For all seniors in High School this time of year is incredibly important. College admissions and early approval deadlines are quickly approaching. Many teens are currently faced with the decision of picking the school that they want to attend. This decision is one of the biggest decisions you will make in life, and it can be very stressful.

College can be a huge financial burden to many teens and their families. Yearly tuition can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars every year, and that does not even include necessities like housing, transportation, and book fees. Many high school students are now feeling conflicted on whether or not it is even worth it to go to their dream school, and some may be questioning whether or not it is even worth it to attend college at all. For example many students have wanted to go to the University of Utah since they were little but are now questioning whether or not the debt is worth it.

 A different route to education is community college. More and more teens are seeking more financially conscious education, and attending a community college for the first two years of college can save thousands. You can receive an associates degree from SLCC and then go on to the U for your bachelors. It is an idea for graduating seniors to consider along with searching for scholarships, because the price of attending a four year university is unreasonable and for many unattainable. 

There has been a stigma around attending a community college for a long time, but maybe this upcoming generation of students needs to work to fight it. When asked whether or not they were considering pursuing a degree from a community college many students felt pressured to seek education elsewhere

“I feel like my parents would be disappointed in me if I went to SLCC. I don’t know why. A degree is a degree but people don’t take community college very seriously,” junior at Farmington High School, Darlington Tolbert, said. 

However, there is no shame in wanting to be able to breathe after college graduation opposed to being suffocated by the debt racked up.