IN 1974, I graduated from Skyline High School in Oakland, Calif., an underachieving student with lousy SAT scores. Allowed to send my results to three colleges, I chose M.I.T. and Villanova, knowing such fine schools would never accept a student like me but hoping they’d toss some car stickers my way for taking a shot. I couldn’t afford tuition for college anyway. I sent my final set of stats to C
![Opinion | I Owe It All to Community College (Published 2015)](https://cdn-ak-scissors.b.st-hatena.com/image/square/d25cee803c0a790a9b74e533109678dba5d4739f/height=288;version=1;width=512/https%3A%2F%2Fstatic01.nyt.com%2Fimages%2F2015%2F01%2F14%2Fopinion%2F14Hanks%2F14Hanks-facebookJumbo.jpg%3Fyear%3D2015%26h%3D550%26w%3D1050%26s%3D72c23c36920924da47083b82b62a111d68ed58dac06ae932fdbafab8592e55be%26k%3DZQJBKqZ0VN)