|
|
The term junior college has historically referred to all non-bachelor's degree granting post-secondary schools, but over the last few decades many public junior colleges, which typically aim to serve a local community, have replaced "junior" with "community" in their names. This may give the impression that a junior college must be a private school, but only a small percentage of two-year institutions are private, many public community colleges continue to be called "junior college", and the two terms are used interchangeably in casual speech. Junior colleges have long had to contend with a reputation — deserved or not — for low academic standards (as evidenced by the pejorative "high school with ashtrays"). The concept can be traced back 100 years to the original public junior college, in Joliet, Illinois, which was set up in a high school as the equivalent of grades 13 and 14 in order to prepare qualified students for the final two years of university.
According to federal statistics, 42% of public community college freshmen take remedial courses. However this does not necessarily affect their future transfer prospects: a junior college graduate with good grades can generally transfer to a four-year school and go on to obtain a full bachelor's degree; and there is a growing movement of students who are attending junior colleges to save significant sums of money in the first two years of a four year education. A talented player who would not meet the academic or athletic standards of a major college program may be able to play for two years in junior college, establishing an academic record in the process, and then transfer to the major college. This process has occasionally resulted in scandals, often involving the academics of the student athletes. |