Two-year colleges offer associate degrees in many subjects. From auto mechanics to a general Associate of Arts degree, two-year degrees are many students' ticket to higher pay and access to jobs. Some students get business degrees or Associate of Science degrees, early childhood education or health care degrees or degrees in technical career fields such as refrigeration or electricity.
Community colleges also have certificate programs for those who need continuing education credits to stay current in their fields, who want to increase their skill sets to be more employable and for those who want to enter a career field without getting a full degree. These programs typically take less than two years to complete, and they are not as in-depth as associate programs.
Many students who do not want to get an associate degree or a certificate attend community college to ease into the college life. They typically will transfer the credits that they earn to a four-year university after two years of study at the community college. Many colleges have transfer agreements with local and state universities that ensure that classes taken at the community college level will transfer to a four-year university. This prevents students from taking classes that the four-year university will not accept and wasting time and tuition money.
Community colleges are often seen as being less rigorous than universities in their curricula. However, this is not necessarily the case. Easy teachers are present in both universities and in community colleges, just as more difficult teachers are present in both types of colleges. The class sizes in community colleges are often smaller than in universities, and this allows for a more familiar atmosphere where students can get to know each other more easily and in which professors are generally more accessible.
The tuition of community colleges is typically only a fraction of what it costs to attend a four-year university. The tuition at Front Range Community College in Longmont, Colorado, is $96.25 per credit hour for in-state residents for the 2010-2011 school year. The tuition per credit hour for in-state residents at neighboring University of Colorado at Boulder is $1,019 for the same school year. In addition, community colleges do offer scholarships to students, helping them pay for their programs, just like four-year universities.