By Jill Jensen

Come fall, Tim Stoneking will not move into a college dorm room.

Instead, he will join a steadily growing number of Albert Lea High School graduates who are heading for Riverland Community College each year.

An average of 55 students in each graduating class from 2006 to 2010 went to Riverland the fall semester following their graduation, according to Tricia Whalen, an enrollment adviser at Riverland. And about one out of every three students who graduated from Albert Lea High School this year said they were planning to do so, too, according to more than 140 students listed in the student newspaper.

The majority of students who choose to go to a two-year college intend to complete their general education credits and transfer to a four-year public or private university, according to Kim Danner, a guidance counselor at Albert Lea High School.

“They know they want an education; they just don’t know what they want it in,” said Danner, who has acted as a guidance counselor for more than a year at the high school.

Stoneking, who will transfer to McNally Smith College of Music after he completes his general education credits, said students often attend a community college to save money.

“I know college debt is pretty much inevitable,” Stoneking, who will continue living with his parents in Albert Lea, said. “It’s going to happen, but I would rather not have a huge chunk of debt going into my first major job.”

After Austin, Albert Lea provides the largest amount of students who go to Riverland, according to James Douglass, director of communications.

He said Riverland has many programs in place that let high school students know benefits of attending there like post-secondary enrollment option, which allows a student to attend college and high school at the same time, and “College in the School” classes at Albert Lea High School, which give college credit for high school classes.

Aside from the financial benefits of attending Riverland, Douglass said the college attracts students who want to continue living at home or working at a current job.

“A lot of our students are already working in the community and this gives them an opportunity to keep that employment and also go to school,” he said.

Douglass said Riverland, which is part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System, also works to make taking online classes and transferring credits as easy as possible for students.

“That’s all in effort to make it easier for the student to continue their education and get it done in the fastest amount of time,” Douglass said.

Danner said some students also attend Riverland Community College or other two-year colleges because they are interested in careers that require licensure or certification, rather than a bachelor’s degree, like nursing or construction.

‘Actually going to do something’

For Skyler Anderson, who is pursuing nursing, the cost-savings of attending Riverland Community College tipped the scales in its favor.

“I don’t have to be in super-huge debt is a lot of it,” Anderson said of her decision.

By living at home and working at the Good Samaritan Society, she intends to receive credit for her general education before either transferring to another college or studying in the nursing program at Riverland.

She said there is a stigma that community college students are not “actually going to do something.”

But, she said, getting a college degree has never not been an option after watching her father struggle without one every day.

“That’s not me,” Anderson said. “I’m going to go to college and get my degree.”

Academic competition

Students may also have to attend a community college because competition to be admitted to four-year colleges is at its “peak,” Danner said. Some students may not meet the academic requirements at a time when there are an increased number of applicants and therefore higher standards.

For example, she said, for the 2010-11 academic year, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities accepted students into its College of Liberal Arts with an average composite ACT score of 27.1. The national average in 2010 was 21 out of a possible 36 and in Minnesota, which had the highest composite average in the U.S., the average was 22.9.

She said about 42 percent of those who graduated from Albert Lea High School in 2010 went to a two-year college, with 61 students in the graduating class attending Riverland, while 46 percent went to a four-year public or private university.

The steady local interest in two-year colleges indicates that this is a nationwide trend, she said.

“I think the economy is a huge reason,” Danner said. “I don’t think it’s the only reason, but I think it’s a big reason.”