The Financial Benefits of Attending Community College
By Frederico Andrade, Yesenia Camacho Reyes, & Chris Ramoth
Abstract
This paper has been written to reveal why students choose to attend community colleges. In doing so, we are challenging the majoritarian narratives that students go to community college because they are less intelligent, motivated, and determined than students who would attend a typical 4-year university. To do so, we used 12 writing samples from students attending the College of San Mateo who wrote about their decision to attend a community college. In identifying that most of the writing samples discuss the financial differences between attending a community college versus a university, we began to research the financial benefits of community college. Our findings were that students chose to attend community colleges because the financial benefits of attending were much greater than that of a university. To give light to this idea, we used the writing samples to create a composite counterstory that would challenge the dominant narratives about community colleges and the students that attend them. We created a character named Antonio using a combination of all twelve of the writing samples in order to create a realistic and accurate representation of what they portrayed, with the goal of showing the theme we discovered from them. Our findings challenge the negative stigma around community colleges by providing sufficient evidence to support the idea that the main reason students attend a community college is for financial benefits.
Introduction
Community colleges are great places that provide access to higher education to students across the United States, yet the bigger universities and colleges often overshadow them. This often leads to community colleges being overlooked and has also led to various negative majoritarian narratives, or narratives formed by a majority group, to push their views above those of outgroups or minority groups to form stereotypes about students who attend community colleges. The majoritarian narrative about community college students is that they are not as intelligent, motivated, or determined as students who attend prestigious universities and colleges. Majoritarian narratives fail to provide the whole story and don’t realize the actual experiences of those who the narratives are about. Counterstories are stories from marginalized groups that provide the full picture and challenge the dominant ideologies. When focusing on the counterstories from the outgroup or minority group that are being stereotyped, it is clear that the reasons why students attend community college do not align with those of the majoritarian narratives. Although students who choose to go to community college are seen as less intelligent or motivated, they are, in fact, making the decision that will give them the many financial benefits of attending a community college.
Literature Review
Delgado (1989) describes what majoritarian narratives and counterstories are. Majoritarian narratives are “narratives told by the ingroup [that] remind it of its identity in relation to outgroups” and counterstories are “the stories of outgroups [that] aim to subvert that ingroup reality” (Delgado, 1989, pp. 2412, 2413). This source helps us understand the characteristics of what majoritarian narratives and counter stories are and how they relate to one another. Understanding the characteristics of a majoritarian narrative allows us to identify majoritarian narratives about community college students, and understanding what a counterstory is allows us to have a way to challenge these dominant narratives.
Furthermore, Solórzano and Yosso (2002) claim that “critical race theory is committed to social justice and offers a liberatory or transformative response to racial, gender, and class oppression” (p. 60). In other words, counterstories provide readers or outsiders with a lens into what the truth for these majoritarian narratives may be. Not only are counterstories giving a voice to those who want to share their truth, but they construct acceptance in many aspects, which in this case is acceptance of community colleges. Solórzano and Yosso write that not only is it a life story countering the majoritarian narrative, but experiences, sociology, ethnic studies, and so on help back up the idea that counterstories help readers better understand any effects marginalized groups of people deal with.
Cutler White (2019) prepares studies that can be used to prove that college students deserve extra aid and how community college achieve it. This source introduces evidence and endless data proving that those who entered community college at some point in their educational experience not only saved more money than others but were more likely to be successful in their career. The methods used by her studies were mixed, but they included a significant amount of qualitative data and went as far as comparing it across fifty states. Cutler White writes:
Attainment is defined as the combined percentage of a state’s population ages 25 to 64 completing some form of postsecondary education beyond high school as reported by the U.S. Census categories of some college, no degree, associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, professional degree, and doctoral degree. Although community colleges hold promise as a key contributor to raising state educational attainment, states may underutilize the colleges through challenges associated with the arrangement of higher education governance. (p. 2)
Cutler White claims that community colleges are being “underused,” which simply means that people aren’t seeing the benefits and aren’t focusing on their path to success. Community colleges are seen as “less than” schools, and for that reason, students aren’t attending community colleges, but that’s because counterstories aren’t being presented to them.
Similarly, Perna et al. (2020) describe the benefits of the Promise program available to students that allow them to attend a community college with no cost at all. This source helps us to understand how a program such as the Promise program within a community college can provide such a great financial benefit for those who are attending. As one student noted, “It's really cool that I can go to Rural, close to home, and save money so I can figure out what I want to do, instead of going somewhere else and maybe doing something I don’t want to do, wasting time and money there.” Using interviews from students attending community college with the Promise program gives an inside view on how much it actually benefits the students.
