MYTH #3: No one successful goes to community college.

[Life Long Learning]

THE REALITY: The list of successful individuals who graduated from a community college is extensive, ranging from business CEOs to politicians. Below is a very short list of famous community college alumni: 

• Pete Rozelle: Commissioner of the NFL
  
  
• Tom Hanks: Oscar-winning actor
  
  
• H. Ross Perot: Corporate executive and 1992 Presidential Candidate
  
  
• Calvin Klein: Fashion Designer
  
  
• Melvin Salveson: Creator of MasterCard
  
  
• Walt Disney: Founder of Disney World and Disneyland
  
  
• Francine Neff: Former US Treasurer
  
  
• Arthur Goldberg: Supreme Court Justice
  
  
• James Sinegal: CEO of Costco
  
  
• Fred Haise: Apollo 13 Astronaut
  
  
• Clint Eastwood: Actor and Oscar-winning director
  
  
• John Walsh: "America's Most Wanted" host
  
  
• Rita Mae Brown: Author
  
  
• Gwendolyn Brooks: Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
  
  
• Eileen Collins, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut
  
  
• https://www.communitycollegereview.com/b...lege-myths
  

[missbootyfull]

Yeah, I got paid to go to community college like 3,500 per semester. Seems pretty smart to me not having debt lol

[natshar]

what are myths number 1 and 2?

[jsd]

i have never heard this myth. even my "more successful" friends who would probably be snooty about the the alt-credit approach all went to community college to save money on their first couple years and boost their GPAs before getting moving on to their law degrees or what have you.

Though maybe it's more normalized in CA based on the fact that our CCs are so cheap that it's just too good to pass up no matter who you are.

[dfrecore]

i have never heard this myth. even my "more successful" friends who would probably be snooty about the the alt-credit approach all went to community college to save money on their first couple years and boost their GPAs before getting moving on to their law degrees or what have you.

Though maybe it's more normalized in CA based on the fact that our CCs are so cheap that it's just too good to pass up no matter who you are.

That's true - not many look down on CC in CA, in general because 1) cheap or even free now; 2) pretty decent teaching in most cases (and I've had really good luck, better than SJSU); and 3) ease of transfer (and guarantees) to CSU and UC's.  If you can't get into UC Davis as a freshman for instance, with their 5% admittance rate, you are guaranteed admission as a transfer student with IGETC and major pre-reqs completed and decent GPA.  You can't beat that with a stick!

[natshar]

I went to community college and I'm successful. . . successfully unemployed (but isn't that many of us these days)

Still waiting to hear about myths number 1 and 2.

[Life Long Learning]

On May 27, I was watching a "Navigating the Unwritten Rules for Career Success" (very Washington DC focus) and Tinisha Agramonte, Director, Office of Civil Rights, United States Department of Commerce talked about the bias against community colleges and taking more than 4 years to get a BS degree.

https://washingtondc.fiu.edu/talent-lab/index.html

That bias is around. One of my kids when to a private High School.  They all had a bias against CC.

[CatsDomino]

My sons attended a public high school, and they push four-year colleges and universities very much. They won't even allow community colleges to have a presence at their annual college fair, only four-year schools. My youngest graduated in 2019, and, despite having a local CC campus offering NO COST classes to high school juniors and seniors, many parents and students turned up their noses to it. Apparently, they didn't want the "stigma" of a community college on their transcript to a four-year school.

My family has taken advantage of everything we can for our sons. My oldest son got his Associate in Engineering, landed a well-paying job that is now sending him for his BS, and zero debt for any of it. My youngest took advantage of the CC courses in high school, finished his transfer Associate in Science this month, will begin his junior year this fall at a four-year school, and graduate with a BS at 20. He'll likely graduate debt-free due to his college fund stretching even further thanks to the free and low tuition at his community college.

[jcooke]

My sons attended a public high school, and they push four-year colleges and universities very much.  They won't even allow community colleges to have a presence at their annual college fair, only four-year schools.  My youngest graduated in 2019, and, despite having a local CC campus offering NO COST classes to high school juniors and seniors, many parents and students turned up their noses to it.  Apparently, they didn't want the "stigma" of a community college on their transcript to a four-year school.

My family has taken advantage of everything we can for our sons.  My oldest son got his Associate in Engineering, landed a well-paying job that is now sending him for his BS, and zero debt for any of it.  My youngest took advantage of the CC courses in high school, finished his transfer Associate in Science this month, will begin his junior year this fall at a four-year school, and graduate with a BS at 20.  He'll likely graduate debt-free due to his college fund stretching even further thanks to the free and low tuition at his community college.

If people would get their noses out of everyone else’s... yeah.
They would realize that right now the ROI for a college degree with loans is not worth it.
That’s why I’m here on this forum and trying to get my Bachelors for what I can afford, a little bit at a time, not putting myself in debt for a career change that may or may not happen in this “new normal”.
Keep on keeping on! Now your kids can afford a nice car or down payment on a house because they won’t be forking out half their income to pay student debt!