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Greystone versus Community College
By David Bailey
April 5, 2005

I was recently asked by a parents group to discuss the differences between the Greystone program and a year at a community college in preparation for admission to one of the service academies. Let me share some of those ideas with you.
The major difference between the Greystone program and a community college lies in the mission of the institutions and how they staff their faculty. The mission of a community college is to offer low-cost education in practical skills to the widest possible range of community residents. The mission of Greystone at Schreiner University is to offer challenging courses designed to prepare the students for the personal, physical and academic rigors of the service academies – period.

The quality of courses taken by a student attending a community college depend upon who the college can find in the community to teach the course that year. While there are many excellent people teaching at the community college level, the courses are rarely of consistent quality from course to course, and from year to year. Courses taken by Greystone students at Schreiner University are specifically designed to enhance their competitiveness as a candidate in qualifying for a service academy appointment. All courses at Schreiner are taught by fully degreed faculty with an average of 17 years teaching at the university level. There are never any graduate assistants teaching Schreiner courses, and even freshman courses are small, personal, and challenging.

Greystone also offers a complete and balanced program that prepares students mentally, physically and emotionally for entry into the academy. Community colleges offer the best courses they can, with little other than clubs and student organizations outside of class. Together, Greystone and Schreiner have combined their assets, capabilities and structure to create the best academy preparatory program available. From the academic program perspective, Greystone is not only an all-inclusive program, but also a much better investment for the academy-bound student seeking to maximize their overall competitiveness.

The content of community college courses is not verified by the academies and therefore, may or may not be directly applicable to the first-year courses taken at the academies. All Schreiner courses taken by Greystone students have been reviewed by academy faculty and are totally in-sync with the academies’ first-year Calculus, Chemistry, English and History curriculum. This ensures what is being taught as part of the Greystone program is directly applicable and meaningful to what is expected of students when they enter the academy. What a student learns at Schreiner can be used immediately upon admission to one of the academies to either validate one or more of the first-year courses (also called ‘testing out’) or to achieve a much higher grade because they are already familiar with the course content.

The primary purpose of college for academy-bound students who have been rejected in their first application out of high school is to demonstrate that they definitely have college-level capability. The other purpose is to truly prepare for first-year academy courses. A community college is less apt to deliver the quality education that will afford options academically once the student enters the academy. There is also rarely the kind of program structure and oversight that will ensure that individual students maximize their opportunity to demonstrate college-level capability.

Students attending Greystone are removed from the every-day distractions that exist at home (friends, boyfriend/girlfriend, family, job, car, hobbies, etc.) and placed in a challenging academic environment. Because of their shared unfamiliar surroundings, Greystone students quickly group together to make friends. Greystone students share similar goals and ambitions and are well on the way to become friends for life - first Greystone, then the Academy, then their wingman, their shipmate, their comrade-in-arms.

Unlike a community college, Greystone is structured to support students as they maximize academic opportunities and excel scholastically. Students here live a structured life, as they will at the academy - up early for morning exercises, eat breakfast and the off for a full day of classes and study. Greystone students attend all assigned classes and participate fully in every class, which requires excellent time management and study skills. After class, students participate in either varsity/junior varsity sports or intramural sports, with personal supervision and encouragement from Greystone staff. In the evenings, students participate in a mandatory 3-hour study hall to provide them with dedicated study time. Fully qualified tutors are always available at no charge, as are coaches in all the necessary academic survival skills. Learning to manage time and responsibilities efficiently empowers students with the skills needed to balance their interests, obligations and commitments and therefore to succeed at the service academies and throughout their career.

On a community college campus, academy-bound students will probably be novelties and can easily get lost in the crowd. Their special academy-related needs will likely be overlooked and they will be vulnerable to loss of focus due to the various distractions on and off campus. At Greystone, academy-bound students are not a novelty, but rather are part of a larger group of students who share the same goals and ambitions. Throughout the day and evening, Greystone students are in contact with other Greystone students - in the classroom, on the athletic fields, in the dining room, in the study hall and in the dorm. This constant interaction reinforces a tight network of academy-bound students and maintains focus on their shared goals and ambitions. An excellent community college will be able to provide a student with college-level courses, but the Greystone program will provide that same student with a specialized college-level education while maintaining focus on the essential goal – to maximize the opportunity to qualify for an academy appointment.

Recently, one of the service academies conducted a study to compare retention rates of students who attended college for one or two years before admission with those who had attended community college. The results indicated that students attending 1-2 years of college suffered an attrition rate of less than 5%, while, students who attended community colleges suffered an attrition rate of more than 50%.

The community college option is definitely cheaper and closer to home but which option do you think is the better value? When you consider that a service academy education is worth between $220,000 and $280,000, and is free for those who qualify and complete their four years, a relatively small investment in Greystone makes total financial sense. And for those who need it, Schreiner University has generous amounts of financial aid available. In fact, well over 95% of Schreiner students receive some kind of financial assistance – making Greystone an even better investment.

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