What is the difference between a community college and technical colleges?

Answer 1

I've been a teacher and a student at both technical and community colleges. So I've seen things from both sides.

Essentially the difference is in the main focus of the school. Technical colleges are mostly geared towards the "technical" fields--computers, autmotive, welding, medical, electrical, construction, etc. So they're basically trade schools that train you for a specific industrial trade.

By contrast, community colleges are geared for broad training in a wide variety of fields, technical and non-technical. But are shorter and more concentrated in the major than a 4 year college or university.

Now this is the basic difference. However, there are many technical colleges that offer training programs beyond technical fields. In other words, some technical colleges focus on just providing training in a particular trade, such as Medical Assistant or Mecical Records. Others offer a variety of technical programs and non-technical programs. For example, you can get a degree in Network Security or in General Business.

However, one HUGE difference between community and technical colleges is this. Community college credits are 100% transferrable to 4 year schools! So if you take a business or science class at a community college, you know it's transferrable if you decide to go on for a Bachelor (4 year) Degree.

But with classes at technical colleges, most of their credits are not transferrable at all. In other words, if you decide to go to a community college or a 4 year school, then those credits generally won't transfer over.

Another difference is that most community colleges only offer 2 year degrees--Certificates to Associate Degrees. Technical colleges can offer this, plus 4 year Bachelor Degrees and even a Masters.

Now as far as the quality of training goes, you can get quality training from both. In other words, you have your good and bad schools out there. But with community colleges, they're all part of the state college system. So they're all considered public colleges owned by the state. This means they're primarily state-funded. But with technical colleges, they're usually private. This means they're owned by corporations and are mainly privately-funded.

THIS IS NOT COMPLETELY CORRECT!!!

community college credits do not transfer 100% of the time. you have to do the transfer curriculum to make sure they are going to be able to transfer your credits!