Bozick (2007) describes the advantages and disadvantages of attending community college while living at home and attending a four-year university while living on campus. Bozick provides analytical data correlating varying intensities of work and living conditions (on-campus, off-campus/with parents) to engagement in college. It should be noted that this study focuses on students in both four-year universities and two-year community colleges in the late 1990s. The study finds that living at home and attending community college is associated with lower student debt and more financial stability. However, it may bring challenges, such as balancing work and academic responsibility, which can be overwhelming, especially for first-year college students.
Methodology
Solórzano and Yosso (2002) define counterstories in racial form as “those injured by racism and other forms of oppression discover they are not alone in their marginality. They become empowered participants, hearing their own stories and the stories of others, listening to how these arguments against them are framed, and how to make arguments to defend themselves” (p. 27). These stories that defend one another are called counterstories. Similar to this narrative, Antonio, our composite counterstory character, lives a life where he feels he justifies why he chose to attend a community college instead of any other four-year school. To prove Antonios’s point, we’ve collected data that contains not only quantitative data, but also qualitative data. These two forms of data analyze the truth of his life and why his story is a counterstory. We used the writing samples collected from College of San Mateo, existing scholarship, and our own experiences to help provide a lens through which to see the Antonio’s life.
The primary sources used in our research come from English composition students attending College of San Mateo, a community college in the San Francisco Bay Area. These participants’ stories (primary sources) share their personal struggles and experiences while on their unique path toward a community college, all supporting the idea of these colleges’ financial benefits. These writing samples are autobiographies about why these twelve (12) students chose to attend a community college. We used these courses because they came from individuals with the lived experiences of deciding to attend a community college; they also challenge the majoritarian narratives claiming that students attending community colleges are less intelligent than those attending four-year universities. The students remained anonymous and the samples were put together in a packet without the names attached to them. This packet also came with demographics, including gender, race, and household income, which were attached to each sample to get a better perspective on the writing. When coding the sources, the recurring codes we found were “affordability/cost,” “pressure,” “location,” and “uncertainty.” This led us to our overall theme of the writing samples, which we determined to be that students chose to attend community colleges because of the numerous financial benefits of doing so. These writing samples emphasized the support given by their current community college and the resulting positive outcomes. These composite counterstories are based on research and prove that attending a community college instead of a four-year college can help improve one’s financial state and build everyone a better path towards success.
Composite Counterstory
Antonio, a 17-year-old Latino high school student, is close to graduating while contemplating his future academic career. The decision between a four-year or community college weighs on his mind. With his clean academic record, Antonio is highly motivated to receive the education his parents always wished they had.
Throughout his early education, Antonio had always embodied the stereotype associated with four-year college students. He’s always demonstrated high intelligence, punctuality, motivation, and most notably, Antonio has always had an impressively high GPA. Although he hasn’t settled on a specific field of study, he knows he wants to pursue a college education and obtain a degree. This achievement would mean the world to his family, as he would be the first to graduate high school, especially with outstanding achievements, and earn a college education in his family.
While he completes his senior year of high school, Antonio works part-time at a retail store located in downtown San Mateo. His parents, both of whom were unable to attend college, heavily encourage their son to study at a university to carry the title of being the first-generation college student in the family. As the only child, Antonio has always felt the responsibility to fulfill his parents’ and his own dreams. Although he’s lived within a stable household, his parents have never been able to provide any financial assistance for Antonio to support with his future college expenses.
Unfortunately, Antonio’s family has never been one to be able to enjoy financial abundance. As a matter of fact, their income barely covers their basic living necessities, leaving little room for extra spending. This means that Antonio would have to face two options: either receive full scholarships–which, realistically, is rarely heard of–or he’d need to resort to loans and accept the burden of debt. Luckily, it’s at this dilemma where the thought of attending a community college crossed his mind. Not only would he receive financial support, but he wouldn’t need to withdraw any significant loans that could potentially take a toll on his financial well-being in the future.
As Antonio thinks of his future, he yearns to finally discover a career he would be genuinely passionate about. He hasn’t yet found a particular career path that captures the kind of future he sees in himself. It seems like there are too many options to choose from, making it overwhelming and difficult to commit to something so specific so early. He also considers that if his chosen career path’s wage doesn’t outweigh the loan taken out for the education, Antonio may be stuck with student debt for longer than he’d like to be.
While Antonio contemplates attending a community college, he does some research that opens up a world of possibilities for his future. He found that community colleges offer a diverse range of studies, allowing him to explore different fields without the pressure of committing to a specific study/career path too early. If he attends a community college, he can take advantage of the variety of academic resources and support services available to help him discover his choice for the future while saving as much money as possible. The lower tuition fees and opportunity to receive financial aid and scholarships while allowing him to live at home and minimize reliance on loans allow Antonio to avoid the potential long-term consequences of student debt and focus on building a solid foundation for his future. He also discovered the Promise Program at the College of San Mateo, which would make his college experience there completely free.
