{"id":213,"date":"2015-11-18T11:56:48","date_gmt":"2015-11-18T16:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acutabove.wpengine.com\/?p=213"},"modified":"2015-12-03T15:24:27","modified_gmt":"2015-12-03T20:24:27","slug":"lcc-haters-gonna-hate-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=213","title":{"rendered":"“[LCC] haters gonna hate…”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Emma Heikkinen<\/strong>
\nRamparts
\nHolt HS
\n1st Place
\nDivision 1, News Writing
\nBylined Opinion Article<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Being a senior and all, I\u2019ve had a lot of conversations with people recently about my plans for the next couple years of my life. I have decided to attend Lansing Community College (LCC) next year, and probably the year after that, too.<\/p>\n

Now, when people find this out, some are fine with it because it\u2019s financially smart and it\u2019s my choice, so it\u2019s not like they can change that. Others don\u2019t exactly see it the same way.<\/p>\n

Many of the people who don\u2019t agree with my decision to attend LCC say a lot of the same things to me. So, I\u2019ve decided to compile some of them here along with my responses to them. My hope is that after reading this, people will have more of an understanding and respect for my decision. Here goes nothing.<\/p>\n

But you don\u2019t get the college experience!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, here\u2019s the thing. Much of the \u201ccollege experience,\u201d as many people refer to it as, consists of partying, drinking, smoking, and other illegal activities, most of which go against my morals. So, if that\u2019s what you mean, I think I\u2019ll pass. I\u2019d rather not make mistakes I\u2019d most likely regret later.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not all the college experience is. Aren\u2019t you ready to move out on your own and get away from your family and be independent?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Again, you have a point. It would be awesome to live on my own, meet new people and have new experiences, but that can wait. I love my family and don\u2019t have a problem staying with them for a little while longer. At Michigan State, room and board is about $9,204 per year. So, I\u2019ll be saving a lot of money. Besides, I have friends who are going to LCC too, which will help with the social aspect of living at home.<\/p>\n

Doesn\u2019t LCC stand for \u201cLast Chance College?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, contrary to popular belief, it doesn\u2019t. It stands for \u201cLansing Community College.\u201d Crazy, I know.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re too smart to go to community college.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you? But really, why is this even something people are telling me? If I\u2019m \u201ctoo smart for community college,\u201d why am I making a case for it? I\u2019ve talked to plenty of people who attended LCC and then MSU or another university who have told me that some of the best classes they\u2019ve\u00a0ever taken were at LCC. Also, with LCC\u2019s smaller class sizes, I believe I\u2019ll be able to get more out of each time we meet.<\/p>\n

But, you could totally get into an Ivy League school.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Again, thanks. In all honesty, though, I don\u2019t care. The prestige of Ivy League isn\u2019t appealing to me. Besides, that\u2019s a lot of money that I\u2019m not willing to spend.<\/p>\n

Student loans aren\u2019t THAT bad. You can still have a normal life with them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, the average student loan debt is currently about $27,000. Personally, I\u2019d rather not have to worry about that. Besides, with $27,000 I could buy a car, or put a down-payment on a house. At LCC, each billing hour costs $85. (According to LCC\u2019s website, the credit hours and the billing hours are the same for the majority of courses.)<\/p>\n

At MSU, each semester of tuition is approximately $13,246, assuming two 15-credit semesters. That makes each credit about $440. So, LCC is financially smarter than MSU and other public university options.<\/p>\n

In all seriousness,<\/strong> I\u2019m really happy with my decision to attend LCC. I think it\u2019ll be a really great transition point from high school to more of the \u201creal world,\u201d and I hope that all the haters can understand why I\u2019m choosing this, and be excited for me because it\u2019s something I want to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Emma Heikkinen Ramparts Holt HS 1st Place Division 1, News Writing Bylined Opinion Article<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54,4],"tags":[48,20],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-bylinedopinionarticle","category-nw","tag-48","tag-division1","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kelsey Parkinson","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=3"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-3r","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}