Send to printer | Close window Staying Home to Go to College Community colleges make the grade for Valley students looking to save a little cash and prepare for their careers — without sacrificing the A-plus education By: Rita Ross Lots of parents and prospective college students are reeling these days from sticker-shock at soaring college tuition costs — especially since many college-savings accounts have been hammered by the economy’s recent nosedive. But here in the Valley, as elsewhere in the nation, many families are taking a fresh look at what some call “the best-kept secret in education”: community colleges. Reasons? For one, the price is right. Two-year schools can be a tremendous value; costs at many four-year private colleges now surpass $180,000 over four years. Even prices for state schools are moving ever-higher — tuition at New York’s four-year public colleges is currently about $4,350 annually and is set to rise again this spring by $310 per semester. By comparison, the nation’s 1,200 two-year schools — New York State’s SUNY system has 30 of them — charge an average annual tuition of just $2,300, according to the American Association of Community Colleges. “Traditionally, it’s been the case with community colleges that enrollment has gone up when the economy’s gone down,” says Mike Albright, director of communications at Orange County Community College (OCCC) in Middletown. “Community colleges offer degrees that prepare people for the workforce, often at a higher level of pay and management,” he adds. “They allow students to get a jump-start on college, and save on costs — they’re an excellent investment in education.” “In today’s economy, students and families have to be realistic about their options,” says Susan Mead, director of financial aid at Dutchess Community College (DCC). “To send your child to a $45,000-a-year school is very nice if you can afford it. But to have that child get out with a four-year degree and an accumulated student-loan debt of say, $100,000, that’s a problem. You need to take a realistic look at the cost of education.” Hudson Valley Magazine | Staying Home to Go to College http://www.hvmag.com/core/pagetools.php?pageid=6710&url... 1 of 20 1/27/09 12:55 PM
"Staying Home to Go to College" feature from 1/16/09 issue of Hudson Valley Magazine; an inside look at the value of the region's community colleges today.
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Staying Home to Go to College
Community colleges make the grade for Valley studentslooking to save a little cash and prepare for their careers —without sacrificing the A-plus education
By: Rita Ross
Lots of parents and prospective college students are reeling these days from sticker-shock at soaring college
tuition costs — especially since many college-savings accounts have been hammered by the economy’s recent
nosedive.
But here in the Valley, as elsewhere in the nation, many families are taking a fresh look at what some call “the
best-kept secret in education”: community colleges.
Reasons? For one, the price is right. Two-year schools can be a tremendous value; costs at many four-year
private colleges now surpass $180,000 over four years. Even prices for state schools are moving ever-higher
— tuition at New York’s four-year public colleges is currently about $4,350 annually and is set to rise again
this spring by $310 per semester. By comparison, the nation’s 1,200 two-year schools — New York State’s
SUNY system has 30 of them — charge an average annual tuition of just $2,300, according to the American
Association of Community Colleges.
“Traditionally, it’s been the case with community colleges that enrollment has gone up when the economy’s
gone down,” says Mike Albright, director of communications at Orange County Community College (OCCC)
in Middletown. “Community colleges offer degrees that prepare people for the workforce, often at a higher
level of pay and management,” he adds. “They allow students to get a jump-start on college, and save on costs
— they’re an excellent investment in education.”
“In today’s economy, students and families have to be realistic about their options,” says Susan Mead,
director of financial aid at Dutchess Community College (DCC). “To send your child to a $45,000-a-year
school is very nice if you can afford it. But to have that child get out with a four-year degree and an
accumulated student-loan debt of say, $100,000, that’s a problem. You need to take a realistic look at the
cost of education.”
Hudson Valley Magazine | Staying Home to Go to College http://www.hvmag.com/core/pagetools.php?pageid=6710&url...
1 of 20 1/27/09 12:55 PM
No More “13th Grade”
In addition to lower costs, another draw of community colleges is their ever-increasing quality. Today’s
two-year schools offer top-notch educational options geared to modern lifestyles and schedules. Gone are the
days when some community colleges were disparagingly dubbed “13th grade” because of the perception they
attracted underachieving students and had less-than-stellar standards. “There’s definitely a shift in the
mindset,” says Ron Marquette, coordinator of community relations and special events at Ulster County
Community College (UCCC). “It used to be that students would think they’d have to go away to get a good
education. But now more are saying, ‘Let me stay close to home.’ ” In fact, community colleges are currently
so popular that the American Association of Community Colleges says that enrollment at two-year schools
increased 10 percent between 2000-2006. These schools now enroll nearly half of the nation’s
undergraduates.
Of course, the students who flock to community college have myriad goals. Some seek a two-year associate’s
degree; others are en route to a four-year degree. Still others are nontraditional students — older adults;
individuals requiring remedial assistance; workers seeking new skills because they’ve been laid off or want to
stay on the cutting-edge in their field; or those who attend school part-time for financial or family reasons.
Many community colleges offer special services for those who attend school while holding down a job and/or
juggling family duties. Weekend and evening classes, childcare centers (available at UCCC, DCC, OCCC, and
Hudson Valley Community College, among others), and expanding on-line course options help make college
easier for busy adults to manage.
