Michelle Castano
Editor-in-Chief
College is about finding yourself. The college experience is vast, whether it be finding your passion, a specific trade or joining a club or organization. There are many benefits including tuition cost, professor to student ratio and quality education that the traditional two-year intuition like Broward College has to offer. While BC does offer technical and certain bachelor’s programs which make it a four-year college, the main focus of this article is about the benefits of attending the first two years at BC and then transferring out to a 4 year university (University of Florida, Florida State, Florida Atlantic University, etc).
Bob Brasco, academic advising counselor at BC said that Broward College receives reports from universities that indicate that students who transfer out are more prepared than ever. “Students that do start out at Broward College and then transfer to a university are better prepared than those students usually coming in as a freshman out of high school,” he said. In fact, courses that students would take at BC are (usually) the same courses that they would be taking at a university the first two years.
Secondly, the class sizes at a two-year college are proven to be significantly smaller, with more opportunities to interact with the professors. According to human services program manager and sociology professor, Dr. Robert Gallagher, BC hires people that have experience working within a certain field, making students really learn a good set of skills when they plunge into a job. “I think that students get to interact with professors who have a little bit more work experience at the two-year college level because a lot of the professors at the four-year institutions do a lot of research [publish or perish]— and that’s the focus,” Gallagher said.
The tuition at Broward College is approximately about a third of the tuition at Florida state universities. Tuition is one of the biggest factors taken into consideration when choosing where to enroll. According to the SR Education Group, Broward College was recently ranked second in the nation for most affordable A.A. online programs (for 2020) offered among its competitors. “Rankings are based on a combination of manually researched tuition, accreditation and PayScale salary data,” said SR Education Group representative, Adria Vaughan.
In addition to Broward College’s affordability, it was recently announced the BC was in the running for the Aspen Institute prize which is awarded to colleges that excel in innovation, graduation rates, specific populations and specialized programs. “The Aspen Institute is looking
to see schools that are really moving the ball when it comes to working with college students and getting them enrolled, getting them trained and getting them out into the workplace or transferring them onto a university,” said Brasco.
All in all, enrolling in a two-year institution and then transferring out to a four-year university is proven to be an exceptional transition. Broward College has advisors and career centers to help undecided students find their path and declare their major. Although BC spans throughout three major campuses and various centers, it provides opportunities to be heard and be a part of a personalized learning experience. Additional information on programs and activities can be found at Broward College’s homepage at www.broward.edu.
castm46@mail.broward.edu