Living at home for community college gives Antonio the opportunity to pursue a higher education and study his interests at a low cost but it also enables him to financially support his family with additional expenses they can’t afford. Thanks to the flexible schedules offered for community college classes, he can contribute to the household income and alleviate any financial burdens holding his parents down.
By choosing to take the path to attend community college, Antonio sets himself up for success over time, personal growth, and a better future for himself and his family. His story demonstrates the power of community colleges, which allow for those unready, whether financially or educationally, for a four-year university to still achieve their dreams while overcoming financial obstacles, proving that community college is a transformative and rewarding experience.
Discussion
Providing Financial Support Programs
Community colleges offer programs for students that can assist with the costs of attending. Antonio, who comes from a low-income household, was looking for options to pay for college and heard about a program in his preferred community college that provides money to pay for his education. This provides him a further incentive to attend a community college, where students can take the classes they want to take without worrying about committing or spending too much hard-earned money on tuition, classes, textbooks, or even food. Perna (2020) quotes an interviewee who declared, “The selected programs may have encouraged enrollment for some students who would not have otherwise enrolled.”
Housing benefits
Attending a local community college allows for low-income students to avoid worrying about costs of living and finding housing near campus. Antonio’s choice to live at home with his family while attending community college allows him to save the money he would’ve spent living in a dormitory on campus had he attended a four-year university, which cuts housing costs and living expenses. This allows students to save money and focus on their education while reducing the need to work, giving them more time for academics, family and social life. Bozick (2007) states that “over the course of the first year of college, balancing the demands and stresses of both school and work takes its toll on youths…If these students are working more than 20 hours a week, they may not be able to keep up with their courses, their jobs, and their familial and social commitments.” Having too much on his plate at once would give Antonio good reason to be overwhelmed with all his new responsibilities, which would hinder his work in both school and his job as well as take a toll on mental health and finances. Living at home allows for more time and freedom, as Antonio wouldn’t have to work as many hours to pay for his housing.
Avoiding a loan
Community colleges help with overall educational completion with less financial complications related to the government. Much research has been done to prove how helpful community colleges really are and within this specific research created by Cutler White, we see that they show positive effects and should be embedded into everyone's educational experience. Cutler White (2019) claims “These findings are foundational for an expanded research agenda focused on community college governance, leadership, and advocacy practices. Future research should examine the policy environment mismatch of governing board arrangements and how to expand the role of community colleges in the college completion agenda.” For Antonio, who comes from a background where money has never been abundant, choosing a 4-year university would most likely require Antonio to borrow large amounts of money, which could lead him to paying student loans for a long time. Attending community college would help him avoid at least half of the problem by getting his first two years done free and allowing Antonio to escape the threat of risky financial issues that could've been coming his way in the future.
Conclusion
In considering multiple research-based articles, as well as Antonio’s story, we can conclude that community colleges are a great route to take after high school. Despite the majoritarian narratives implying that community college students are less intelligent, motivated or determined, this is not the case. The numerous financial benefits of attending a community college are a big reason why students choose to attend. Community colleges are an extreme financial support mechanism for everyone, and they should be included in everyone’s educational experience. Many students go directly into community colleges to study, or in some cases, they go into a four year and transfer into a community college after realizing that they can’t support themselves without going into debt or taking loans. Antonio represents the the students who are seen as less intelligent for joining a community college, yet his life story demonstrates his success, his determination, and strong family structure. Through this lens, we can see that Antonio never fit in the stereotype created by all the the ingroups (majoritarian narrative); in fact, he is the complete opposite. His life story goes to show that anyone who wants to save money or take a financially supported route will go to community colleges. These colleges will provide a wide variety of financial aid for everyone with the lowest number of requirements. In choosing the right school for you after high school, consider the positive outcomes and the financial benefits of going to a community college. Going directly into a college like this will provide you with your freshman and sophomore experience while helping you save for your future.
References
Bozick, R. (2007). Making It through the First Year of College: The Role of Students’ Economic Resources, Employment, and Living Arrangements. Sociology of Education, 80(3), 261–284. https://doi.org/10.1177/003804070708000304
Cutler White , C. (2019). Higher Education Governance and the Attainment Agenda: Arrangements With Benefits for Community Colleges? Community College Review, 4(3), 219-241. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0091552119852158
Delgado, R. (1889). Storytelling for Oppositionists and others: A plea for narrative. Michigan Law Review, 87(8), 2411-2441. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1289308.pdf
Perna, L.W., Wright-Kim, J., & Leigh, E. W. (2020). Is a College Promise Program an Effective Use of Resources? Understanding the Implications of Program Design and Resource Investments for Equity and Efficiency. AERA Open, 6(4), 233285842096763–. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858420967633
Solórzano, D.G. & Yosso, T.J. (2002). Critical race methodology: Counter-storytelling as an analytical framework for education research. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 23-44.