Free community college for everyone? We can all be Aric Hall!

[Christopher]

Same at our CC. Although I swear our CC during our assessment had told us we're "under college level" just to get another tuition class out of us. I took the college writing assessment after H.S. They said I was below high school level, and I was required to take "Intro to writing." Even though I was a “A” student in English courses in H.S. I took the silly class during the summer as a fast track 4 week, three hour a day course, and I got an A+. I over maxed out on points. The college composition class I also got an A. Others have noticed this too. Another student I went to H.S. with was around the pre-calculus level in HS. Yet on his math assessment got "Pre-Algebra level" on his assessment which is the lowest math course offered at the college. In our CC if you're assessment says you're "Pre-Algebra" then you can't take any of the above classes into you take the Pre-Algebra course. We all know it’s just their way of getting another 3 unit's of tuition out of us.

Truth is though, a lot of people hate writing. College is about heavy writing. In H.S. it’s a lot of the scantron tests/quizzes, and multi choice quizzes. I work in the schools and it’s still that way. If we had a writing assignment outside of English class it was like a one page simple thing. In college at any level, writing is serious. The online “Intro to Theatre” class I’m in now at the CC to fill in elective/free credits for when I hit over to one of the big 3, we have to write a 15 page mid-term paper about Greek history of theatre. For me that’s going to be fun/enjoyable as I like to write and I like theatre, but I can just see the other students probably already dropping out of the class when they seen “15 page mid-term.” A lot of students hate writing, or weren’t prepared enough in high school to write a college level. And not just writing, but referencing sources, using proper writing skills, and making sense when you write. Writing with crappy grammar “I like theatre because it’s cool…my old man say’s its cool too..,so it must be cool than” isn’t the proper college level of explaining why you like or hate theatre.

I agree it is an extension of HS. Majority of my class mates have a very difficult time writing and comprehending the assignments. These are students who will need to take three 90 level English courses before they can even take Eng 101. However, it appears to me that the sociology courses that are mostly writing intensive do not have a writing requirement.