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Photo courtesy Cassandra Chavez
The Hechinger Report
With higher ed in limbo, students are switching to community colleges
If they have to be online, they say, they might as well do it someplace cheaper
By Charlotte West
May 20, 2020
Chris Smith wasn’t planning to spend the summer at a community college.
He was going to sublet an apartment in Tallahassee and take classes at
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, where he just completed
his first year.
But Smith ended up back home with his family in Fort Lauderdale when
the pandemic forced his classes online, an experience he described as
disappointing.
“Honestly, I didn’t really learn anything at all this semester,” said
Smith, a political science major. “I wasn’t really being challenged. I
was just completing the work for the sake of completing the work.”
So he’s decided to spend the summer taking the math and science classes
he needs — still online, but at a lower cost — by doing it through
nearby Broward College, which serves mostly students pursuing associate
degrees.
“That’s my plan for this summer but it will also be my plan in the
fall” if Florida A&M doesn’t reopen its campus, Smith said.
Even before the pandemic, a small but growing number of university
students looking for a cheap way to knock off a few general education
requirements took them at their local community colleges in the summer.
The strategy even has a name: “summer swirl.”
Now far more are signing up at or considering community colleges for not only the summer, but also potentially the fall.
If they’re going to have to pay for coursework that remains online,
said students who are part of this growing “corona swirl” movement,
they might as well do it at community colleges that charge less than
half as much for it.
Students “are really wrestling with how they want to engage” with
higher ed in the fall, and “what kinds of commitments they want to
make. I do think the community college will be an attractive option for
a lot of people.”
On the down side, students opting for community college past the summer
may have trouble transferring their credits back to a four-year
university. And high school graduates who have already been accepted as
freshmen by four-year institutions might have to reapply if they decide
to detour through a community college; in some states, they might not
be able to transfer at all until they complete the equivalent of an
associate degree.
Seventeen percent of college students don’t plan to return in the fall,
or don’t know yet whether they will, according to a survey by the
American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers
and the American Council on Education. Another survey, by the
consulting firm Simpson Scarborough, found that 4 percent of current
students said they will enroll somewhere else if their institutions
provide only online instruction.
One in 10 high school seniors who were planning to attend a four-year
college or university before the pandemic have also already made
alternative plans, and nearly half of those have said they will enroll
at a community college, Simpson Scarborough reports.
Average tuition and fees at community colleges cost about a third as
much as at the lowest-tier public four year and one-tenth as much as at
the lowest-tier four year private university, the College Board
reports. And that does not include room, board and other expenses at
residential institutions. Some states make community colleges
altogether free for first-time, full-time students through so-called
“promise” programs.
Cuyahoga Community College in Ohio has added a free tuition program
specifically for new and returning local students who are struggling
financially because of the pandemic. These include high school seniors
who intended to go to a four-year university but have to change their
plans and current students from Cuyahoga County who were attending
four-year institutions but can’t afford to go back.
Foothill College, a community college in California with an enrollment
of 12,576, had already seen gains during the spring quarter, which
started April 13, from students who had never taken classes there
before. The college had almost 820 more new students, a 314 percent
increase over the same time last year, said Simon Pennington, interim
associate vice president of college and community relations. Some are
also enrolled at four-year institutions, he said.
Seventeen percent of college students don’t plan to return in the fall,
or don’t know yet whether they will. Four percent say they will enroll
somewhere else if their institutions are able to provide only online
instruction.
“What it indicates is that a lot of students are looking at their local community colleges,” Pennington said.
Lake Tahoe Community College, in California on the border with Nevada,
has seen a 4 percent boost in the number of students coming there in
the spring quarter who were enrolled at other institutions, according
to Jeff DeFranco, the college president.
Everett Community College in Washington has seen an uptick in inquiries
from not only local high school students and families but also students
who were at colleges out of state, said Laurie Franklin, dean of
enrollment and student financial services.
