Your teacher hands you back your physics test from last Monday, and, with trembling hands, you reach for the marked-up paper. Setting the exam on your desk, you slowly peer down to see your grade and uncover how much damage has been done. Beads of sweat dripping into your eyes, you see the bright red 46 percent plaguing the top of the paper. In a panic, you frantically plead for your neighbors to tell you their grades, but, having found no one that received a similar a score, you are left with only one recourse: joke about your educational collapse. Something along the lines of, “Oh, I’ll just go to the Broward College” slips out, and you have successfully completed the art of comedic relief.
However, Broward College (B.C.) is more than the backup plan it’s often recognized as. The four-year university offers more than 100 majors across three campuses in Broward County, and in 2012, the Aspen Institute in Washington D.C. placed B.C. in the top ten percent of community colleges in the nation. And while yes, Harvard did educate eight former U.S. presidents, whom has Broward College educated, you may be wondering. Well, the list ranges from rockstar Marilyn Manson to former Ft. Lauderdale mayor Jim Naugle.
The point is, B.C. is a college just like any other, and students who enroll here are no less likely to lead successful lives than someone who attends a more well-known college. It is a misconception that B.C. simply exists as a last resort. For many people looking to escape the cold or avoid student loans, Broward College works perfectly. When the deciding factor between attending B.C. and Florida State University (F.S.U) is B.C.’s $2,753 yearly tuition versus F.S.U.’s $6,507 yearly in-state tuition, the college you attend is hardly a representation of how smart you are.
B.C. serves 44,119 students, each with a different I.Q., future and overall motive for choosing their college. So to avoid insulting tomorrow’s mayors and rockstars, we need to stop hating on Broward.
