Are university courses harder than community college counterparts?

I took chemistry at a CC and it felt pretty easy perhaps I had a good professor, i took chemistry at a university and it felt astronomically more challenging. I took a stats class at a CC and had to withdraw from it for i was failing it after the first exam, i took the stats class and passed it easily. What Im getting at is it really comes down to your motivation and the quality of the professor. The lesser quality of the professor the more motivation you'll need for that class.

This^. There is good education to be had in many places. There is bad education too

There's no difference in classes from Lane CC to University of Oregon, to

Portland State, to USC, to Berkeley, to Stanford, to Cal Tech, to Washington. It's all the same education.

The lower-level uni courses are interchangeable with the community college courses to the point they use the same textbooks at times. That's how/why course credit is transferable from community college to uni.

The rest depends on the teacher and how well your way of learning intersects with the teacher's way of teaching.

If you are a cash-strapped student, then doing as many credits at community college is the smartest thing to do with what money you have.

Eugene the ONLY Track Town USA wrote:

There's no difference in classes from Lane CC to University of Oregon, to

Portland State, to USC, to Berkeley, to Stanford, to Cal Tech, to Washington. It's all the same education.

I spent a two quarters off university to work in my hometown, and during that time I attended a CC, so I can give a pretty good comparison.

Course material in standard lower division courses (physics, chemistry, math, English) is essentially the same. CCs generally will not offer specialized lower division coursework (for example, proof based math sequences at Caltech and Berkeley and certain engineering courses).

Course articulation may not be perfect. Often times you'll have to take two classes at a CC to have the equivalent of one class at a university.

Courses move more slowly. I was actually attending more hours of lecture per week at the CC than I was at my university, but each CC lecture simply would not cover as much.

You will meet some very intelligent kids. My lab partner first and second quarters was a guy who had worked as a mechanic for a couple years after high school (he was 23, I was 19). He ended up paying his own way through to a Berkeley MechE/EE double degree after finishing lower div coursework at the CC. He graduated with honors from Cal and is now doing very well.

You will also meet some kids who both aren't that smart and are from families without much money (the kids who aren't that smart but are from families with money end up paying 50k/year at USC or something).

Overall it was a good learning experience for me (I was arrogant as hell coming out of high school, and attending CC for a while helped temper that), and it saved me thousands of bucks. Instruction was slower than at my university, but the actual quality of instruction may well have been higher.

Grading was easier than at university (mostly because classes were rarely curved down). There's a reason kids at UCs take their med school prereqs at CCs when they can.

All this is for the California CC system though, and it's probably the most well developed CC system in the country. Other states are probably not as great.

I don't know, some of the CC courses are pretty hilly and muddy compared to D1 golf course fairways.

JCz have to be as herd as Stangord to keap there cetificrations.

About the same. Notice that most profs at CCs went to a University of California, 5Cs, WCC, USC, Stanford, etc. They have to teach at the same level because they work in the same field, i.e. profs statewide all know each other.

😂

If you're comparing 101 to another 101, yes, they're going to be fairly similar. But if you're bothering to attend a good university and you're taking 101's you're doing it wrong.

feldman wrote:

If you're comparing 101 to another 101, yes, they're going to be fairly similar. But if you're bothering to attend a good university and you're taking 101's you're doing it wrong.

You are missing the poiht of seferal of these stories. There is no such thing as a good university. The facts are the same at every school. It is up to you to learn them.

School person wrote:

Is 101 at a good university harder than the same course at a community college?

Is high school harder than junior high school?

University courses are harder because the teachers are worse.

adk22 wrote:

University courses are harder because the teachers are worse.

This is the best and by far the funniest reply on this board. I've taught at both the community college and university levels. I became tenured at the CC level and am now on tenure track at a second-tier public university. Both schools are in California. I could put my two cents in, but it seems most people have answered this question adequately. That said, if the OP has any questions for me about either system, I'm happy to answer them.

There is NO difference between the community college & the average four year institution. (Now, if you're trying to compare the CC to, say, Stanford or Swarthmore, then it's a different conversation.)

As someone said earlier, community colleges have an equal transferrable credit agreement with most, if not all, four year institutions.

I have taught at both two year & four year schools. I use the same exact syllabus, textbook, & lessons for both schools. The only difference is the class size (CC class sizes are much larger) & the price tag (the four year school's cost is much higher).

Hope this helps.

This may be true. Lots of introductory courses at universities are taught by TA's, who have little teaching experience, whereas classes at community colleges are taught by veteran teachers.

School person wrote:

Is 101 at a good university harder than the same course at a community college?

It can vary.

At a community college you may get someone with a PhD who is interested in teaching and not research. At a university (depending on the size and focus) you may get a grad assistant with no teaching experience.

I worked at a community college and one of the professors in physics had a PhD and a project that was on the space shuttle. Pretty impressive. He was an excellent teacher as well.

Undergrad courses iat the CCCs (Cal Comm Coll) are about the same difficulty as the CSU (Cal St), WCC, NON PAcademic-9.

Far more difficult are undergrad classes at the UC System school, PAcademic-9, or Shanghai-Top-100-World.

Not a registered user wrote:

I took chemistry at a CC and it felt pretty easy perhaps I had a good professor, i took chemistry at a university and it felt astronomically more challenging. I took a stats class at a CC and had to withdraw from it for i was failing it after the first exam, i took the stats class and passed it easily. What Im getting at is it really comes down to your motivation and the quality of the professor. The lesser quality of the professor the more motivation you'll need for that class.

I experienced the opposite. Chemistry was not offered at my HS. I took it at a CC and did well. After one year at the CC I transferred to a University of California. I took Chemistry 101 and the first test I scored a 98 and was the only student with a score over 90. My fellow Uni students seemed completely lost.