<p>I’m glad to see some great responses here! 
I won’t repeat what others have said too much…</p>
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<p>Lower quality than, say, Princeton? I don’t think anyone would disagree with someone saying that. But honestly, the education you’ll get will probably be much better than what you’d find at lower-tier four-year colleges. </p>
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<p>It’s important to remember that most community colleges don’t really “recruit.” CCs were developed around the idea of open enrollment for local students, so although they certainly have marketing and attend college fairs, they’re really not “recruiting” in the traditional sense. They will take any students who meet the qualifications and apply.</p>
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<p>A lot of different reasons. They are publicly funded, most of them don’t have to spend money on things like dormitories and extensive student programming, they usually don’t require PhDs (meaning their faculty, while still very good, aren’t looking for the same high pay that four-year faculty seek), they have smaller campuses and therefore less infrastructure to maintain…they really just run on a different “business” model and save that way.</p>
<p>Regarding the discussion of whether an Associate’s degree is useful, I would argue yes. A lot of transfer colleges and scholarship programs specifically request or require that you have it, so you need to be aware of that.</p>