I'm so unabashed about the fact that I went to community college. I really appreciate that decision because it allowed me to:
1) Go to Spain for a month for cheap - a me encanta Espana
2) Work a part-time job at Subway, which allowed me to buy things I didn't need and save up for stuff I didn't even know I wanted, such as my first smartphone and a horrid Compaq laptop.
3) Live on the cheap - nothing beats free boarding and mom doing your laundry every week.
4) Take the time to decide my major, without sucking the money from my wallet hole - not to knock on those that change majors multiple times, but it's definitely better doing it while you're paying $1 a semester versus 10 grand or so.
5) Oh, and pay only $1 a semester - thank you FAFSA.
6) Take the time to vet my top transfer schools carefully - I knew I was only at community to prepare me for the next step, which is four-year. Back in high school, I really wasn't passionate about any particular university. I had only been in the States for about two years at that point, and I've hung out with enough nerds who breathed and sighed "UCLA" or "USC" that I wanted to smash my head in if I heard those acronyms one more time. So, the moment I stepped into Pasadena, I started looking at different schools that fitted the path I was sure I'll take and landed on my dream school (and eventual alma mater): UC Berkeley. Take that Pepperdine, you sickeningly gorgeous, pretentious school (can you sense the animosity of getting rejected, 3 years later? haha).
So, my point of fanning the feathers of community college is because it has an undistinguished rep for a lot of people. But, finally - FINALLY - there is a show that is putting community college in the limelight, albeit not always in the most helpful ways. I think one of my favorite network shows, "Community," is a dichotomous representation of community college: sometimes it's lambasting community college as nothing more than a second high school (like in Episode 1 and Dean Pelton's hilarious welcome speech denigrating his own school), other times it portrays community college as this fantastic (for lack of a better word) community of a diverse student body with secret trampoline gardens, fantastic chicken fingers at the caf, and easy breezy classes like pottery and anthropology taught by Betty White. When I saw the pilot of this show, I wasn't surprised that Community College is portrayed as the former: a joke of an institution where bored old men, single moms, frustrated punks, dumb jocks, and disbarred lawyers go to get a throwaway education (reminded me of this funny SNL sketch). That being said, it still had an amazingly funny plot that got me hooked, and the show only got wildly better from there. And, as the series progressed it was very obvious that Greendale Community College is the eighth (or ninth, if you count Senor/Student Chang as a main) primary character here. Bearing all of community college's high and low stereotypes, the school has served as this fantastic backdrop, world, setting, arc, supporting role, et al. for every stupidly hilarious episode.
To end this on a lazy note, here's a double-whammy list of what is and isn't true about CCs as portrayed in "Community," solely from my experience as a loud and proud CC alumni:
Realistic
1) Chicken fingers are, indeed, the best things offered in the caf. That, and tater tots for breakfast. (S1E21)
2) There are many, many fun blow-off classes, like (and I took this class for real) an online Physics class. Like, seriously. (S1E19)
3) You will definitely meet an old guy trying to stave off dementia by enrolling in community (Every episode; we love our Pierce)
4) You will also definitely meet a neurotic, crazy nerd who is so focused on transferring to a four-year university (all signs point to me) (S1E13)
5) Your 'notable' alumni will run the whole gamut, from super-accomplished people who prove that community colleges aren't just for losers (Pasadena has Jackie Robinson and Eddie Van Halen) to those who you wished just stayed in high school...or their mom's womb (S1E6)
6) Starburns
Not realistic
1) Community Colleges do not have that many dances. In the words of Jeff Winger, "How many dances does this school have?!". They also do not have Transfer Dances and "Tranny" queens (S1E25)
2) There are no fantastic paintball wars that take place and decimate the entire school population in a pool of wet colorant (S1E23)
3) I'm pretty sure you can't get butt-naked playing pool (S1E17)
4) There are NO DORMS in community colleges (S1E23)
5) No professor will survive after shooting his/her student with a multi-weapon contraption. Then again, no professor is as great as Betty effing White (S2E1)
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