<Interestingly, at this level community colleges are in some ways even -more- rigorous than "real" universities because classes are very cheap so the financial

<Interestingly, at this level community colleges are in some ways even -more- rigorous than "real" universities because classes are very cheap so the financial penalty of retaking is much lower, and at the institutional level there is no ranking pressure to get students to graduate in 4 years. I have also seen local community colleges near me actually have Profs from the R1 Flagship school "moonlighting" teaching courses in the evening. They often are freer in how work with students and also try out new material for textbooks they are authoring.