Community Colleges Out of State/Decision Making?

[Setsunia]

<p>I apologize if this is a common question with a simple answer, which it may be, I just like to have personal input of others.</p>

<p>I live in an area where I’ve been unhappy for years, but I was legally bound here as a child when my parents divorced as a part of an agreement. Now, that bind has lifted because I’ve turned 18; however, my father is very, very against me being anywhere else at the moment. He claims that I know nothing about the area because I was a child, because I’m closed-minded or judgmental, or any other laundry list of reasons why it’s not as bad as I’m making it out to be. To him, this is his tropical paradise. He loves it; I don’t.</p>

<p>It’s very much in its own little bubble here, and I’ve even spoken with adults who find it dull and superficial. It does have its good qualities, such as low crime-rate and decent shopping malls, but the area is so heavily based on seasonal tourism that jobs are extremely difficult to find unless it IS seasonal boom. Even then, they want a degree of training or experience (to which a lot of well-off people say ‘good, now we only have the best workers instead of those run-of-the-mill people before the economic downturn.’ Elitism here is common like that).</p>

<p>Anyway, that was the background on the area. The college part comes in in that there IS a community college close by that my father has been dead-set on having me attend. I’ve said so many times that my heart really isn’t in it there. I’ve been there a few times, and it just didn’t feel quite right to me. No matter how I explain it, he just says I’m negative about it and it’s my best opportunity, or how I would be stupid not to stay and do it there.</p>

<p>There are other places I could go where I would have a home due to friends or family, however, the ‘family’ option is actually less stable due to financial conditions. (For example, my mother is looking at being evicted because she can’t keep up with rent.)</p>

<p>Do you think it’s important to get my father’s approval first? Is it unreasonable to feel that a college or area is not a good fit for you and to want to go somewhere else, even if it is out of state? I’m talking community college, not university yet. But I also feel that if I did it here to appease him, not only would I be doing it for the wrong reasons, but I would be throwing away a year that I could have been having a better experience elsewhere.</p>

<p>That’s not to say it would be HORRIBLE here, I’m just very unsure. Perhaps it is immature.</p>

<p>Any advice would be wonderful! Thank you for reading this far.</p>

[ALF]

<p>Well, I can’t speak to a number of your issues, but I do know that out-of-state tuition at most community colleges is substantially higher (i.e double or triple) than in-state tuition. If you go out-of-state, you should look into whether or not you satisfy the college’s residency requirements. For example, it should be relatively easy to get in-state tuition where your mother lives. On the other hand, it will be much tougher to do so without a family connection.</p>

<p>Again, not knowing your whole situation, I just hope that this is not just a case of, “the grass is greener on the other side of the fence”. A lot of us just want to start over again in a new place without any past history. I did that when I went to college, and my kids are doing so right now.</p>

<p>The nice thing about a community college, is that you are not making much of an investment, either literally or figuratively. Why not give the local CC a try for a semester? The worst thing that could happen is when the semester is over, you will feel like you made a mistake. So, you lost a few months, but you probably learned something along the way, in your courses and whether or not you can continue the beginning of your college career there. Either way, you will have real information on which to base your decision, and if you want to leave, it will be easier to convince Dad that you know what you are talking about.</p>

<ul>
<li>A 20-year Community College veteran (10 yrs teaching, 10 yrs administering)</li>
</ul>

[theviolinist]

<p>It sounds like your dad is putting a major guilt trip on you. With all due respect to him, you need to find somewhere where you feel comfortable and where the environment is conducive to you learning, making friends, and just overall fitting in. Why don’t you try another community college in a different town but the same state so you can get in-state tuition? If you don’t broaden your horizons now, you probably never will and you’ll be stuck in the same little town all your life - is that worth not rocking the boat with your dad? That’s what you need to ask yourself. I don’t mean to sound pushy, it’s just my $0.02. ;)</p>

[Take3]

<p>You seem to have some well-thought out reasons why you’d like to live in a different place. I also think an 18-year-old is old enough to have a reasonable sense of whether or not they’d like to live somewhere.</p>

<p>I agree that it’s important to attend college in an area where you fit in socially. All the colleges I attended while pursuing my Bachelor’s degree were in a socially conservative area where I never fit in socially. This did in fact make it difficult to make friends. By contrast, I later attended McGill, which is in an area where I was far more comfortable and is geographically diverse. It was much easier to make friends there.</p>

<p>In any case, you don’t lose anything by trying another part of the country. You can always go back.</p>

<p>Community colleges often have more lenient residency rules than four-year universities do. For example, the community college I attended only requires you to live in the district for 30 days prior to the beginning of the semester to qualify for in-district tuition. In general, community colleges aren’t too concerned that someone will move into the district just to attend at in-district rates. It’s important to check the rules for the specific community college you want to attend, as policies vary.</p>

<p>A longer-term concern is whether you will qualify for in-state residency when you transfer to a four-year school. In many states, time spent as a student at any college in the state doesn’t count towards acquiring residency. Otherwise, anyone could move to California, Virginia, etc., attend community college for a year, then qualify for in-state tuition at the four-year schools. Also, some states make it difficult or impossible for someone to qualify for residency, even if they actually live there, if they are under a specific age limit and/or fail to qualify as independent for FAFSA purposes.</p>

<p>The good news is that in many states, you can qualify for in-state tuition as long as either parent is a resident of the state. The upshot is that you might be looking at universities in either of the states your parents live in unless you can pay OOS tuition. Again, it’s important to check the rules for the specific university in question. They can vary, even within the same state.</p>

<p>Conserving cash now will be critical if your dad doesn’t pay for your college education because you moved away. In this case, you might have to borrow a good chunk of the cost of attendance. It would help greatly if you only have to do so for two years instead of four.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

[Take3]

<p>Also, you might be able to move in with a friend and then attend a community college in that area. Then, you might be able to go to either of the states where your parents live and then qualify for in-state residency at a four-year school there. In many states, the determining factor is whether your parent lived in the state for 12 months, not whether you personally lived there for 12 months.</p>

<p>But read the state university’s residency rules very carefully if you try this route. Complicated situations like this can cause you not to be resident in any state if you’re not careful.</p>