Community Colleges (Two-Year Colleges)

Two-year colleges, more commonly known as community colleges or junior colleges, offer students the chance to earn an Associate’s degree. Community colleges are mostly publicly-funded institutions designed to serve local students of all ages and academic abilities. Most community colleges also offer career-specific training programs for students looking to transition quickly into the workforce. Many community college students attend community college with the intention of transferring into a four-year institution as college juniors. There are three good reasons for this:

1. For the student who has a GPA on the lower-end, it allows time to improve grades and gain valuable experiences,

2. For the student who is concerned about jumping right into a 4-year college experience, it allows time to transition to the demands of college, and,

3. For the student who is tight on money, it allows for cost-savings because some of the required credits can be earned at the more affordable rates offered by community colleges.

While UStrive strongly advocates for qualified students to apply to and attend four-year universities, if you do decide on a two-year school, make sure you speak with an advisor during your first semester so you take the right courses and are on track to meet the transfer requirements so you are able to apply to a four-year university at a later date.

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Universities (Four-Year Colleges)

There are many types of four-year institutions offering Bachelor's degrees: public universities, which are funded by the state, privates colleges which are funded privately, or Institute of Art or Technology, which provide various types of specialized degrees. When it comes to deciding what kind of four-year school to attend, however, most students find themselves choosing between a liberal arts college and a university. Attending a university provides the following benefits:

1. Most university graduates earn a lot more money during their working years than people who stop their education at high school or community college. How much? Generally, people with bachelor’s degrees earn $1 million more over their lifetimes than people without bachelor’s degrees.

2. A more traditional student life, sports team, study abroad opportunities and overall collegial feel.

3. Universities allow a student to start and finish their academic path in one school, unlike transferring which can be complicated at times (sometimes the school you are looking to transfer to does not accept some of the classes taken in the previous school.)

In-state vs Out-of-state

If you are considering public universities outside of your state, you will pay the cost of out-of-state tuition, which costs a lot more than if you were a resident of that state. This is because you would not be paying taxes to that state so therefore, your tuition would not be subsidized like that of a resident. Here is an example:

Let’s say you’re a resident of Illinois and are interested in going to San Diego State University in California. Here is what is what an estimated cost would be for one year of tuition: Out-of-state tuition: $19,390 In-state tuition: $7,510

Public vs private universities

Private universities don’t differentiate between in-state vs out-of-state because they’re not funded by the state. Rather, they are non-profit or for-profit institutions and receive no government funding. By just looking at the sticker price of a private vs public university you will notice the cost is a lot higher, but that does not mean that the public university will always be the most affordable.

When accounting for the information inputted in FAFSA, private universities can be very generous with the amount of aid they provide students. For example, Harvard University offers free tuition for low-income students so you can attend the university without having to pay. This can then make Harvard University more affordable than your local public university. Many other ivy-league schools also have this policy. However, there still are public universities like Texas A&M that cover tuition costs for any family making less than $60,000 a year. If you’re a resident of Texas, this can be a great option.

Here is a list of universities that offer free or reduced tuition: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2018/09/25/colleges-free-tuition/#678fb2535660

It’s important that your list of schools contain a mix of public and private universities, with at least a couple of schools in-state. Once you receive your award letters you will be able to compare and contrast the offers and determine which school would make the most sense, financially.

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