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.
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).