Choose Community College to Earn Your Master’s Degree
Students don’t typically think of community colleges when they think of pursuing masters degrees, but that’s a mistake.
In fact, community college is the very first place students should think of when they’re considering obtaining masters degrees. There are two ways a community college can assist you if a post-graduate degree is among your education goals. Read on for your traditional and non-traditional master’s degree options at community colleges.
1. Community Colleges Offer a Traditional Route to Virtually All Masters Degrees. For decades, financially savvy high school graduates have turned to community colleges to begin their college careers. It’s a smart economic move to do so, because community college tuition is generally much less expensive than tuition at universities.
Traditionally, students would attend a community college for two years to earn associate’s degrees or industry certifications, and then transfer to a four-year school to complete their bachelor’s degrees. To this day, many students take advantage of the traditional community college path to higher education and reap the benefits of an inexpensive jumpstart to a bachelor’s degree.
The next step, for those students seeking additional education, is to get a master’s degree. Do not shy away from beginning your education at a community college if a master’s degree is your ultimate goal. Graduate schools almost universally have no problem admitting community college alumni to master’s programs — as long as they indeed achieved bachelor’s degrees in addition to their community college schooling.
If you’re aiming for a master’s degree, you’ve no doubt thought about the total cost of your planned education, which can add up to a staggering figure of many tens of thousands of dollars. It makes sense to look for a good deal on your education, and starting out at a community college will dramatically decrease your costs on about one-third of your total schooling.
2. Some Community Colleges Also Offer a Non-Traditional Route to Select Masters Degrees. A relatively new option for obtaining masters degrees has surfaced at community colleges. Some of these inexpensive institutions of higher learning now offer not only a popular path to a master’s degree but also the master’s degree coursework itself, right there on the community college campus.
As higher education costs have soared higher and higher beyond the reach of more and more students, it was only a matter of time before community colleges began partnering with traditional universities in order to offer their students advanced degrees.
Today, a student who finds it only feasible to attend classes at his local community college no longer has to be satisfied with just an associate’s degree or industry certification. Instead, though community colleges’ partnerships with universities, such a student can earn a bachelor’s or master’s degree without ever leaving his hometown or the comfortable community college campus.
Not all community colleges are yet partnered with universities to offer masters degrees, but the practice is a growing trend. Check with your local community college’s office of enrollment to see if advanced degrees are currently available, and make sure to inquire about any university partnerships that may be on the horizon.