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Thinking of what you will expect from coursework at a Community College?

Think no more.

No matter what you want to learn, community colleges offer courses in many different fields.

Read this post to learn more about these courses and where you can find them.

Table of contents

How Does Community College Work?

If you want to go to community college, you might be wondering what kinds of classes you’ll have to take.

Your schedule will depend a lot on what you study, but this is true no matter what your major is.

You can expect courses that are interesting and give you a lot to learn.

Program Offerings at Community College

When you apply to a community college, you’ll need to choose a program that fits your needs.

Are you looking for a degree that takes more than one year, or are you more interested in a single course?

The associate’s degree is the most common type of degree that community colleges give out.

You can get this kind of degree in almost every field of study.

You can get it in English, math, and physical sciences.

It has a full curriculum that gives students a well-rounded education that can be used to go on to higher degrees or to get a job right away at an entry-level position.

Associate’s degrees take the most time to get because they have both general and specific requirements.

Before you can graduate, you usually need to earn at least 60 credits over the course of two years (four semesters).

If you want a course of study that is shorter and more focused.

You might want to think about getting a diploma or a certificate.

Most of the time, these programs are focused on a single subject, like auto repair, and keep their length short by only offering classes that are directly related to the major.

There are traditional majors like early childhood development and business administration in these programs.

Since these programs don’t include general education classes, they are usually a lot shorter and can be finished in a year or less.

These classes teach job skills (like this one on time management) and how to use different kinds of software (like this introductory course about Microsoft Word).

Most of the time, these courses give continuing education units (CEUs).

Which shows that you have finished a professional development class.

Curriculum for Community College Coursework

Most courses in associate’s degree programs fall into one of two categories:

  • General education and;
  • Classes for your major.

Different schools will have different needs for their programs.

But most associate’s degree programs at community colleges are set up in the same way.

with both general education and requirements for the major.

General education classes focus on building skills and knowledge that can be used in a wide range of fields.

Reading comprehension, grammar, writing, basic math, and science are all things that could be covered in these classes.

which are taught in almost all programs for an associate’s degree.

Depending on what you want to study in college, the topics of your general education courses may change.

This physics program requires English composition and a few basic math classes.

A communications degree from the same school, on the other hand, does not have the same math requirements.

The other type, of course, is one that is directly related to the program’s major. These are called major-specific courses.

You can take these classes as part of an associate’s degree or a certificate program. They are important for understanding your major and can be found in both.

To see the difference between general courses and courses for a major,

Check out this course list for a Business degree.

See how the requirements for general education are written out in detail.

Courses for continuing education vary in what they cover;

Some classes only look at one idea, while others look at many different things.

For example, in a biotechnology class, students might learn about market research, making instruments, and diagnostic imaging, which is all related to biotechnology.

In contrast, a class that is only about one software program will only teach students about that one program.

How are the Community College Classes set up?

Course formats at community colleges can be as different as the topics they cover.

Depending on what you’re studying.

You should be ready for different amounts of quizzes, homework, projects, and tests.

Almost all of a student’s grades in this fashion class will come from a midterm and a final project. On the other hand, this psychology course does not have a final exam.

Instead, students are graded on quizzes, presentations, papers, and five different exams.

Community College Coursework Requirements

In addition to taking tests and doing coursework in your community college.

A lot of the time, community colleges add extra requirements that you have to meet as you go through your program.

These rules will be different at each school, of course.

so look into the schools you want to go to and see if they have any unusual requirements.

Here are a few examples of policies that usually come with courses at a community college

Attendance policy

Like in high school, your attendance can affect whether or not you graduate college and students are expected to be in class, and if you don’t show up, it could hurt your final grade.

You should go to class because it’s good for you; you pay to go, so why waste your money by not going?

Class participation

Of course, just being there is the bare minimum.

To make sure that students are participating in class discussions,

Some community colleges give credit (or take points away) based on how willing a student is to take part.

Minimum GPA

Community college are serious about their duty to teach especially their coursework.

Students who aren’t doing well won’t be able to graduate until they can show they know enough to get a diploma.

Most schools want you to have at least a 2.0 GPA, but this number can change based on where you go to school.

Credit Balance

Some majors may require students who want to graduate to get a certain number of credits from a certain type of class.

At Howard Community College, for example, a few majors require students to get at least 30 credits from general education core courses.


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