Community

Morrus · Mar 7, 2014

Dannyalcatraz said:
Chevy Chase is no longer on the show as of this season.

Community colleges are essentially inexpensive, state-subsidized institutions of higher learning that accept anyone willing and able to pay. Great places for those who can't afford to go to more traditional 4 year colleges (at least, not the whole way through), those looking for summer-school classes, those getting back into the degree hunt after a hiatus, and for those just looking for something to do.

Most offer a variety of credit and non-credit courses, covering a broad array of disciplines- science, math, literature, theater, athletics, foreign languages, arts, crafts- pretty much everything you'd find at the traditional schools, but usually without offering full degrees in most of them.

Damn, that sounds great. I wish there was something like that here. I'd probably join for some interest-based courses.

Dannyalcatraz · Mar 7, 2014

The good ones ARE great, but the bad ones can be nearly as bad as depicted in the TV show.

To give you an idea of how good they can be, the ones in the Dallas/Fort Worth area are probably as good as they get. I started my mediator training at my local community college, taking classes with the same instructors as were teaching the program at Southern Methodist Univerity...for 1/10th the price.

Ditto some of the other courses: it wasn't unusual to find a teacher from one of the major univerities here teaching a course or two at the local community colleges.

Keep your eyes open, too- some of them are following the lead of other institutions and offering online coursework.

pedr · Mar 8, 2014

Morrus said:
Damn, that sounds great. I wish there was something like that here. I'd probably join for some interest-based courses.

Further education colleges offer similar kinds of courses here - here's a list of courses starting soon at one Southampton college: http://www.southampton-city.ac.uk/Adult/default.asp?id=645 and there will probably be other institutions doing similar things.

Morrus · Mar 8, 2014

pedr said:
Further education colleges offer similar kinds of courses here - here's a list of courses starting soon at one Southampton college: http://www.southampton-city.ac.uk/Adult/default.asp?id=645 and there will probably be other institutions doing similar things.

I'm aware that various institutions offer adult education courses; I've done several.

I was under the impression that what they are talking about are entire institutions devoted to just that.

Homicidal_Squirrel · Mar 8, 2014

Dannyalcatraz said:
Chevy Chase is no longer on the show as of this season.

Din't he start talking abad about the show or the producers or something?

Community colleges are essentially inexpensive, state-subsidized institutions of higher learning that accept anyone willing and able to pay.

Sometimes you don't even have to be able to pay. With financial aid grants, most community colleges are easily paid off. Down here at least, if you go to a community college, you'll end up getting some money back from the grant money you are given as part of your financial aid package.

Great places for those who can't afford to go to more traditional 4 year colleges (at least, not the whole way through), those looking for summer-school classes, those getting back into the degree hunt after a hiatus, and for those just looking for something to do.

That's also changing. Down here our community colleges have started offering several four year degrees. Here is one of the community colleges's B.A./S. offerings. The college s now known as Miami Dade College. They removed the "Community" from their title a few years ago when they started offering a B.S. in education and some other field.
Even though it's no longer has "community" in it's title, it has several programs for people in the community. For example, students that graduate high school and live within Miami Dade County get to go there for free. I think that there might be a minimum GPA requirement, but even if you don't qualify for the free tuition, grants make it so you get school paid off and have a bit of extra cash in your pocket.

Most offer a variety of credit and non-credit courses, covering a broad array of disciplines- science, math, literature, theater, athletics, foreign languages, arts, crafts- pretty much everything you'd find at the traditional schools, but usually without offering full degrees in most of them.

I don't know if they do this everywhere, but here in Florida we have the 2+2 program. It's basically a law that was started many many many years ago in order to protect community colleges. Since community colleges were the first to open up, and they only offered two year degrees at the time, they felt that four year institutions would run them out of business with the B.A. being far more impressive than a A.A. So they passed a law that made it so four year institutions couldn't offer A.A./S. The law also made it so that if you graduated with an A.A. from a community college, you were guaranteed acceptance into any four year state university. Private universities don't have this requirement, though they still can't offer A.A. degrees.

So back to your point about the classes offered: A lot of people go to community colleges because they do offer such a wide array of classes and two year degrees. They then get the benefit of transferring to a four year school. Community colleges are quite beneficial.

Interestingly enough, even though community colleges are now offering four year degrees, the 2 + 2 program is still in effect. I'm betting this will change in a few years when community colleges that offer four year degrees lose the community college stigma and start adding graduate programs.

Dannyalcatraz · Mar 8, 2014

Homicidal_Squirrel said:
Din't he start talking abad about the show or the producers or something?

There was some friction, yeah, but supposedly it was all blown out of proportion.

Homicidal_Squirrel · Mar 8, 2014

Dannyalcatraz said:
There was some friction, yeah, but supposedly it was all blown out of proportion.

Apparently not.

Herobizkit · Mar 8, 2014

I've been a big supporter of Community ever since I watched the first D&D episode then power-watched the whole series (back then it was only on season 3).

Now that they're on season 5 and the cast has shifted, I'm starting to get a 'final season of Futurama' feel - rather than have clever stories, the writers seem to be taking pot-shots at 'geek stuff' (Futurama S10 took pot-shots at hot button topics in the media).

I've always liked the geek cred that the show has offered, but I'm finding it much more heavy-handed this season than usual... like the geek stuff IS the joke rather than the humour just being part of the student's scholastic life. Abed seems to have taken a more somber tone (having no foil to riff off), replacing one old guy with a more crotchety old guy, Chang being generally accepted as part of the group...

Yeah, maybe they're all growing up, and maybe that's my issue... I hate it when funny shows make their cast grow as adults and thereby become less funny.

Anyhow, am I alone in these feels?

Dannyalcatraz · Mar 8, 2014

I think you're right that "victory lap" feel and the casting changes.* However, the writing is still pretty smart. Besides the latest episode, I loved the previous one with the Chang "ghost story" subplot. That was done VERY well, IMHO, right down to the flashback sequence and the parting shot focused on the photo Chang was in.

* or should I say, "Chang-jes"?