Community colleges deliver a reasonably good quality of education at a very modest price point. They do accept basically anyone who shows up and unfortunately a lot of people are just not that motivated or are not adequately prepared for college level work. That said, if you show up and do the work you can easily get an associates degree and spin that into a career or transfer into a 4 year university. In California I believe that community college transfers generally have a higher graduation rate from 4 year schools than their their freshman admit peers. I have known many people who went to community college who are doing fine. I'm sure Zuckerberg would have been just fine with a community college curriculum (he might not be a billionaire but he could easily achieve a pleasant middle class lifestyle).