Most of the news we have seen relating to the recession has been doom and gloom but with the bad comes the good. Since families have to scale back in their budgets and that includes college costs for their children, community colleges have seen an increase in enrollment rates. Also seeing an increase are private universities: but not in the same way.

Private 4-year institutions are seeing an increase of accepting students from their waiting lists. Translation: these expensive schools are not meeting their enrollment rates and have to pull students from waiting lists to meet their enrollment goals.

How does this affect community colleges? It could mean that students who normally would apply for private institutions are seeing the same tightening of the budget that the rest of the country is going through. Since it is less expensive to attend community college, there has been an influx in enrollment at those schools. Private universities are seeing for the first time that people are choosing to attend less expensive schools instead of paying a higher price for their education.

This could mean that students are starting off at community colleges to get their prerequisites out of the way, and then transfering to a 4-year college. When the economy recovers, I wonder if this trend will continue since 4-year colleges are continually increasing their tuition rates. Or, will everything go back to the norm?

Career Explorer wants to know! Tell us if you were accepted to a 4-year institution but chose to take the community college path instead.