Students here at STLCC may or may not be aware of their academic advantage. Professors have the foremost priority of teaching and students will find professors teaching their classes, not teaching assistants.
Mike Ziegler
-Photo Editor-
Paying less while getting more when it comes to education is a rarity, but STLCC is part of that class. Four-year institutions pride themselves on their offerings. Expansive dorms and campuses are a staple, but with that size comes compromise.
Instructors are left teaching class sizes in the hundreds while juggling research projects within their field that universities love to push and reward tenure with.
Meanwhile, two-year institutions, like STLCC, focus on the instruction of students.
Freshmen get the shock treatment going through their first semester of college. Those attending universities quickly find out they are just a face in a crowd, that is, if your professor can even see you that far back in the room. The personal and parent- like attention felt throughout grade school and high school is no longer there. In college students are truly on their own.
Many freshmen at universities attend classes taught by grad students, not their professors. While you can make appointments with professors, most interaction will be with teaching assistants.
Community colleges focus on faculty and grad student research far less than universities. Professors who are out to do research in their field typically will choose universities while those wanting to focus on teaching find community colleges.
The responsibility given to tenured professors to focus on research, while good for the university, unfairly distances student from their instructor. STLCC, like most community colleges, makes personal attention their main attraction when promoting the school.
Most students heading into their senior year and needing to decide where they want to receive their college education do not take this into consideration. Colleges and universities know this.
Universities are sure to make prominent their expansive athletic programs, newly built or renovated dorms and lavish student amenities. Who could blame a bright-eyed high school senior for overlooking the heart of their college pursuit: ensuring academic success?
Students here at STLCC may or may not be aware of their academic advantage. Professors have the foremost priority of teaching and students will find professors teaching their classes, not teaching assistants.
Take advantage of it while you can. The current economic status lessened any unfair stigma made towards choosing attending a community college and turned it into the enlightened decision. We all are little fish in a big pond. Ours may be a bit less extravagant, but the the tide is in our favor.
