08:12 PM CDT on Tuesday, May 30, 2006

By Mike Zientek / 11 News

Click to watch video

It’s hard for a lot of students and their families to keep up with the skyrocketing cost of college, but some are finding ways to take classes for less, at least for the first couple of years. Enrollment is up, and community colleges are places students might want to consider.

Summer doesn’t mean slow at Houston Community College’s central campus.

A roomful of Jones High School juniors was filled with big dreams.

“I want to go into architecture or civil engineering,” Marco Band said.

“I want to be an RN — a registered nurse,” Kenshay Saxton said.

These students could soon be part of a growing national trend.

National statistics show nearly half of all undergraduate students in the United States attend community colleges.

One reason stands tall above the rest.

“Right now we’re going through a rough time, and we don’t have that much money,” student Lizet Chavez said.

HCC Central Campus President Dr. Bill Harmon said affordability is only part of the reason.

He said it can cost up to two times more per year to attend a four-year state school, but he said the classes and professors at community colleges have improved too.

“The quality of what we do can be compared to four-year institutions over the first two years,” Dr. Harmon said.

The University of Houston has just started a program that would make it easier for students from HCC to transfer.

The deal applies to several area community colleges.

Students sign an agreement, and if they get their two-year associate’s degree and are in good standing, they automatically get into U of H.

“I had a great experience,” University of Houston student Ileana Porras said. “The classes were small, the professors were very good — they were very well prepared.”

She hopes others will follow in her footsteps.