Lately, I have been reflecting on my college experience as it is my (second) senior year. As a freshman, I wholly expected to graduate within four years. That’s what they tell you at orientation when you’re learning about your classes and major. That’s even how they describe universities: four-year universities. However, most graduates, more than half, don’t graduate within that time constraint, according to an article written by John Herring for NBC News. As a matter of fact, Herring mentions that less than two-thirds of students graduate within four years, and the pandemic is going to increase the number of years students get an education.
There are a couple of reasons that students may take longer to graduate:
money
College has become very expensive for anyone to attend. Some students cannot attend or have to take breaks because of their finances. A lot of students don’t want to graduate with debt and pay out of pocket for their education.
jobs/career
When students don’t want to graduate with debt that often means they will have to maintain a job and save. They may have to take breaks in order to save up for their next year. On another note, maybe a student is offered a job and doesn’t think they could do both full-time school and work at the same time. Or maybe other opportunities present themselves that would be beneficial to the student’s career.
12 – 15
When I first came to university, they told us that we had to take 15 credits each semester in order to graduate within four years. After taking 12 credits the past two semesters, I would never recommend 15 credits to anyone. I was so stressed during most of my college career taking five classes a semester. Some students decide to do 12 credits instead of 15, and that often adds more time until they graduate.
family
Some students have to leave in order to help their family out during hard times. Sometimes a loved one will pass away, which leads to a semester or year break. Some parents experienced during this pandemic having to homeschool their kids. Kids are often a reason it takes longer for a student to graduate.
mental health
Some students have to take breaks for their mental health. College can be very stressful on a person’s mental state of being. Having a mental/neurological disorder can also be a reason a student will take longer to graduate.
self-exploration
Sometimes students don’t know what they want to do, and they take a year or two off to reflect on that. Other times students want to travel or just take a break from school simply because they want to.
pandemic
I think this pandemic messed a lot of people up when it came to education. We had stay-at-home orders, and a lot of universities decided to proceed with most of their students online. Some students could not adapt and took breaks from school.
All of these reasons are valid, and there aren’t many reasons that wouldn’t be valid to take a break from education or take longer. Don’t be ashamed by the amount of time you spend getting an education, collegiettes. When you’re attempting to better yourself, the time it takes to improve or learn shouldn’t matter. Besides, the majority of students don’t graduate in four years.