Also, in addition to what I learned there, an area company (Tektronix spinoff) happened to put a …

Totally agree. For me the most important metric is to what extent a person has made use of the opportunities available to them. I would hire a passionate and engaged community college grad who has hobbies before someone who went to a "top" school but only has grades to show for it.

Agreed. Community college probably lifts up & allows people to better themselves more than most 4 year universities. My dad put himself through community college then did 2 years at a university with some work in between. He was the first of his family / only one of his generation to go to college. These days given cost & competition, most people going to a 4 year university come from a family that has already done the same and is following the prescribed path.

Community College is for people who are busy getting things done. The stigma around community college is that "You weren't good enough for 4-year, let alone Ivy League" when simply that's not true and a stereotype. I started at a community college. This was a long time ago now but I remember having to dance a precarious line between explaining where I went to school and explaining what I know. To this day when people ask me where I went to school, I riddle off a long explanation on why that kind of thinking isn't helpful and instead should be asking yourself, "What don't I know?". I've been to a 4 year college. I've been to an Ivy League school. The humbleness and "Let's do this" attitude of community college is still the best education I got. Don't feel bad for having these things on your resume, show them with pride. If YOU see someone applying for your positions and they are proudly s…

> When I'm hiring, I see a lot of MIT/Stanford/Ivy on resumes, but I also pay as much attention to resumes from people who went to other schools, or who took some other path through their circumstances. I agree wholeheartedly. As another datapoint, over the years I've worked with many people from "top" schools like MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Ivies, etc. Generally they have not been strong engineers. I don't really have a good understanding of why , but it's just something I've noticed. The folks who've struggled through non-traditional routes have been stronger engineers. They may not be as strong on the theory side, but they have some intangible "street smarts" or something that makes them overall more effective. Some combination of focus, grit, scrappiness, etc. There have been some engineers who are from top schools who do have those traits but IME they aren't as common.

Absolutely. I am wildly successful by any usual metric of success (money, family, job satisfaction, work life balance — maybe not “stuff owned” because I’m relatively frugal I guess), and I started at CC. It was a wonderful place and really enjoyed my time there. I took advantage of my states program to send people who did good at CC for a year to the Flagship state school no questions asked. Saved a bunch of money and got that unique experience. I’d love to give back by teaching there one day.

The problem, at least in my experience is that the quality of community colleges seems to vary wildly, and you can’t really shop around too much when it comes to education.

I grew up pretty poor and never had hope that I could go to college...so I never tried in high school, and never took my SATs and was resigned to a life in lower paying non-career jobs. After a few years of this, I remember interviewing at a larger company for a position in their IT department. I didn't get the job, but the interviewer gave me life changing advice, "why don't you just go to the local CC?". I had no idea that was even an option, so I looked into it, the cost was cheap, it allowed for flexible part-time schedules, and I started my journey. I ended up dual majoring, graduated from the CC, moved to a state Uni graduated with a BS, and later worked through an MS. It absolutely transformed my life. I'm the first person in my entire family to have been educated to this level. I also grew up in an immigrant heavy area and met many wonderful people from around the world at the CC…

I agree with you. I took a somewhat roundabout way of going to a 4-year (first 2 years), then a community college for a year, and back to a different 4-year (last 2 years). In my experience, most of my community college classmates seemed to actually want to be there. They were motivated to learn and not just "get a degree". It's not that the university students didn't want to learn, its just that they were the ones who "knowledge comes easy" to; But, even then, a lot appeared immature, took the education for granted, had everything paid for by parents, and were perhaps guilted into to being there by parents, society, etc. Even in the last 2 years I noticed this. Community college students were typically more mature, paying their own way, some having families and full-time jobs. And to top it all off I actually knew my professors in community college. I never once met 70-80% of my profess…