prestige comes at a price Why UPA’s should change its stance on two-year colleges ARTICLE & PHOTOS BY TYLER YUEN • DESIGN BY AKHILA AYYADEVARA
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t the lunch table, I have heard my classmates crack jokes about the thought of attending community college, many of them mocking its low prestige. Others laughed at the fewer prerequisites needed to attend and believed they were “too good” for these schools. In my nearly six years at UPA, community college has been unfortunately excluded from the popular narrative to make way for the glorification of expensive, prestigious four-year universities. By stigmatizing community colleges, UPA is pushing students to choose routes that may not be best suited for them. Community colleges need to be accorded the same level of respect as four-year universities are. Community colleges have benefits that high school students tend to overlook. 2022 was an exceptional year for college admissions, reaching a record high number of applicants. Despite 20 to 50 UPA students applying to each UC, no more than one to 11 students reported receiving acceptances for each, with the rest being rejected or waitlisted. Community college opens up the opportunity to transfer to the CSU or UC system, which could be a second chance at admission for students. Furthermore, students can save money by taking general education classes at community college and transferring. Unexpectedly, the stigma against community colleges begins in the decoration of our learning environment. By having solely prestigious colleges and universities decorating the hallways and classroom names, UPA demonstrates its bias towards these Founded in 1975, Mission College in Santa Clara, California serves over 10,000 students.
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schools. Even the name “University Preparatory Academy” roots out community college as a viable option. In order to improve, our school needs to be more inclusive of all colleges and academic decisions, which may start with a simple pennant hung up in the hallway. Student culture is just as bad as the banners we hang on the wall, with an increasingly toxic academic atmosphere driven by college admissions. Students are driven to best their peers instead of choosing the academic route best fit for them. Despite UPA competition being so apparent among students, seminar lessons have never revolved around acknowledging the issue. Our seminar lessons need to incorporate more community-college-inclusive language starting from seventh grade. Class rank only adds fuel to the fire, with students competing to rank anywhere in the top 10% of the class. Therefore, class rank should only be accessible to administrators and college admissions officials, and be classified for students. Being reduced to a number among peers exacerbates the competition to attend prestigious universities. Annual college presentations that we have seen since seventh grade do nothing to introduce community college options, only outlining paths to UCs, CSUs, private and out-of-state schools. This is furthered by the senior project, which makes it a requirement that all students must apply to at least one four-year college, a decision which has the potential to waste valuable time and money for seniors looking to attend community college. A gradewide lesson given by seminar coordinators would open up discussions on how to combat the mental stress of toxic academic competition. This would ultimately enable students to feel comfortable choosing a route through community college when not pressured to choose a path of prestige. Community college has never been an option, unless we take it upon ourselves to make it one.
