Attending affordable community
colleges, rather than larger
and more expensive universities,
has become a favorable option for
students looking to save money.
In a sluggish economy, where living
at home with parents, carpooling,
and taking pay cuts have
all become commonplace,Americans
are cutting costs every way
they can.
Some students cite the fear of
college loan debt as the reason for
their more economic choice of attending
a two-year school.
“Why put myself in more debt
after school,” said Samantha Purcell,
a 21-year-old student at
Bucks. Purcell is a full-time student
who has changed her major
three times since beginning school
here. “At a four-year school I
would have racked up a huge bill
by now, and wasted a lot of my
time and money since I changed
my mind so many times,” Purcell
said. “Instead I’ve saved money
by not taking out loans until I receive
my associate’s degree and
transfer to a larger institution.”
Purcell is not alone in her decision
to delay her enrollment at a
four-year university. Some students,
whose parents would have
paid for them to attend a university
a few years ago, simply cannot
afford the higher tuition costs,
due to a decline in income.
Julia Napolitano, an 18-year-old
freshman at Bucks, is one such example.
“It just makes more sense to attend
Bucks first,” Napolitano said.
“Why pay more for the same general
education classes at a larger
college?” Napolitano’s parents
pay for her tuition at Bucks, but
when they compared the tuition at
community college to that of a 4-
year institution, the difference was
vast.
According to the Bucks website,
the current tuition for 12 credits
per semester for a county resident
is $1,525. This is modest in comparison
to the $6,802 listed on the
Penn State website for a comparable
course load.
With a growing number of students
turning to two-year schools,
President Obama has said that
community colleges have become
an integral part of our higher education
system.
Obama said he understands “the
power of these institutions to prepare
students for 21st century
jobs, and to prepareAmerica for a
21st century global economy.”
Just this year, The National
Center for Education Statistics reported
that 32 percent of students
attending public two-year colleges
had previously attended four-year
schools.
This is the case for Jenny Santiago,
a Penn State graduate, who is
currently enrolled at Bucks.
“After graduating from Penn
State I realized that I wanted to
change my career path and pursue
a different undergraduate degree,”
Santiago said. “I came out of college
making less money than I had
hoped to and I decided to save
some of that money by just taking
a few classes online at Bucks to
get my second degree, rather than
going back to Penn State.”
Santiago’s experience is not an
isolated case, since the average
salary for new college graduates is
lower than many had expected,
and much lower than the average
salary for graduates in past years.
According to the Wall Street
Journal, students who graduated
with bachelor’s degrees in 2009
received a $48,633 average starting
salary, down 1.2 percent from
2008. This is a large change from
2008, when the average starting
salary was 7.6 percent higher than what was
offered to 2007 graduates.

“I’m saving money on my education, but
that doesn’t mean I’m losing out on the quality,” Santiago said.

” Community colleges have a lot to offer and I think more people are starting to realize that.”