Many students at LPC once dreamed of attending a prestigious university, but chose a more affordable option to pursue their goals. For many, financial limits, poor grades, or personal circumstances made the junior college route the most realistic choice.
Las Positas is one of the most highly regarded community colleges in the area — Niche ranks it No. 2. Many students come from far and wide to attend school here.
I had dreams of attending a prestigious university, such as our local giants Stanford or Berkley, or out-of-state and down south, where football reigns supreme. As I grew older and it was time to start thinking about my future, I realized that my big university dreams could not be a reality. I was upset that I couldn’t go off to see a whole new place and meet new people, but I also realized that that path could lead to a financial hole. One that I would prefer not to be in.
With more money beginning to flow through states and the institutions within them, getting into a top college is becoming more talked about and expected of the future of our country. This new day expectation brought on by parents and the school system has created a lot of unnecessary pressure on young minds to push beyond.
In my experience on the rollercoaster of applying to college, my grades were never the best, so I was never in a position to receive an academic scholarship. Since I didn’t receive any funding from a school or organization, the next step was to see how much going away for four years would cost. My family and I decided that would be too heavy a gamble when I wasn’t quite sure what direction I was headed. My case, like many others around the country, is a tragic but realistic one.
While I may never get to experience my first week away from home in a freshman dorm or first week orientation, I’m at ease with my decision to attend junior college with my finances in mind. For people who aren’t in a position to pay for college right out of the gate, and don’t want to take money out of the bank to bet on their cloudy future, the safer, more viable option is junior college.
Las Positas, like many junior colleges, has a heavy presence of older students. Students aged 30 and older make up 20% of the student population. Students ages 19 or younger make up 41%. If we were to look at San Diego State, they have a similar student presence ages 19 and under, sitting at 36%. But if we were to look at the numbers for students 30 and older, the number we find is a much different 3%.
College-aged students roaming the campus, hosting events, and throwing parties creates that college campus feel that a junior college doesn’t have, and that undoubtedly has many students yearning for more. There is no student life, just people going from class to class trying to get their schoolwork done. It’s a much different look if you have been to a bustling, large college campus.
With everything getting more expensive in our world around us, that is especially the case with college. According to the Education Data Initiative, the average total student loan debt is around $43,000, with some borrowers taking up to 20 years to pay their loans off. This number can commonly balloon, with many students not finishing school in the standard four-year time frame or spending other money elsewhere that they did not account for.
Drawing back to the same Data Initiative, average tuition costs and fees have risen roughly 93% since 2005. In the 21st century, the cost of college has increased 41.7% faster than the rate of inflation.
If you decide to pursue a lucrative post-graduate job, that’s a great way to cut down on how long you will be paying off your debt. Entry-level, post-graduate positions typically pay within the $50,000 to $75,000 range, with jobs in STEM potentially paying more. For many students, they may not land on their feet with a job right after graduation, so their ascent to financial stability will be delayed.
Junior college enrollment was at its peak in the early 2010s, tapering off as we crawled into the 2020s, with a small resurgence coming after COVID. This makes sense, as the world was shut down and many families lost their means of income.
Attending college or not is a large, looming decision that every student has to make after they graduate high school, and this already complicated decision now grows. Junior college is a good route for students who aren’t sure where they want to be and what they want to do, so they don’t waste thousands of their own or their parents’ hard-earned money. Why not get your general classes out of the way while preparing to go out and live on your own. With how competitive California’s college landscape is, places like LPC and many surrounding junior colleges prepare and push you to be where you want to be, all while being friendly to your pockets.
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TOP PHOTO: Many students choose the junior college path as it’s often the more affordable and realistic option, given how competitive it is. For many who aren’t ready for the commitment to a four-year program, junior college is a good stepping stone. (Photo Courtesy of Pexels)
Carson Pfotenhauer is a staff writer for The Express.
