As four-year colleges and universities continue to raise tuition costs, students with limits on their time and money are seeking new educational options. In recent months, community colleges across the country have reported record growth. But in some cases, schools have to think outside the box to find ways to accommodate such a dramatic increase in students.

Solutions such as expanded makeshift parking lots where more students can park, using rented spaces for additional classroom space, or placing students on waiting lists for the next session have already been employed at some schools. Now, a few community colleges are experimenting with expanded class schedules that mean some students are studying poetry, psychology, and welding in the dead of the night.

Bunker Hill Community College in Boston, Massachusetts and Clackamas Community College in Oregon are two schools that are embracing this unorthodox class schedule. Bunker Hill’s midnight class offerings are currently a psychology course and a writing course, while Clackamas students have the option of spending their late-night hours perfecting their welding techniques.

If late-night learning isn’t your thing, a community college near you may be bumping up its class schedule to help students get an earlier start. How does 6 am sound? If you’re an early bird, a community college near you might have extra-early classes that help you fit even more into your already busy schedule.

Would you ever take classes late at night or early in the morning? Do you think these classes would be a convenient fit in your life?

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.