But community colleges are definitely seeing an increase in younger students, due in part to changes on
campus which make attending these institutions mirror the classic college experience. For instance,
dormitories have been proposed at both DCC and UCCC. “The purpose is to offer a full college experience,”
says Marquette about the UCCC projects, which would create housing for 250-300 students (although the
plan is “very much in the early stages” and will not be completed for at least several years). At DCC,
townhouse-style dormitories for 500 to 800 students are in the works, although last year the plan hit what
administrators hope is a temporary snag when both the Town and City of Poughkeepsie opposed the
proposal.
Growing study-abroad options are also attracting more students. Last summer, OCCC sent a small
contingent of students to Italy, the first for-credit foreign study trip in their history. The school has also just
completed construction of the Gilman Center for International Education — home to their newly created
Global Studies department — and has made a globalized curriculum one of their development goals. Most of
the Valley’s community colleges can tap into the vast SUNY network to offer a wide range of study-abroad
programs to their students.
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Click on the image above to review statistics on some
Hudson Valley colleges
Local community colleges are also making use
of their honors programs to lure bright
students. Both UCCC and DCC offer free
two-year tuition and acceptance into their
honors program to any county student who
graduates in the top 10 percent of his or her
high school class. The OCCC honors program
offers similar perks, including free tuition for
10 of the county’s top graduates, a guest lecture
series, and an honors student lounge. The
school also requires all students to complete a
community service component, which is
intended in part to make graduates more
appealing to transfer institutions. (Motivated
students should note that Vassar College offers
an all-expenses-paid “exploring transfer”
program to first-generation college students.
The aim is to introduce them to the possibilities
of transferring to a wide range of four-year
institutions.)
Allen Kovler, director of public relations at
Columbia-Greene Community College, points
out that the more intimate, less-intimidating
educational environment at community
colleges tends to encourage student-teacher
interaction, and helps students bloom. “Small classes give students the nurturing they need to succeed,” he
says. Margaret Carlon, a public relations associate at Columbia-Greene, agrees that kids at a smaller school
can thrive when they’re more than just an anonymous face in a crowded lecture hall. “College is a big
adjustment, and many students benefit from staying closer to home in a supportive learning environment for
the first couple of years,” she says.
“Most people don’t realize that community colleges are America’s contribution to higher education,” says Dr.
Cliff L. Wood, president of Rockland Community College (RCC). “They were created in the U.S. after World
War II so everyone could have reasonable commuter access to higher education. Community colleges have
done just that — it’s one of the things I think is so wonderful about them, in terms of opportunities they offer
to the public.”
RCC, like other community colleges, draws a varied student body. “The diversity is exciting,” says Wood. “We
have local people from all walks of life, and international students. This gives students exposure to people
whose backgrounds are very different from their own; it’s really a gift.”
State Stars
It’s not just community colleges that are attracting more local students. Four-year schools in the Valley —
particularly state schools — are also noting an uptick in students choosing to attend school close to home.
“With the economic downturn, we’re certainly seeing more students staying in the area,” says Lisa Jones,
dean of undergraduate admissions at SUNY New Paltz. “We get students from all around the Hudson Valley,
and we’re seeing more transfers from Dutchess, Orange, Ulster, Rockland, and Sullivan county colleges,” she
says. “In some instances, students might have first been set on attending a private school elsewhere. But
when they see that SUNY New Paltz offers the same programs, and we’re about the same size — but at a more
reasonable price — they often decide to come here.”
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Tuition Topics
“In this economic climate, parents are worried,” says Susan Mead. “They say that financial investments
they’d planned to use for their children’s college are losing value. Even plans they’d had for their son or
daughter to go to a state university might not be as affordable as they’d hoped.”
But the situation isn’t totally dire, Mead stresses. “Everything you hear in the economy about student loans
drying up, that’s not from the federal perspective; it’s from the private student-loan market. And although
those options are shrinking, they’re not gone altogether.”
Two federally backed tuition-assistance programs — Stafford loans and Perkins loans — are available to most
students, she says. Also, New York State offers one of the more generous tuition-assistance programs, known
as TAP. “It’s a grant based on a family’s state net taxable income. So there are options to explore when it
comes to tuition assistance,” she says.
Yet community college tuition is so reasonable, relatively speaking, “that a lot of our students choose not to
take out loans while they’re here,” says Mead. “Instead, they pay with money they saved from working or
from birthdays or graduation. It’s much more affordable for them not to be saddled with student debt.” And
Mead vouches for the educational quality at DCC: “My daughter is an honor student at Dutchess. I wouldn’t
send her here if it wasn’t a good place to be.”
Alma Matters
Graduates, we all know a picture is worth a thousand words — so show us some of your most memorable photos
from your college days in the Hudson Valley. Our favorite picks could be shown on www.hvmag.com. Please
include your name and hometown, college, major, graduation year, and a few lines about your photo (be sure to