My daughter has her heart set on going to a 4-year university but my husband and I have told her to utilize her A program and two years of tuition paid community college. She is very bitter and hasn't reacted at all to being accepted to the community college or letters inviting her to campus visits for help with signing up for classes, etc. I want her to be successful and happy and am afraid she will just blow off the community college classes! Any and all suggestions appreciated!

Depending on the state you're in, she could get financial aid to cover nearly all of her expenses at a public 4 year university. I went to a public university in NC, and with loans and university need based scholarships, I had my tuition covered plus money for books and living expenses. I didn't apply for these scholarships either, my high school GPA and average while in college plus financial need automatically qualified me. I can only speak for NC, but tuition and fees for the public universities in the UNC system ranged from 4,000-7,000 a year. Mine being on the low end, I never even took loans until my last year. The loans are subsidized while in college so no interest accrues for at least that 4 years - I took loans in my last year to do a study abroad, but otherwise wouldn't have needed them. In my personal experience (and family members' experience), going to a community college for two years is usually the option for individuals that are unsure about what they wanted to study and wanted to take some basic courses, or they needed to establish competencies in math or something if they did poorly in high school.

If she is willing to incur a few loans (a possibility, but not necessary if she finds the right school), allow her to go to University. I'm guessing part of the reason she can't get all that excited is because a community college doesn't really afford the same "college vibe" - she won't live in a dorm, eat at the "caf", join a sorority etc, which may be important to her.


If I were you, I'd give her the choice after her first semester/year. Make sure the classes she takes will transfer (this is important because even classes that should theoretically transfer ex. Introductory Spanish, won't transfer from CC to University in some cases). If money is an issue, which it certainly was for my family, financial aid is great. I don't want to generalize too much, but college is essentially affordable for everyone. The average college tuition in the US is around 9,000, and financial aid can meet all of that. From my view, there is no reason not to go to a 4 year college unless you can get the job you want from a 2 year program. If she wants to pursue graduate school, pharmacy school, getting her "masters" beyond college, she'll definitely need that Bachelors Degree from a 4 year institution. I don't mean to say that a community college education is worse or less, that's not it at all, a two year associates degree can be terminal for a variety of trades.

It's really just the matter of what she wants out of school, including having that "college experience" I think.

Hope this helps!

She is being unrealistic, who is going to pay all the bills of the other college, does she have a job and is she willing to write a check for this.

A community college is just your first two years of a very good education that leads to the last two at the university.

If she would "blow" off her education, then she is not really wanting one,