What is "Junior College"?
 

They mentioned this on "Weeds" last episode. Is Junior College basically community college, where you can do the first 2 years of your university degree? We have no such animal in Canada (i.e. we don't use that term, "Junior Colleges", although we do have community colleges).

GRAZIE.

Here it is. the terms "junior" and "community" seem interchangeable

Ahhhh... so "Junior College" is basically what we'd call a College up here... well that explains somethings :p I was under the erronous assumption that "Junior College" was something like a "prep school" to give students an extra year or two between highschool and university...

Yes. Junior College = Community College. The community college district I'm in is Joliet Junior College, the only one named "Junior college" in the country - but also the oldest public community college in the nation. Here's some history - it's pretty interesting.

Community college aren't affiliated with universities where you are, CutiePie2000? In Toronto, Seneca College is affiliated with York U and there are some programs at Centennial College that can transfer over to U of T Scarborough.

All 7 community colleges in the State of Hawai`i are a part of the University of Hawai`i system. We do not have junior colleges here.

Yay for Wikipedia:

Since many public junior colleges in the United States served a more localized community, these schools began to replace the "junior" in their names with "community". With the advent of the term community college for public institutions, in the United States the term junior college is often explicitly used to refer to private institutions. However, the relative small number of private junior colleges and the continued use of the term in the names of many community colleges means that people often do not perceive a distinction between the two terms, and thus they are interchangeable in casual speech.

That's interesting how some of you mention community/junior college having districts or being assigned to other universities. I have never heard of that; do most states have it set up that way? Here some schools may be associated more with some "bigger" schools, but not officially - it's all much more random.

Interesting ...

In Michigan, they are funded by County taxes (primarily, they may get some state funding too, but not like the state universities), so they have the names of the Counties, for the most part. Macomb County Community College, Wayne County Community College, etc. The only one I'm aware of that doesn't follow that convention is Henry Ford Community College. We have County elections for millages to support them. Since I've not looked at them carefully, I don't know if tuition rates are higher if you go to one that isn't in your county or not. However, since they don't have housing, you have to commute, so you wouldn't go too far.

A LOT of students these days take some Community College courses because it's so much cheaper and the basic studies or pre-reqs are easier to do there during the summer and stuff. It's a big cost savings. Sometimes now, they are even taking 3-6 credits at a Community College while taking another 6-9 credits at the University to save money.

Not necessarily.

As the Wikipedia article quoted by OTW notes, there are still some private, 2-year residential schools that award associate's degrees and are properly called "junior colleges" but not properly called "community colleges." Some former junior colleges have become prep schools in recent years, and some others have become 4-year colleges. Here is Wikipedia's list of junior colleges by state.

Most or all of WV's colleges and universities have a community college attatched to them. Because of my program (you have to earn the AS before you get the BS) I'm considered a member of the community college. However, by delaying Econ 2, I can stay under the CTC and keep the cheaper tuition :)

I know in BC you can go to community college such as Langara, Kwantlen or Cap (Capilano) and take courses that are transferable to university, but I don't think they are affiliated with UBC or SFU, for example.

In Illinois, community colleges get some funding from the state but most of it comes from local property taxes. Tuition is higher for out-of-district students, just like tuition at state universities is higher for out-of-state students. Some of the colleges have setups where people who work in the district (but don't live in-district) can pay in-district tuition. I know College of DuPage has such an arrangement.

My school (Rio) is the only combined Community College and University in the US.

"University of Rio Grande, Rio Grande Community College"

Blah.

Lansing Community College also doesn't follow that naming sequence. I think LCC is funded by 3 counties (Ingham, Eaton, and Clinton).

And tuition is lower for county residents, due to a significant portion of funding coming from property taxes.

ETA: And CC's in Michigan do get at least some money from the state, because its in LCC's budget. I read an article where the State Senate voted to increase that amount, but I don't know if it was approved by the House.

You can transfer your credits from community college to university, yes.