At first, Sebastian Pintea didn't want anyone to know he was planning to attend a community college.

While attending Santiago High School in Corona, community college was "heavily stigmatized," Pintea recalled. There was this misconception that community college was for students who didn't have the grades to get into a universtiy, he said.

But after researching the price of tuition at some of his preferred universities, Pintea, 22, found the cost to be prohibitively expensive and made a last-minute decision to attend Santiago Canyon College.

Pintea was also swayed by the SCC representative at a high scool college fair he attended...READ MORE