Community colleges see increase in graduates at four-year schools
QUINCY, Ill. — Community college might be the answer to a successful graduation.
New research from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation suggests students who transfer from a community college to a four-year school perform as well as, or even better than, those who go straight form high school to a four-year university.
John Wood Community College sees this success with its own students.
"It's real feedback that shows we are making a difference in the community and in the students that we are serving," JWCC President Mike Elbe said.
The Jack Kent Cooke study's bottom line is those individuals who go to community college first have a higher likelihood of graduating from a four-year university. JWCC believes the success comes down to the classroom.
"Our associate faculty are people that are working in the field that can bring real life, real-world experience into the classroom to teach compared to a lot of four-year universities," Elbe said.
Before deciding which school works best for your success, there are two main points Elbe said students should consider.
I think when parents and young people have to look at their options, they have to look at the quality of the overall academics," Elbe explained. "And 'what's the overall cost that I have to invest in order to be educated or to get an education?'
For those fearing they might not get the true college experience with a community college, sophomore Autumn Buckley says otherwise.
Not only do I get to come to school and interact with all my friends and stuff, I get to go to events and I get to just be a part of John Wood more than just a community college because people think that you just go to class and go home, but no," Buckley explained. "We have events and stuff, and it's really fun.
Jumping from high school to a community college could lead you leaping to even bigger schools.
You will find that John Wood students transfer to Purdue, to Washington University, to prestigious colleges and universities," Elbe said. "Not only local, but regional and nationally.
Another fear some students might have is transferring their credits, which JWCC has figured out to insure its students have a smooth transition.
