Getting first 60 at community college. Good or bad?

[yasoumalaka]

Getting first 60 at community college. Good or bad?

I trying to make plans to go back and study physics. If I start at a community college I can start in Jan.

 

[CPL.Luke]

I'm assuming you mean first 60 credits, and if that's the cae I really wouldn't recommend it. I've been in community college since september and I can say that hile there are some good people there the vast majority have no respect for their students intelligence, or any real energy to teach something properly. While the CC can be a good place to sart out, you should pan on gettingout of there as soon as posssible, or maybe if you have a good local university you could ork out some way of gettininto their school.

 

[Beeza]

Get your general education credits out of the way, but other than that I would stick to one school for core classes.

 

[Daverz]

We've had this discussion before. It really depends on the community college. The physics and math courses I took at community college were pretty rigorous. Based on my expreriences as a TA at one of those big factory-like state universities, you might actually have a better experience at a community college.

 

[mr_coffee]

I also agree with Daverz, the professors were a lot more wanting to help you achieve good grades and now I'm in the "factory-like" state university and they could careless, they don't even teach they talk about unrelated topics and bull**** their way through the 50 minute classes.

 

[Poop-Loops]

I took ALL of the math I'd need for a BS in physics at a CC (I'll obviously need more for grad school). However, the physics was SORELY lacking. So I'll need to spend an extra year making up for it. =/

However^2, the classes were much more focused on actually TEACHING you something. Especially calculus and diff eq's and linear algebra. If your math is up to par, then don't worry about it. If you're not as good at math as you'd like, then you might want to consider it.

 

[BobG]

Yeah, this has been discussed before. There is no general rule.

However, there are things to check.

Do the state four year schools have to accept credits from the state's community colleges? As education expenses have risen, more states have forced this arrangement on their state colleges/community colleges, but I seriously doubt it's the case in every state. If there is no arrangement, you need to check with the school you plan to get your bachelor's degree from to find out what credits will transfer.

How good is the teaching at the university vs. the community college? There's a lot of variation in both. The quality of the courses and teaching at the community college are as likely to be better than at the university as vice versa. If it's a large four year university using TA's for the freshman and sophomore courses, you'll probably be better off at the community college. You're really rolling the dice when you're stuck with TA's - a few are really good, a lot are passable, and some are really bad.

How good are the facilities at the community college? A lot of community colleges can provide quality classes when all that's needed is a room, some desks, and a good teacher. As one poster noted, the physics classes at his community college were pretty poor - most likely because science classes with labs require money. One of the big selling points of community colleges is the cheaper tuition costs - it's hard to keep the costs down if you're investing in lab equipment. The community college in my city manages it - not only do they have great physics and chemistry courses, they have an incredible auto repair facility for those looking for an associates degree in the automotive field.

Are you going to school full time or part time? Even with an agreement for transferring credits, you'll probably find it hard to build a full time schedule for two straight years because of pre-requisites. If you're going part time, community colleges usually provide a better schedule (some four year universities offer a good evening schedule, but a few couldn't care less about part time students).

 

[yasoumalaka]

Hey thanks for the help. I have taken classes at the potential community college and I enjoyed them and learned a lot. I'll check the labs out to see what they're like. I can't imagine what they'd be lacking because at UF where I took physics 1 they didn't have a bunch of expensive stuff in the lab. Each station had a computer, a power supply, wieghts, pulleys, tubes, etc. Its funny because the lab ta told me nobody got higher than a b+ in his class. It was one of those classes were you think your failing and them you end up with a b+. That to me seemed childish. Really at this stage in the game I'm not looking to just go to college. I already have a degree. I am going to have my own curriculum in math and physics of stuff I want to learn. anyways thank you for the input and good night:zzz:

Oh sorry just realized I didn't answer a question. I'm goig to be going full time.