As seniors work on their college applications, they start weighing their options: public universities, out-of-state privates, military colleges. But what about community college? We can all attest to the negative reputation that community college has on our campus, even though 16 percent of college-bound graduates from the class of 2015 attended 2-year colleges, according to MVHS’ school profile. When deciding on what schools to apply to or not to apply to, seniors often ask familiar students at their interested schools. Just in case seniors aren’t actually asking community college students, we asked three MVHS alumni—‘13 Omer Yosef, ‘14 Alexander Pieb and ‘14 Justin Cena—about their experiences going to De Anza College.

There is often a stigma against attending a community college at MVHS. The alumni discuss their experiences overcoming it.

Many students don’t realize that there are many financial and academic benefits to attending a community college. The alumni explain the benefits that they have personally gained from.

Many of the alumnis’ friends went on to attend 4-year colleges after high school, and they compare and contrast their experiences with those of their friends.

Now that seniors are making important choices about what they want to do after high school, the alumni have a message for them.