School person wrote:
Is 101 at a good university harder than the same course at a community college?
A fairer comparison; "Is 101 at a good university harder than the same course at a GOOD community college?". From my experience, the standards at community colleges vary widely. To be frank, some CCs are nothing more than remedial school, their focus is on fixing deficiencies from H.S. and certification programs. Professors at some low tier CCs will skip over the difficult parts of course materials and preparing kids for a 4 year school is simply not their focus. Some universities are aware of the low standards at some the low tier CCs and will reject certain course from those schools. I have seen CC graduates lose nearly a year of coursework, when transferring to a university.
I have taught at a CC and a University and as other have indicated, the lowest level courses materials are about the same. At one point I was teaching the same course, with the same text book, at the same time at a CC and a University. At the end of the semester, the CC and university grades were about the same. You can see the differences between a CC and university mainly at the start of classes. The university kids can move faster because most of them were good H.S. students and already know half of the course materials, and they know how to study and pass tests. However, about halfway through the semester, those CC kids who weren't good H.S. students, with help start to catch up and those hardworking adult learners start to get their college student sea legs, at that point, the CC and university experience is about the same.
With all of that said, a lot of H.S. kids are not ready for the university experience and would do better spending 2 years at a CC and save their parents a lot of money as well. I think CCs are an option more American should explore.
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