Ten years ago last week, I graduated high school and prepared for my last pre-college summer. Many of my closest friends were committed to four year colleges like myself, but a few decided to stay at home, work, and take classes at the local community college.

Two and a half years into college, two of them were accepted into the University of California, Santa Cruz where I was going and moved up north having saved thousands and thousands of dollars by electing to take the more cost friendly route of starting out in a community college. My community college friends not only saved a lot of money by going to school close to home, but they also had more time to get real-world work experience and figure out what they wanted to do before committing themselves to a specific academic major. Oh, and they were able to save enough money to avoid taking out large student loans.

Saving money matters more than ever and community colleges are becoming an even more viable and popular option for high school graduates; it has become one of the most important segments of the American college scene.

A recent article provided 10 reasons to pick a community college and they included: affordability, convenience, open access, teaching quality, class size, support services, choices, diversity, access to modern technology, and good company.

And rumor has it that a big announcement is coming from the Obama Administration soon to get 5 million extra students through community college in the next 10 years.

Are community college transfers successful? One of my friends who joined me at UCSC is now the vice-president of a company that supports agents, promoters, and producers, managing 46 premier arenas across North America. Traveling the world and shaking hands with rock stars on a weekly basis isn’t too shabby. So, the answer is yes. Where you end up is more important than where you start.