I spent a year at a community college.
I know - maybe gasps from many of you; maybe indifference from others.
There's a real stigma against community colleges, even if you haven't experienced it yourself. Whenever I tell people a story involving a class I took at community college, I find myself explaining the strictness of the class, and how it was considered harder than the one at the local state college (UMass Amherst, if anyone's interested).
When I first realized I was going to have to do community college for a year, I was pretty upset. My high school calculus teacher desperately looked around for other options for me, but I couldn't afford regular college classes, and the school wouldn't let me graduate early. She told me it was a shame, because I was better than that.
I'm not. That's not how it works. That's never how it works, actually. Sure, a lot of students didn't care. They were there because they thought they needed a college degree, or because all their friends were going, or because it was what their parents expected. But people who don't care tend to cluster together in the easier classes, and don't take the more involved ones. So - surprise, surprise - the hard classes were where the real learning happened.
My classes were filled with people who cared deeply about their education, whether they were returning to school or trying to save some money while getting their four-year degree. There were the people who had entered the job market only to find that things were getting increasingly difficult for those without a college diploma. There were those who had taken years and years off to raise kids, only to decide to come back to school and finish that degree. There were those who had messed up in their youth and were now looking for a second chance.
They were the students who cared about their education and who worked their butts off to make it count. They turned good classes into great classes, asking questions and prompting lively intellectual discussion.
I'm not going to lie, I had a couple classes that could have been a lot better. Classes taught by adjunct faculty members who were underpaid and overworked. Classes filled mostly with students who were just there to get a grade. And one memorable physics class that dropped from over 20 students to eight, despite a great professor.
And yet, it was still surprisingly easy to find people who cared - professors who were more than willing to stay late and talk shop, and students who encouraged them to do so. I remember the engineering physics professor stopping by to chat with the engineering club on the way out and the math professors whose doors were always open.
We talk a lot about diversity here at Tufts, but we're not really that diverse. Sure, we have a lot of international students - international students who can afford to come here. Tufts is very generous with financial aid, so you do get a fair amount of socio-economic diversity. But we all chose to come here. We all shopped around for schools and then chose Tufts. Many people at community college don't get to choose. They go to the one that's closest to where they live or the one that offers the specific program they need.
Obviously, community college isn't for everyone, and that's okay. But the next time you meet someone from a community college, don't make assumptions about them. Because they've probably got a lot more going on than you could ever guess.
Anastasia Korolov is freshman who has not declared a major. She can be reached at Anastasia.Trombly@tufts.edu.
