As related in this thread I’m thinking of taking some Spanish lessons. “Community college” seems to be a common suggestion, but sitting here I realize I haven’t been to college in over 25 years and I’m a bit fuzzy on how to go about this.
Any suggestions on how to locate and evaluate a community college? I’m not interested in a degree, so I’m thinking of doing the courses non-credit to save money.
You probably don’t have a whole lot of options; most community colleges have a discrete boundary for the reasonable tuition rates. So I’d start by googling community college and your ZIP and see what comes up in your area.
As for evaluating them, something like a basic Spanish class is so…basic…that what teacher you have is far more important than what school you’re going to. If you want to see what other students have to say about your potential teacher, you can go to a site like www.ratemyprofessors.com to look them up by name. You can find the name of the Spanish teacher in the course catalog or by searching the online course listings.
The biggest way community colleges differ from 4 year universities is that acceptance is pretty much a given for the general education (including Spanish) credit courses and what most schools call Workforce Education or Continuing Education (where you may also find Spanish.)
The website will probably have an enrollmentsection, with an application you can fill out online, or print and mail in. Either immediately online or in a couple of weeks by snail mail, you’ll get your Acceptance Letter (and I don’t care if it’s pretty much a given, getting that letter still feels great!), and then you can register when course registration is open.
While most schools haveonline registration, in my experience, they’re all kinda buggy. They also can’t “squeeze you in” if a class is full, the way an Academic Advisor can. If it’s your first time back in a while, you probably want to go in to register. Registration dates will be posted on the website. This will also let you speak to someone about payment/payment plans, where to find your booklist, how to get a school ID, etc.
One thing I’d recommend is NOT getting your text(s) at the school’s bookstore. 10 minutes of price comparison online will find you what you need for half what the school bookstore is charging. Don’t count on making much back on it at the end of the semesters; college bookstores pay literally pennies on the dollar for book buy back. Again, you’ll probably make more selling your used book through ebay or amazon or another dedicated online reseller.
Around my way the community colleges mail out a general catalog of all the classes they’re offering in the upcoming semester, both credit and noncredit.
Their course catalogs are in our local library.
Word of mouth is powerful. The two community colleges closest to me, for instance, differ in many ways. One is the place to go if you’re looking to get into the health sciences, for instance, while the other is more of a liberal-arts stepping stone. The latter has the better academic reputation because most, if not all its, students, transfer to 4-year institutions. I wouldn’t had known this if I hadn’t heard it from several people.
Hopefully this helps…?
There really isn’t much you can do when selecting community colleges as they are pretty much defined by, well, the community. They have to be accredited, so you might want to simply check up on that.
It is true that some have a better selection of health classes or vocational programs but for the basics (English, Math, Science, Languages, etc.) they are all pretty much the same. Granted, it is luck of the draw if you have a bad/good/great teacher, but that is the same story at any Ivy League school as well.
The biggest advantage of a community college is getting an AA degree and completing a lot of basic courses, for a fraction of the price of a regular university/college. Once complete, then you could transfer to a 4 year college/university and only spend two years paying those fees to get a Bachelors.
One tip - if you already know which 4 year college you might want to go to later, contact them to see which courses from this community college would transfer to their school. No use wasting time taking classes that DON’T transfer!
Oops…should have read your OP better!
You don’t want to go on for an advanced degree - so ignore most of my post above.
Sorry.
Yep - already have a bachelor’s. 
This is for personal enrichment, for the most part.
Still good advice for anyone coming along after us who reads this thread, though.
So if you are not interested in “proof” of taking a course, may I suggest you contact your local university, speak to someone in the language/linguistics department and say you would like a private tutor in Spanish.
I suggest this as college students can use the extra money, you can probably set up the time and place as you wish, and you will learn more from one-on-one than in a large group. Plus, getting a native speaker who might be learning how to teach languages would be good practice for that student as well.
Just a thought.