Bargain education at two-year community colleges are the new financial norm for an army of cash-strapped students who can’t afford the savage costs of the typical four years of higher education.
A majority of this incoming class of freshmen will shun expensive private and public universities and colleges — where room and board alone would pay for community college –and instead study for an associate’s degree.
The total US student debt outstanding exceeds $500 billion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York — a shocking 29 percent surge in just the past three years.
The loans, which include private and federal money, have propelled the average debt of this year’s graduates to $22,900, according to the publisher of student aid Web sites Fastweb.com and FinAid.org.
The students who attend community college don’t contribute as much to this staggering mountain of misery. In fact, this year, more than 50 percent of high school grads nationwide will sign up at a community college, according to the US Department of Education.
Community colleges — with the help from generous grants, including as much as $5,000 from Pell Grants — make attendance practically free for qualifying students.
Community colleges, which average annual tuition and fees of $2,713 nationwide, according to the College Board, are a lot more attractive in today’s leaner times when compared with the $33,679 for private doctoral universities.
“Most of my friends I grew up with are in community college because it’s affordable, and it’s closer to their home,” said Kareem Thompson, 22, who graduated from the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) last year with an associate’s degree in business.
“They see how they can obtain the same education at a community college as at NYU or Pace University, and it’s the same education they can get from a private institution.”
And countless community college graduates have enough academic credits or degrees to transfer to these pricey four-year schools, picking up their bachelors within two years — and saving on the cost of the other two big spending years.
Thompson, a native of Brooklyn who wants a career in investment banking, will enter Baruch College — like BMCC, it’s part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system — in the fall, majoring in finance.
“I don’t hear any of my friends who went to BMCC talking about any heavy debts, or about taking any loans. That’s the good thing about a CUNY school such as Baruch or BMCC — you don’t have the debt,” Thompson said.
More students are thinking exactly like Thompson and his pals — no debt. Some three million students are currently enrolled in US college this year. The first stop increasingly for many was at two-year community colleges, where fulltime enrollment jumped 25 percent in the period 2007 to 2009, according to the US Department of Education.
As demand for places soars, CUNY is expected to cut the ribbon next year on its seventh community college, nearing completion across from Bryant Park, for about 1,000 students.
Enrollment today is about 92,000 among its existing six community colleges, and has grown 47 percent in the past two years, according to spokesman Michael Arena.
On the budget side with this surge in enrollment, Arena said that, “funding has been a challenge for us over the last few years in particular because it is tight all around — and there are budget issues in every category; it is not just us. But there are budgetary issues here.”
With the economy’s downturn, there’s been a noticeable rise lately in enrollment at CUNY’s community colleges among people who’ve left the workforce, Arena noted.
“We are experiencing a surge in enrollment at both the community college and our [four-year] senior colleges, the overarching reasons being the economy, our affordability and the quality of CUNY’s education.”
The economy’s downturn — forcing armies of displaced, skittish and unemployed workers to sharpen their skills — also has pumped demand.
But lately it’s the out-of-control cost of the four-year private and public colleges and universities that’s triggering an upsurge, analysts say. Arena agrees, noting CUNY’s annual $3,200 tuition.