Studying Science at Community Colleges

There was an interesting article in yesterday's Los Angeles Times about a group of faculty members at Santa Ana College who have started a scholarship fund for students who cannot afford the $600 it costs to attend full time. It is a public community college in Orange County which serves "the densely populated, impoverished core of Santa Ana". Half the student body is Latino/Latina, and 60% receive financial aid. Many are the first in their families to attend college. The scholarship fund is particularly helpful to non-citizens and non-California residents, who are not eligible for financial aid.

Maximina Guzman, student government president and a former student of [chemistry professor Jeff] McMillan, plans to apply for the scholarship.

Because she is not a citizen -- she and her parents came to the United States illegally when she was 3 -- she is not eligible for financial aid. The biology student has paid her own way, working full time at a hotel gift shop and moonlighting as a telemarketer.

Guzman said her grades have suffered because she had to balance homework, two jobs and family obligations. She usually finds time to study only between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m.

If she is awarded a scholarship, she could cut down on weekend work hours, she said.

"It's frustrating to know that I could get better grades if I didn't have to work all the time," she said.

I think that Associate's degree-awarding community colleges are often neglected in the discussion of science education. They serve a student population that is more likely to to have dependents and be working full time than their counterparts at 4-year institutions. It allows students who are not academically or financially prepared to enter a 4-year degree program to earn a degree that will prepare them to work as a technician or, if they are so inclined, to transfer an institution that grants Bachelor's degrees.

It is perhaps not surprising that women receive a higher proportion of Associate's degrees than Bachelor's degrees in scientific fields. Some statistics from the National Center for Education Statistics:

• Women were awarded a higher proportion of the science degrees at 2-year institutions than at 4-year institutions (Tables 18, 19 and M2):
  
  

  Field	% Associates Degrees awarded to women	% Bachelors Degrees awarded to women
  all degrees	60%	57%
  biological or life sciences	66%	58%
  computer and information sciences	43%	28%
  physical sciences	52%	40%



• Students at 2-year institutions are more likely to have dependents and be a single parent (tab 35):
  
  

  Institution type	1 dependent	2 or more dependents	single parents
  public 2-year	13.8%	20.7%	16.4%
  public 4-year nondoctorate-granting	10.4%	12.1%	11.1%
  public 4-year doctorate-granting	7.3%	7.4%	8.1%

  
  
  
• Students are more likely to work full time while attending a 2-year institution (tab 44):
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Institution type	Did not work	Work full time	Hours Worked (for those who worked) average/median
  Public 2-year	15.8%	53.8%	36.0/39.3
  Public 4-year nondoctorate-granting	20.3%	32.1%	29.5/29.6
  Public 4-year doctorate-granting	24.4%	21.7%	26.0/24.3

I don't know how it works in other states, but both the University of California and the California State University systems encourage transfers from California community colleges. The system provides science education to students who wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to pursue a degree, whether they chose to transfer to a 4-year college or not. And it's excellent that the professors at Santa Ana College are willing to financially help students pursue their education.

(Oh, BTW, if you happen to be in California, please buy lots and lots of lottery tickets, because that's what's funding our education system.)

Tags: California community college, science education