“It’s not just the folks that are thinking about where they’re going to
go next year, but also students who are coming back in the middle of
all of this,” she said.
Tyler Sullivan, a senior graduating from Stevens High School in
Claremont, New Hampshire, put down a deposit for the fall at
Colby-Sawyer College, also in New Hampshire, but has decided instead to
attend a local community college.
“Not knowing how long this is going to be, I don’t want to do online
classes at a four-year institution where I don’t know the professors
personally,” Sullivan said.
Community colleges are a better option for students than taking a
semester or a year off from school, said Martha Parham, spokeswoman for
the American Association of Community Colleges. “It’s a great way for
them to make sure they’re not losing time in their educational
pathway,” Parham said.
It could also help the colleges themselves avoid the big enrollment
decline anticipated for higher education overall, said Davis Jenkins,
senior research scholar at the Community College Research Center at
Teachers College, Columbia University. (The Hechinger Report, which
produced this story, is also housed at Teachers College.)
But Jenkins said community colleges will need to be strategic if they want to keep those students in the long term.
The average tuition and fees at community colleges total $3,660,
compared with $10,230 at four-year, in-state public institutions and
$35,830 at private institutions. For out-of-state public institutions,
the average cost is $26,290.
“In the past, community colleges have relied on the fact that they’re
inexpensive and accessible,” he said. Now “they have to move from
offering cheap courses to offering affordable programs with strong
support for students.”
For example, students need to know whether their community college
credits will be accepted by a four-year university or college.
Credit transfer among public institutions in the same state is
generally straightforward, but it can get more complicated among states
or among public and private institutions, or for students in majors
with precise course sequences.
Students accepted as freshmen by some four-year institutions are
prohibited from taking classes at other institutions. If they do, they
have to reapply as transfer students. And some flagship universities
such as the University of Florida and systems including the University
of California require students to complete a minimum of 60 credits
before they are eligible to be admitted as transfers. That could come
as an unpleasant surprise to any who are thinking of taking only a
summer’s or semester’s worth of community college credits.
Related: Biggest gap year ever? Sixteen percent of high school seniors say they’ll take a gap year
“Just taking courses doesn’t really necessarily help students,” Jenkins
said. “You’ve got to engage them and offer them a plan and … the
courses they need that are going to lead to the job or the credential
that they want.”
Coaches at Ivy Tech Community College in Indianapolis have conducted
virtual interviews with 500 graduating high school seniors focusing on
the transition to college. “We’re trying to help students figure out
what their plan should look like,” said Provost Kara Monroe. “We’re
very careful to help the student go to the best choice for them.”
Part of the goal of the outreach is to let high school seniors know
that “we can be a great option for more than just one class in the
summer,” Monroe said.
In previous years, around a quarter of Ivy Tech’s summer students have also been simultaneously enrolled at other colleges.
For some students, applying to their local community college has provided a sense of security in an uncertain time.
Last month, Cassandra Chavez, a senior at Abraham Lincoln High School
in San Jose, was all set to attend San Francisco State University.
She’d put down her deposit and committed to the school. Then she began
to add up the cost of housing and other expenses.
She sat down to have a frank conversation about finances with her
mother, who works as a supermarket manager. Her family would have had a
hard time covering housing costs even before the pandemic hit. “My mom
is the only one that is going to pay for my tuition,” Chavez said. And
“she doesn’t get as many hours anymore because she’d rather not risk
her life.”
So Chavez withdrew her enrollment at San Francisco State and applied to
West Valley College, a community college in Saratoga that’s a 20-minute
drive from San Jose.
“At first I was really crushed because I always dreamed of moving
away and having a dorm,” she said. But then the California State
University system announced it would remain online for the fall
semester.
“It definitely … makes me feel better that I won’t be paying San
Francisco State hundreds on tuition [and] thousands on overall fees and
housing for the same online classes I’ll be taking at West Valley from
home.”
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