My DD’17 chose to do a graphic design program at a CC. 5 semesters and she was done, debt free and money in the bank. We carefully compared course lists to Bachelors programs and found that the CC program had as many (or usually more) graphic design credits as the 4 year degrees. The difference was way fewer gen eds. DD did not see the need to pay drastically more to take two extra years of miscellaneous courses. That’s not her style, she wanted to be done efficiently and cheaply and got out into the workforce. She got a lot of hands on learning from the very beginning, and just finished an internship in which for 6 weeks of it she was the only graphic designer for a printing company and handled it beautifully. Meanwhile, her HS classmate at a private university has barely begun any design coursework.
She is now job hunting and it remains to be seen whether the AAS will be any hindrance to her. It’s a risk she was willing to take since employers in this field also consider your portfolio. She can also start at a lower paying job if needed since she has no loan payments.
She was embarrassed at first when people asked where she was going. But she decided to own it and be proud of her decision. A lot of DD’19s classmates are now planning on going to that same CC. It’s not the one closest to home and it’s in an up and coming area, so it has a little more cache` than the closer one.