3 Things to Consider Before Going to a Community College!
There are several considerations that you have to make when choosing a college.
There are the personal ones: How far away from home are you willing to go - if at all? Should you start right after high school or take a gap year? (If that’s your style, check out one of the ones we recommend.)
There are the academic ones: What should you major in, and what schools offer that major?
Then there are the financial ones: How much will college cost, including the housing, the fees, the meals, and what scholarships and aid are available?
The realities associated with this last category lead many students to consider community college as a first step to help offset the cost of a 4-year degree. Often, such students plan to finish general education degree requirements at community college and then transfer to a 4-year college to focus on their selected major. Many states also offer scholarships to help students pay for college and keep them in their state of residence (like Tennessee Promise and Georgia Reach). Though such programs have different requirements for eligibility and award different amounts, they often end up, intentionally or not, causing some students to see community college as the wisest, or only option. But it’s not!
Before you look to the community college path, consider these three things:
Make sure you read any financial offer you receive carefully. A recent article shows that up to 90% of colleges don’t make their scholarship packages easy for students to understand.
1. Are you really saving money?
It is true that big 4-year schools often come with big price tags, and community colleges can help save on that cost. But believe it or not, not all college journeys end in debt.
At the Institute, we do some specific things to make sure students called into ministry aren’t held back by college debt. In our college history, not a single alum has had college debt. Here’s how:
GOD International provides a scholarship to every student enrolled in an Institute program.
Additional scholarships are available for academic achievement or financial or circumstantial needs.
Still more scholarship opportunities are available via ministry practicums, where a student can serve with a nonprofit or church program for additional dollars off their tuition.
We provide financial counseling to all students.
All these factors together allow us to do something we’re proud of - offer each accepted student a custom-tailored aid package, bringing tuition costs down without loans. Its possible tuition at the Institute can be even more affordable than community college. Plus, you’re getting more than you’d get at a community college: a community of friends, housing, a meal plan, a biblical education (where the Bible even comes into your general education), and experience for a future in ministry!
Staying home and attending community college may appear to be a cost-effective solution, but without investing yourself in a biblical education, you are putting your growth in Christ on pause - and that is costly.
The Institute for GOD, graduating besties since 2007.
2. College is about the friendships, not the credits.
College isn’t only about the education, it’s about the friendships you make while getting that education. At the end of last semester, we had a chapel time where students shared about their semester. Almost every one of them testified about their friendships, and how Christian community was a big part of how they were growing in their faith.
When you attend college, you’re embedding yourself in a cohort of students like you in age, education, and experience embarking on a new phase of life together. You share meals, and living spaces, attend social events together and stress over assignment due dates and deadlines.
The bond created through such experiences is one with the potential to last your whole life but transferring from a community college to a 4-year one negatively impacts that possibility because the same thing has been happening at the 4-year school you want to transfer to, without you. When you arrive, you’ll find friendships and networks already established. Yes, you can make friends and get into those networks, but it’s more difficult. You weren’t there for the formative experiences those at your new school had together.
Starting your college journey at a Christian college ensures tthe students you begin with are the ones you end with, maximizing the shared experiences you have, and strengthening your bond. At The Institute, you’ll begin every morning with prayer with your housemates, engage in weekly chapel, classes, and ministry opportunities every week. You’ll be paired with a mentor and an accountability group. You’ll even go on mission with your friends, several times, before you graduate. Friendships are a major part of college and of your faith journey, and we want to help you maximize it.
Proudly, 100% of Institute courses incorporate the Bible from the start. Literature classes make use of the study of genres in the Scriptures. Math classes prepare you for entering the mission field, carrying out projects, and keeping God your master. History classes are about the history of Christianity.
3. All General Education is Not Created Equal
Yes, you can get general ed credits everywhere. But is your goal to get credits, or to grow in your faith? At a community college, you’ll likely take filler classes at a low cost. At a Bible college, they’ll make even your general ed courses something that teaches you about God, his word, and his mission in the world.
At The Institute, every course we offer includes the Bible, even if it's a general education course. For example, our literature class, “Analytical Approaches to Literature” uses Scripture to teach literary concepts, which is one of the ways we take students through 60 books of the Bible in our program. We also realize that servants of Jesus need specific math skills. As a result, our class, “Math for Development Agents” takes needs specific to ministers and teaches students concepts needed to function as such in both domestic and foreign settings, from budgeting to calculating foreign exchange rates and performing metric system conversions.
Community college doesn’t do that. Of course, we would count your credits for college math and Literature if you transferred to the Institute but unit equivalence doesn’t provide the experience you get in even our earliest classes, and you’ll have to catch up, learning concepts in real-time when you travel abroad as part of our undergraduate program.
At the Institute, we’ve worked to ensure learning the bible and ministry here is a holistic experience that encompasses your friendships, your student life experience, and your academic education. And we’ve done it in a way that doesn’t stick you with crippling college debt to pay off when you graduate. We understand being debt averse, and we don’t blame anyone wanting to avoid a financially crippling situation but choosing a college is also an opportunity to grow in Christ. If that’s your goal, ask yourself if it can be done at community college.
