Students attend community college before Whitworth to save on costs

What would you do with an extra $21,352 a year?

This is the amount of money a student can save per year by attending a community college rather than a private, four-year university, according to numbers provided by the College Board.

“The average cost for a full [2007-2008] year of tuition and fees at a community college is just $2,360, compared with $6,185 at a public, four-year university and $23,712 at a private, four-year university,” according to an article on MSN Money.

Senior Megan Ingalls went to Spokane Community College to finish her associate of arts degree before coming to Whitworth.

“It was a lot cheaper and the credits were easy to transfer,” Ingalls said.

Now that she attends Whitworth, finances are much tighter.

“I worked more when I went to SCC because it was less challenging,” Ingalls said. “Now that I’m at Whitworth, I have lots of student loans and I can’t work as much.”

To save money, Ingalls moved back in with her parents once she started attending Whitworth.

RUNNING START

Junior Todd Wentworth faces similar financial problems.

Wentworth attended Centralia Community College for two years as a Running Start student before transferring to Whitworth.

“I joined…the Running Start program [because it was] paid by the high school and it offered a wider range of classes and allowed me to succeed at a pace that was different, in fact three times as fast, than the high school curriculum,” Wentworth said. “It was basically more education for me...and it was almost completely free.”

He went from only paying several hundred dollars for books each semester and enjoying life as a high school and college student without having to get a job, to working three jobs in order to finance Whitworth.

“I still struggle [financially]; I currently have two jobs on campus…and I also work at an elementary school's after-school program off campus,” Wentworth said. “If not for the free time to study and work, I probably would have had to quit Whitworth for the simple fact that I cannot pay for it."

In addition to his three employments, Wentworth also is helped by numerous grants, loans and scholarships, he said.

“Thanks to the skyrocketing costs of private and public universities, many families are finding their college funds won't be enough,” states the MSN Money article. “With low costs, small classes and easy-to-transfer credits, a community college may be the solution cash-crunched families need.”

Despite the financial incentives, attending community college often comes with a different kind of cost.

“Financially, it made a lot of sense,” Ingalls said, referring to her decision to go to community college. “But if I could go back and do it all over, I’d start here at Whitworth.”

Whitworth provides a quality of professors and education that is without comparison, Ingalls said.

“I wish I had been here all four years,” she said. “Whitworth is a wonderful college.”

Wentworth also encourages everyone who can afford to go to a four-year college to do so, he said.

“In contrast to the community college, the experience at Whitworth is more enjoyable,” Wentworth said. “At the community college, I did not bond to my classmates as I do here at Whitworth because I was always running around and could not spend time with them. At a four-year college, it is a little easier to do, especially if you live on campus."

Contact Asmara Anyan at asmara.anyan@whitworthian.com.

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