WKCTC

Last week, WKCTC (which I shall always call PCC)finished in the top five for the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. They received a $100,000 prize for doing so. This of course reminds me of my days there and how much I enjoyed it and how great a place it was (and still is).

I had some great professors there. Jackie Moss made Calculus I seem pretty easy. Sarah Penry got me through the mysteries of Calc III and IV. John Robertson taught me a lot of things about Economics that I still remember. Dr. Neil Adams was a great Physics teacher. Dr. Counce made Psychology an interesting topic (even though I was forced to take the class for my degree). And who could ever forget Dr. Chun Ro? I made some great friends there. They let us play basketball in the gym and I probably played every day I was there. The main thing though is I was well prepared to move on to UK when I was done. The only thing they lacked with a few of the freshman-sophomore level Computer Science type classes I would need. But, I managed to get those in at UK later. I also never worked up the nerve to ask out one of the several nice, intelligent, pretty young ladies I met there (but that worked out for the best).

From my understanding, it's still a very good place to attend. They've expanded their offerings quite a bit in 30 years. They merged with the vocational school next to it to be able to offer a vast array of options for students. It's good for people who are wanting to start college right out of high school or go back to get a degree later in life.

The costs there are pretty reasonable. The tuition costs are about 2000 a semester (based on 15 hours). This is comparable to 3300 at Murray State and 4600 at UK (and even more at private schools). That doesn't even include the fact that most students attending there don't have to leave home and save all that room and board cost. There is also plenty of scholarship money available. In fact, all you have to do is make above a certain GPA or ACT score (or a combination thereof) and you can get part or all of your tuition paid. Plus, Kentucky residents can use their KEES money with this. If you have good grades and a decent ACT score, you can pretty well cover your tuition with no problem. Going there can save a student a lot of money and even keep them from running up the large amount of student loan debt most seem to exit college with nowadays.

The other benefit is a high school graduate can more gradually ease into college life. College classes and expectations of professors/teachers are radically different than high school. If you couple that with the newness of living on your own for the first time (and everything that goes along with that), it's a lot dumped on an 18 year old. I know a lot of young people who went away to school and end up back at home in a year because they simply couldn't handle all that. If they go to WKCTC, they only have to deal with the first issue and can get used to that before having to deal with learning to live on their own later.

Of course, one needs to research whether the college they plan on transferring to after WKCTC will accept all of the classes they take there. They also need to be sure they can get enough of their pre-requisite courses at WKCTC. There can be colleges and majors that simply are not good fits for a person to complete by starting at WKCTC.

Finally, I will hear the argument that "It's not a real college" (my own son most likely will tell me this after reading this entry). I can tell you of numerous colleagues and friends who went there (back when I did and even recently) who have done very well in their careers. I know in hiring where I work, I never knew PCC/WKCTC to cause the least bit of hindrance in hiring someone.

I would tell any young person (or older person) who is planning to attend college to at least consider the option of WKCTC. I certainly feel it's a very viable option