No one’s going to lie: Community colleges sometimes get a bad rap.
High school seniors often regard community colleges as a last resort if Harvard isn’t impressed by their SAT scores or if paying $30,000 annually to attend an elite private school is out of the question.
So you may be surprised to learn that the social and academic climates at community colleges around the country are changing. Many community colleges now boast more enticing campus activities, technology for students that rivals that of competitive four-year schools, and increased academic rigor to attract a larger, more talented applicant pool and produce a happier student body.
For most students, community college works in one of two ways: 1.) Students come to the school, graduate, and start working or 2.) Students come to the school, graduate, then transfer on to four-year colleges.
Students’ reasons for attending community colleges are as diverse as the students who attend them.
Here are four reasons you should consider a community college.
Major and career direction
 Milena Kohlhofer, a 2006 graduate of Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, N.Y., decided to attend community college to gain some direction. “When I graduated from high school, I did not know what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and community college gave me a chance to experiment and see what classes I liked at a low cost,” she says. “With the help of the faculty and staff who were very concerned about their students’ success, I was able to focus on deciding what I wanted.”
Affordable tuition
Kohlhofer also mentions another attractive aspect of community colleges: cost. While many private colleges have tuition of between $20,000 and $30,000 a year, most community colleges charge $2,000 to $3,000 a semester. You do the math.
 Amanda Fox, assistant director of academic advisement at Nassau Community College in Long Island, N.Y., says, “Students come here usually for the cost factor, and often transfer to local colleges and universities like Hofstra University or Stony Brook University, and then go on to NYU or Columbia University for their master’s degrees. It’s so important that we try to kick these stereotypes of community colleges being the ‘13th grade,’ because students who study here, work hard and succeed often transfer to very competitive schools where they couldn’t have originally gotten into right out of high school.”
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