A Sense Of Community: 2017’s Best & Worst Community Colleges – Wallethub Study

The problem with community college is that it is no longer referred to as junior college. Back when it was, you could convince people you had a professor just like Robin Williams’ character in that movie, where an offbeat pedagogue steered young boys away from a future laced with cocaine addiction and white-collar crime. Incidentally, the setting for that movie was a prep school in Vermont. These days, preps schools rank above community colleges in the pecking order of higher learning, simply for having dormitories.

But they’re not all bad. Most are publicly funded and offer a wide variety of courses at a mere pittance. So when you begin your career as a phlebotomist, you may not have to draw your own blood just to pay off those student loans. Some even offer adult classes for those parents who are tired of asking their kindergartner for help balancing the checkbook or reading street signs. With the increase in online universities – which allow the young and the restless to take classes during commercial breaks of The Young And The Restless – community college may soon go the way of the Dodo.

If you are interested in the life of the Dodo bird, there is no area of study that will teach you any more than you already know. It’s been long dead. If birds still tickle your fancy, then ornithology may be, right up your alley? Most community colleges, depending on where they are located, may have a bird watching club or society. There is even less of a chance that they offer a degree in anything bird related. But a course in biology, at your local college, would be the first step on a staircase to emulating Jack Hanna.

What is biology you ask? It doesn’t really matter, what matters is that you can take biology at a good college, or a really bad one, the amount of information you retain is really up to you. Not sure what a bad college looks like? Well, Denmark Technical College in South Carolina is up there, or down there (it’s 724 on the list). It’s all about perspective. The list in reference here is a report of 2017’s Best & Worst Community Colleges, put together by the good folks over at WalletHub, a personal finance management website. They can also get you a free credit report, as you are bound to spend money on things like textbooks and school supplies. If you are willing to seize every opportunity, there is no telling what you can accomplish.

[Featured Image by M. McNeil/ Getty Images]