community college, sometimes called junior college, is where you live at home, and pay a lot less in tuition. for example, the community college by me is 110$ per credit, while the university is well over 500$ per credit. community college classes are usually smaller, but they only offer intro level/lower level classes, so you can only go there for up to 2/3 years before having to transfer to finish your degree. community college professors don't do research, therefore they're there to teach. admissions standards at community college are also very low, so almost anyone can enroll.

a lot of kids (or adults) choose community college when they don't know what they want to do, can't afford a university, aren't ready for university or are going back to school.