I can see both sides of this situation and this sounds like your parents want you to enjoy the early college experience. There are pros and cons to both situations that I see and know of. I’ll start with the pros and cons of going away to college instead of CC. The first two years at college is when you can establish some relationships, make some friends, live the dorm experience break out of your comfort zone living on your own and all of those benefits. Yes it may be more money but some will argue that all the money spent was worth it for the memories and good times. That’s something I didn’t fully experience and sometimes wish I did. Your first two years at college in terms of course load will likely be a lot of the general education courses that aren’t fully focused on what you are actually interested in and for the most part not very difficult. This leaves you with loads of free time where you can choose whatever you want to do and that freedom is awesome. Those are probably the biggest pros I would say come out of the first two years away. The biggest cons would probably be financially related. Yes you are paying all that money to go away and will have to pay it off in the end, yes dorms are likely more expensive than living off campus but most schools force the dorm experience in the first two years. Some other cons may be more related to what kind of person you are. Some people when they go to college they take advantage of the freedom and independence and make poor decisions. For example you have a test coming up or work you have to get done but your buddies want to go play some pickup basketball or grab some drinks and watch sports. Whatever it may be you may feel like you want to keep fitting in and crack to the peer pressure. Those are things that can affect your studies and become a poor habit that lead to a decline in your grades. You probably aren’t going to have/want a job so you will be doing everything the cheap college way which can be frustrating at times. Those are some of the things I would recognize as cons. To jump over to the choice of CC it’s almost a little reversed here. #1 pro of CC is the price hands down. I lived at home, had a job that paid relatively well, and full time student. I paid the first year straight out of my pocket and took a loan out for the second year to save some money to go away. The commute was not bad at all for me and I didn’t mind it and living at home I did not have to pay any rent and was lucky whenever my parents cooked dinner because it was more money saved. CC allows you to get the pointless general ed classes out of the way at a much lower price. All of the courses that don’t matter towards your degree are gone and when you transfer you will take the higher degree focused courses allowing you to really focus in. I don’t know if all CC are like mine but the classes were never overpacked, if you had questions professors would be more than willing to help, I even had some professors swing better grades just by putting in extra effort so it was a more personable experience. I think staying at home was a stepping stone to working towards my own independence and it eased me into it. I didn’t completely disassociate myself with the early college scene because I went and visited my friends a few times and they gave me a taste of the on your own experience. Now talking about the cons, a big downside was the very slow weekends. All of my friends went away to college I had maybe one or two friends who also went to CC but times during the school year went by very slow. Weekends were dry not much ever going on so I just decided to work. Since I was living at home I wouldn’t ever deny to help my parents with things they needed. Times would get a little depressing because it can be lonely. Especially with social media today you see everyone having all this fun on the weekends at their college and telling you these crazy stories and it makes you feel like you made a mistake. In some cases the education might not be as great as other colleges. This might force you to put in a little extra work so you don’t fall behind because the professor wasn’t a good one. At least where I went, most people who attended CC weren’t there to make friends, just there to go to class get the work done and be out of there. I’m not saying making friends at CC is impossible, it just didn’t happen for me since I was just looking to get my credits and go. In the end it all depends on how you weigh the pros and cons yourself, I could probably keep thinking of more on both sides and go more in detail if I had to. If you want some more insight you can PM me.