[MyHypatia]

Strongly agree. Community college enabled me to knock out almost 2 years of school in 1 year by taking classes during the regular semester, weekend classes, online classes, and summer classes. I also saved tens of thousands of dollars, and had much smaller class sizes than at the university. My professors were only focused on educating, not research, not arguing over grant money, and not flying around to conferences. I found my community college classmates more mature. Many students in the university seemed to be there because their parents wanted them to be there.

[derangedHorse]

I've noticed that a lot of the students at the community college I went to were more mature as well. They all had stronger convictions for going to school as most of them were older and had spouses and children they were trying to build a better life for. Other types I found were people who were switching careers due to a life-changing event (pregnancy, work accident, rent increases) and even a good amount of immigrants who were fervently trying to pursue the American dream. All of them had a lot to lose if they didn't succeed, and I believed they worked so hard because all of them knew what it was to fail, unlike many of us high school grads. Needless to say the mentality at my community college helped build strong study habits within me, and inspired me to hang in there when times got tough (just like the classmates I used to work with did).