Here are 9 facts you can use to consider a community college as a viable alternative to 4-year colleges:

Fact #1: Four years at the same college will go by the way of the rotary telephone and Nintendo games. That college is too expensive is reason enough to look for a realistic alternative.

Fact #2: The community college is suddenly looking very attractive. It's the wallflower at the prom who's suddenly getting noticed. Seduction seems almost too good to be true.

Fact #3: A transfer student from a community college is very attractive to a 4-year college admission office. Community colleges have no distracting alcohol-related activities, have students who will have accomplished something - a 2-year degree, and attended smaller classes with professors who want to teach (read: getting more than your money's worth).

Fact #4: Tuition and fees at a community college can go as high(!) as $4,000 a year (Rest assured your eyesight is okay...you read correctly). You have to figure what the cost is going to be to house and feed your college student who's also using gas to get to and from the college. Compared to a typical college campus, you're already in Fat City.

Fact #5: Parents can literally pay NOTHING to send their children to a community college. The Stafford Loan allows the student to take out as much as $5,500 in the first year and $6,500 in the second year. And that's for a college that may cost only $4,000. The Stafford Loan has only one signature attached to it, and it isn't yours. Sweet! Parents can remain parents with the student living at home for the first 2 years.

Fact #6: Parents can continue to pay nothing after 2 years. If the community college grad commutes to a 4-year college that's not far away, the Stafford Loan pays up to $7,500 in the junior and senior years. Sweet again!

Fact #7: With this approach, college is definitely affordable. Spartan and focused. A student can get a 4-year degree for the price of 2 years, or s/he can get a 4-year degree with the Stafford Loan paying for all tuition and fees. Mom and dad can decide how much they want to contribute.

Fact #8: My 3-videos that provide the formula for cutting $42,000 in college costs makes a college education absolutely free in the community college discussion.

Fact #9: Community colleges are experiencing a huge application upsurge, and even though they operate on a rolling admissions policy, that is, come in with a checkbook and a pulse, getting in is becoming harder.

If you're not considering community college, perhaps you should. For safety's sake in a down economy and the trust you have in your student to make do with what's available, your student graduates with a lot less debt and you can retire with a smile.

Everybody wins.