INDIANAPOLIS – Students in Indiana’s community colleges face significant hurdles in their quest for a diploma, and education leaders say the state needs to address those challenges to secure its economic future.
Indiana’s college-completion rate is the nation’s 22nd best, with a 31 percent on-time completion rate for four-year colleges and a 55 percent rate for six-year completion.
But the state’s two-year community colleges are ninth-worst in the nation, with a 14 percent completion rate for students who typically juggle jobs, children and coursework and often drop out because they cannot afford their classes.
Janna Mendez is one such dropout – she didn’t last even one semester at Ivy Tech.
The 22-year-old Indianapolis resident said she didn’t realize how expensive her classes would be even as she worked two jobs to pay for them.
“I was unable to get a loan without a co-signer,” she said. “I worked two jobs, and college is expensive. Knowing that I was paying for it all on my own made it harder.”
Community colleges in other states are viewed as stepping stones to four-year campuses. But in Indiana they have been viewed more as technical schools teaching trades and therefore attract different types of students.
