Although the economy has slowly begun to piece itself back together, several new college graduates and incoming college students have still found themselves at a disadvantage in finding employment while holding a liberal arts degree and, thus, have continued to incorporate graduate school as a stepping-stone to either enter or elevate their career pursuits. Yet, instead of opting for admission into some of the nation’s most prestigious and respected four-year institutions, many students have alternatively chosen community colleges in order to market themselves as competitive and qualified candidates for their desired jobs.
Traditionally attributed with their prevalent role in accommodating minorities and students from lower-income households, community colleges have become esteemed higher education programs within the past five years, servicing students from various backgrounds. With the community-oriented design of the two-year colleges, particularly in their tailored curriculum to meet the high demands of STEM careers, such institutions are reinventing themselves as the leaders of technological education.
“A lot of the STEM fields are occupationally defined programs that lead directly to employment. With many of our two-year associate programs, students enter our colleges and immediately begin studying in the field that they plan to work in,” says Chris Mullins, program director for policy analysis with the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC).
The customized studies that students encountered at community colleges have contributed largely to the surge of post-graduate students that the two-year institutions have begun to withhold. According to the National Post Secondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), 8 percent of students entering community college already completed some form of higher education, whether they received a bachelor’s, master’s or sometimes even a doctoral degree. In the study, NPSAS estimated that approximately 849,000 students received associate degrees during the 2009-2010 academic year, which is a 50.4 percent increase from the past 10 years. Among the rising numbers of associate degrees awarded, there was a 105 percent increase in STEM-related fields during the same academic period.
Mullins explains that a large majority of students seeking advanced training in STEM careers have found community colleges advantageous, especially in the networks that they have gained from the school’s direct links to local employers. “By having connections within local industries, it helps to make sure our programs are in line with employer expectations, especially since education is a large part of employment,” Mullins says.
Not only have community colleges been strategic for career placement in STEM fields, but the economical advantage of the associate degree programs in comparison to the baccalaureate programs have reverberated as strong selling points for many students.
The low costs of community colleges, averaging around $3,000 compared to the $7,000 admission cost of four-year institutions, have allowed many students from low-income and middle-class families the opportunity to partake in higher education in STEM fields, according to data from NPSAS. In addition to saving on tuition fees, students in STEM fields with an associate degree received similar salaries to those with a bachelor’s degree. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics estimates that an entry-level aerospace engineer holding an associate degree was likely to make an average income of $58,000 in 2010, which in some cases ranked well over the entry-level salaries of graduates holding a bachelor’s degree.
