I took a course for fun at a local community college: physics. There was nothing more fascinating learning physics from someone that did accident reconstructions for 30 years. It is a different feel than being lectured to by someone that hasn't finished their graduate program. Then for fun I tried again: Oracle. My teacher? A former executive at WellsFargo and Oracle. He was extremely wealthy, and taught for fun - he did not publish some book or beg for grants.
According to interns, those are some of the best professors that are currently on staff.
Irrelevant note: I originally used disinterested, but those words do not have the same meaning:
> An uninterested person is bored, unconcerned, or indifferent; a disinterested person is impartial, unbiased, or has no stake in the outcome.*[0]
[0]: https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/disinter...
Places one is likely to have wealthy ex- Wells/Oracle execs lieabout.
I don't remember anything noteworthy (in terms of professional stature) from any of the state university teachers (few bad, some quite good, but no real experts). In the CC, an instructor I had multiple times had a Doctorate, the old-school Certificate in Data Processing, and decades of industry experience.
The best instructor I ever had in any discipline, whom I had for calculus, was at the CC. He authored several college math texts as well. Jack Minnick, you are greatly missed.
My CC years were almost always superior education wise over university.
It was possible at the same university to walk into a lab and start working on joint projects with NASA, the NSA or local industry, where other local universities and community colleges don't offer as much in that regard. On the other hand those professors running the labs didn't really seem to care where the students came from, whether they were in high school or the community college up the road if they were willing to work.
Based on my experience I would say that community colleges are great for learning the material, and universities are great for socializing and learning stuff outside of the classroom through self-directed interests (especially in graduate school).
I went to UIUC for Computer Engineering (I think it was #3 at the time), but my differential equations class was taught by someone with such a thick german accent it was impossible to understand. At least 100 people in the class, and no TAs that I can remember. Failed that course.
Took it over the summer at the local community college for much cheaper, and it was so much easier, smaller class (about 15), and then transferred the credit back to UIUC and didn't have to take it again at UIUC with the same professor who I couldn't understand the first time.
"Community college is like a disco with books. Here's $10, let me go get my learn on!" --Chris Rock
Despite not being taken seriously as higher institutions, they're a godsend for focused, unconventional learning, and certainly an attractive alternative to for-profit bootcamps. State schools had many of the same advantages as CCs. I ended up graduating from state school; compared to the mid-tier private university I went to, the state school's profs were either clueless, or very interested in teaching.
Of course, the ability to transfer of credits will vary immensely depending on the university and the community college - some of which are highly regarded. If you are planning this route and know the educational institutions you want to attend, it would be prudent to verify at the outset.
Not sure if you'd consider the University of Michigan a top 25 school, but at least one website has. http://www.businessinsider.com/best-colleges-in-the-us-infog...
Unsurprisingly the school shut the department down, but it was GREAT.
I can see the PhD glut and general awfulness of academia (do postdocs and adjunct until a tenure-track opens up) pushing people from even high ranking programs into teaching at a CC.
This is especially true if they're married or have an SO: It's hard to convince your partner to uproot their lives so you can work at some tenure track position at some no-name college in the middle of nowhere... or forgo tenure and get paid slightly less and have the option to actually live near family/friends/partner's career.
10 years ago, this allowed for earning an engineering degree for $2k a year, or $8-10k.
In my experience, community colleges were very much viewed as remedial. I’d guess that many of the classes were taken by students who had failed the equivalent class at university.
I took Physics at both the community college and university (I was afraid that the community college class would not prepare me for later classes). The differences were stark: At university, lecture was 3x a week by the professor (who did not speak English), recitation by a TA (who did not speak English), and lab by another TA. There were 3 sections with 400 students per section. The professor had one hour of office hours for all 400 students in my section. At community college, my professor lectured, ran the lab, ran recitation. He went to a top 5 school, was an American, and was a great teacher. The class had 2 sections of 30 students. He ran weekend reviews for tests, if needed, and had open office hours all day. His tests were very difficult and required mastery of the subject matter.
I dropped the university class after I realized it was of much lower quality than what I had already received, for 1/5th the price, no less.