What Are The Problems Students Face With Community College?

Our society puts a large emphasis on attending college because our cultural ideology states that a person must attend college to better themselves. Higher education as a means to success has become an institutionalized norm. However, college tuitions costs are increasing continuously, making it difficult for students to afford the tremendous costs of tuition. As a result, community colleges have traditionally provided an alternative for lower income students. Tuition is much cheaper, acceptance is easier, and class schedules are very flexible. It sounds ideal to someone who works to support their family. But there is more to the story than first meets the eye. Students are running into tremendous issues while attending community colleges. In

Part of the issues students face comes from the ideals of the college system. Similar to the ideals of our country, the values of colleges are fed by the idea of competitive individualism: if you work hard enough, you will succeed. But this is not always possible. The Structural Functional perspective view of this issue states that the reason people fail is because they aren’t trying hard enough. The resources are all there, they just need to be used. But that is the problem, there isn’t enough resources and the actual opportunities of community colleges do not reflect the promises that are made. In contrast the conflict perspective states that community colleges are another way that the rich gain power over the poor. Similar to Karl Marx’s view on religion, it can be seen as a way to give the poorer people hope and make them think they can climb the latter to success. Instead, some students may end up worse off than when they started. People don’t always finish their degrees and are racking up a debt for nothing, and it often takes longer to finish a degree at a community college than it does at a university. Poor advising, trouble getting into classes, budget cuts, and poor funding all contribute to dragging out student’s schooling and turning a two year program into a six year event. Additionally, students continue to pour

Many people have realized the benefits of attending a community college instead of a university. Community colleges are working to give students more resources to help them succeed in their courses. And money has become available through scholarships and automatic discounts for specific students. But colleges need to continue to work against budget cuts and low funding. They need to continue to provide many resources for their students. An issue that continue to pervade is a low focus on graduating. Community colleges often focus more on getting students to attend their colleges rather than getting them to graduate and get degrees. Colleges need to set a more degree-oriented focus and offer more support to students to help them with career planning, advising for what courses to take, and discouraging students from taking courses that do not count towards their