few people want to go there because the bit of paper you get at the end is the value and those a worth less than the bits of paper you get from other universities.

There's also a stigma against this path.

I went to a community college for two years (it was free), and then transferred the University of Florida to finish my degree (a fine public R1 university by any standard), paying exactly $0 for my degree. I know people who followed that same path and went on to top tier law schools, medical schools, bulge bracket investment banking, etc.

Now I can look back and be grateful that I got a great education for free, but I was, and still am slightly embarrassed by saying I went to a community college.

I now live in NYC where I'm pretty sure people can do almost the same thing with the SUNY school system, and come out with an undergrad degree for like $30k (still a lot, but most folks I know paid $100k+ for undergrad degrees that are not substantially differentiated from the path I did).

I did exactly that with the SUNY system. I could have probably gone to some "prestigious" place if I applied myself more, but I hated extracurriculars and all the other tertiary nonsense the applications seemed to expect of me. It should be about your educational and relevant (e.g. self taught programming demonstrated with projects) achievement, nothing else, IMO.

SUNY system worked out for me and I'm not embarrassed of it. They almost screwed up my graduation with a one credit discrepency in the requirements with the transfer. You have to be careful and do their job for them checking up on that, I've learned.

I understand feeling embarrassed but I think sharing your experience with your peers and (perhaps more importantly) their kids could help reduce the stigma, even if just a little.

Plus, usually they don't offer anything more than an associate's degree. Can't remember the last time I saw anything less than "bachelor's degree or equivalent experience" on a job listing.

One strategy is to go to community college for your gen ed requirements, transfer those credits to a more prestigious university, then finish your degree there. The piece of paper will have the university's name on it, but you will have saved money in the process.

You have to do some due diligence to figure out what credits you can transfer. You don't want to waste your time and money on a class that doesn't count. But I know of some people who did this.

This is my current plan. Look to see if your state has any programs that guarantee entry. If I pick the right CC, I’m guaranteed admission (though not guaranteed any major) at the primary school I’m eyeing.

That's more hacking the system than using the system as intended

That some community colleges focused on being 'transfer schools' was old hat when I was in school 20 years ago; there were established curriculums designed to meet the general ed requirements of UC and CSU. Since then, many states have developed programs where you can get guaranteed transfer admission to their state schools for year three and four.

It's a better way to do it anyway. Lower level courses at big schools tend to be giant lectures, but many of those are going to be higher level courses at community college. Would you rather take Calculus in a giant lecture hall or a small class room? Same with Physics and Chemistry (although those at least have lab sections that are usually size limited)

That's what I mean about the bit of paper being worth less than at other universities.

If you go to a community college for two years (nominal) and transfer to get a bachelors degree in two more years (nominal), you end up with the same piece of paper as if you had done all four years at that same place. Your bank balance (and life experience) would likely be different however.

Of course if you get through only two years, you'll (optionally) have a piece of paper, which might be better than dropping out of a four year school two years in.

If you reason from the premise that it's only the diploma that matters, I'm not sure it makes sense to talk about "transitioning" college from one model to another in the first place. We can't just decide by administrative fiat to transfer a bit of prestige from Harvard to the local 2-year school, even if we all agree it'd be better that way.

No, but we can decide by administrative fiat that Harvard can’t charge more than the community college does, and must transition its business model to be similar to that of the community college.

I thought most people who get into Ivy’s end up paying surprisingly lower, even compared to a state school. The problem is you probably won’t ever get in.

The problem is also the "most". It's dependant on discretionary grants.

It's not obvious to me that we can. Harvard Community College seems like it would just end up in the same place as Harvard Extension School currently is, where everyone understands that it's not "really" Harvard and if you want the associated prestige you need to go to the 4 year residential program with competitive admissions.

You could regulate the cost of the 4 year residential programme (and presumably you also include those at similar universities while you were at it). Whether that's a good idea or not is a matter of debate, but it's essentially how most European universities work.

A big part of the value is you can take core classes very inexpensively and then transfer to a more expensive same state university. Not an option for everyone, but it really saves a lot of $$ for those that can make it work. Most two year degrees that don’t focus on a trade of some sort are mostly of dubious value on their own, though.

I went to one for an associate's, followed by transferring my credits to a state university for two more years for a bachelor's. Got an internship out of it, found my first good programming job within half a year, worked up to six figures remote a few years later. Seems like you get what you put into it and "prestige" isn't necessary at all just to have a good career.