Mrs. Bausch
English 111
9-24-13
Go To Community College
After graduating high school a lot of people do not know what their next step in life will be. Some struggle between deciding to go straight into the workforce, joining the military, or continuing their education by going to college. The average person chooses college as their next step. A common issue about going to college is whether to go to a two-year college/community college or straight into a four-year university. I think community college is the smarter and better choice. People fail to realize that going to community college helps you save thousands of dollars. Not only that, but students with undecided majors better find their way while saving money at community colleges. They are very flexible and can provide students with a better transition from high school while benefiting from their smaller class sizes and campuses. As we all know, community college is cheaper to attend than a four-year university. Four-year universities cost thousands of dollars while attending a community college would cost less than half of that. For instance, the average cost of attendance at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) is roughly 5,000 dollars per year for a freshman, compared to the cost of attendance at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) which is about 25,000 dollars a year for freshmen. The cost of attending VCU is fives times as much as attending NOVA where in retrospect the same material is being covered. To break it down, tuition and fees at VCU amount to about 12,000 dollars. One credit costs about 300 dollars while at NOVA a credit costs 150 dollars. Room and board would be 9,000 dollars at VCU, while going to NOVA in most cases you would not have to pay to live at home if you are a freshman. Books would still be around the same price because books in college are expensive regardless. Other expenses would vary depending on what a student would need. Looking back on it the