Two stories in the June 13 Columbian caught my attention. On Page A3 was an AP story about college costs, with a sidebar showing that Clark College costs about a third of the WSU and UW costs. The second was a story on C1, “Vancouver teen dazzles D.C. officials with work experience,” about a student intern and his experiences.
Daniil Popov is given credit for his interest in engineering and analytic abilities. What is not pointed out is how he (and many other Clark students) is applying these skills in planning his education. The point: students can complete the first two years of an engineering program at Clark and then transfer to UW, WSU, or another four-year engineering program as a junior. In this way they reduce the cost of their engineering degree by about $12,000.
Clark College has one of the largest community college engineering programs in Washington state and supports all the major engineering fields. Students are advised by faculty members and have a program tailored to the engineering degree and university that they will be attending to ensure that their credits will transfer.
Popov and other Clark engineering transfer students are breaking the college education paradigm, but they are putting their skills to use early in their careers.
