It can be a good deal. It can also end with students struggling in higher level classes because the standards for those core classes at a community college may not be as rigorous as those for a 4 year school. Saving $40k in the first two years is great, but is that worth graduating near the bottom of your major’s class and being more or less invisible to the faculty who are serving as references and writing recommendations?
Davidson, Elon, and High Point are in a different tier from most small private colleges in NC. Davidson is an elite liberal arts college that's been ranked among the Top 10 small liberal arts colleges in the entire nation for decades, and has a well-to-do alumni base to draw on for support. Elon and HPU also have a huge fundraising and recruiting advantage over most small NC colleges and universities, and much larger endowments than they do. I'm talking more about schools like Guilford, Salem, Mount Olive, Mars Hill, Brevard, Wingate, Lenior-Rhyne, Greensboro College, Lees-McRae, and so on. Some of those types of colleges are likely going to fold within the next couple of decades, and even earlier if the economy has a serious dip. They simply lack large endowments to ride out declining enrollment, the resources to widely recruit, and the first-class facilities and/or academic reputations to seriously compete in a shrinking pool of eligible students. And the headwinds are only going to get worse for them in future years.
I believe that depends on the person and the major.
You're right that Davidson, Elon and high Point are in a different tier, but Elon in high Point weren't 30 or 40 years ago. Elon and high Point have been doing the hard work of fundraising for decades which is why they are not in the same situation as some of their brethren.
I don’t see how you can make such a statement after the slightest critical thought is applied. You’re essentially saying either that the instructional quality of the faculty and the background and abilities of the students is the same everywhere or that neither of those things matters with respect to what a student will get out of a given class.
That wasn't what I was trying to say.
I didn't disagree with your statement. I just believe there are cases where it's worth the savings and wouldn't impact your later classes.
I felt this way about a lot of 100 and 200 level STEM classes I took at UNC. The class sizes were massive and usually felt impersonal unless you really made an effort to attend a bunch of TA office hours, which I did not lol. You would probably learn the same concepts taking the equivalent classes at “lesser” schools. I think the difference is that the testing/grading at UNC was probably harsher as a way of weeding people out of certain major tracks.
Absolutely. It’s just not the one-size-fits-all solution some seem to think it is.
Agreed. That wasn't what I was trying to convey.