CCC sees enrollment increase for the 2019-2020 school year

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) - More students are starting to move away from starting their college experience at 4 year university. Instead choosing to start and even graduate from places like Central Community College. The school has seen an increase across all three campuses over the last few years.

"More and more people are starting to come to a community college and then go ahead and transfer on," CCC Dean of Enrollment Management Janel Walton said. "Other students though are like they know that the area and the trades like the skilled and technical sciences, there's definitely a need in those areas so our individuals who come in and get their diplomas or degrees from us can get a job quite quickly."

As CCC's enrollment numbers continue to rise, across town UNK is seeing a drop. One reason some students say they made the choice to start at community college is the significant cost difference. Community college often offers the same education for a fraction of the price.

"All of our faculty members, especially within math, science, English, they all have the same credentials as individuals who teach at a four year institution," Walton said. "They just make that choice to work with a smaller class size and really focus on giving students a good foundation and idea of what's going on."

For freshman Emily Behrendt it was an easy decision.

"My first college of choice when I was a little 8th grader was UNK and that's like 17 grand per year or better. Here it's only 4 grand per year," Behrendt said. "So it's a big shift."

The college says after seeing their numbers growing year after year, they just expect it to continue to rise.