutoring and other special services. In many cases, international students collectively rent an apartment near the college. They make friends from different countries and get to experience a variety of cultural perspectives. Many students find that these friendships are helpful networking tools and can connect them to good job opportunities years after graduation.
For students from Pakistan who have had little exposure to the outside world, the community college experience can be far less intimidating than a sudden arrival at a highly-competitive, top-tier traditional university. However, it is important to recognise that these are still a serious route towards achieving a quality higher education and not just a less expensive or easier way to study in the US.
As college deadlines approach this fall and students start the college planning process, community colleges are in many cases the perfect answer to the question, “How can I go to a university in the US?”
The writer is an advisor for EducationUSA and provides free guidance and counseling to Pakistani students interested in pursuing higher education in the US. She can be reached at AnwarL@state.gov.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2010.
Luckily, the US higher education platform has several alternate avenues that lead to higher academic qualifications. Two-year community colleges are a natural springboard to the US traditional four-year universities. These two-year colleges have agreements where student’s credits transfer to a four-year programme, and the student gets a bachelor’s degree issued by the university, where they can complete their academic programme.
It is common for American students to attend a community college for two years and then transfer to a four-year institution to complete their degree. Nearly 40 per cent of all US undergraduate students attend these community colleges and alumni include people from business, education, politics, and even Hollywood actors like Tom Hanks and Clint Eastwood.
Foreign students are starting to discover this route to realise their dreams of education in the US in a more affordable and accessible way. Nearly 100,000 international students are currently enrolled at community colleges in the US and at least 40 two-year colleges have foreign student populations of 500 or more in their student bodies.
Smaller and less expensive colleges do not necessarily mean that a student is compromising on quality. Community colleges can be as intense in their scrutiny of an application as a four-year university and international students are also often required to take standardised tests as part of their application requirements.
There are benefits specific to international students too. If a student needs help with English, these colleges provide intensive English classes to get them to the level of their native-speaking classmates quickly. Other advantages include small class size and costs which are considerably less than most four-year universities. The more intimate community environment is very welcoming and local residents often host international students for American traditional holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
International Student Offices are also vital resources in helping international students at US colleges. They help them in arranging housing, academic tutoring and other special services. In many cases, international students collectively rent an apartment near the college. They make friends from different countries and get to experience a variety of cultural perspectives. Many students find that these friendships are helpful networking tools and can connect them to good job opportunities years after graduation.
For students from Pakistan who have had little exposure to the outside world, the community college experience can be far less intimidating than a sudden arrival at a highly-competitive, top-tier traditional university. However, it is important to recognise that these are still a serious route towards achieving a quality higher education and not just a less expensive or easier way to study in the US.
As college deadlines approach this fall and students start the college planning process, community colleges are in many cases the perfect answer to the question, “How can I go to a university in the US?”
The writer is an advisor for EducationUSA and provides free guidance and counseling to Pakistani students interested in pursuing higher education in the US. She can be reached at AnwarL@state.gov.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2010.