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H 22°, L 6°The four-year liberal arts degree seems to be devolving into myth, and delayed graduation has emerged as a separate academic lifestyle. According to a 2006 study by the National Center for Education Statistics, only one-third of students at colleges offering four-year degrees were able to complete their bachelor’s degree in said time. At the University of Wisconsin, that number has been more like one-half in recent years, yet nearly one-third of the students who entered as freshmen in fall 2003 is still among us, working toward a diploma they may never earn.
To be fair, most fifth-year seniors just need the time to fit in a few academic requirements before they pick up their tassels — scheduling conflicts or personal issues may have brought on the delay. But the remaining students who stay on for six or more years are part of an alarming general trend. Why do students keep paying tuition for extra semesters when they aren't going to graduate?
School is an expensive habit to sustain. Tuition rises every year, and student loan debt often takes longer to pay off without a degree. Now is a really bad time to be an undecided junior or senior, but for some reason, these students do not choose to leave now and cut their losses. Instead, they take fewer credits per semester so they will have time to work, even though the minimal course load will only prolong their time to earn a diploma and rack up expenses, while the outside jobs draw their attention away from school.
Consequently, some of these students will realize too late that their day jobs have become their professions and that they have amassed years of avoidable loan-debt before arriving at this conclusion. Just as college isn't for everyone who graduates high school, graduating with a degree isn't for everyone who goes to college.
In the past decade at UW, the percentage of degree-seeking students who eventually get what they came for has consistently been around 80 percent, which is decent. But out of students matriculating in 2002, 78.7 percent earned their degrees in five years or fewer. That doesn't look good for students who are now in their 11th semester. On an individual level, these are students who have spent so much time as undergraduates that they might as well finish their degree. Viewing it through a larger scope, however, shows that some large societal forces must be at work.
Perhaps students are overwhelmed with multiple majors or have switched concentrations too many times. At a university the size of UW, students have a lot of choices, but not a lot of immediate guidance.
Other students, especially first-generation college students, may have been pressured into higher education as the U.S. economy demands more specialized work and thus are in uncharted territory to begin with. Still, these are not valid excuses for failing to earn a degree in a timely manner. The average high school graduate cannot afford to be a professional student, and if he had the planning skills to get into UW in the first place, you'd think he could find his way around a DARS report when the time came.
Paul Bell, the dean of the University of Oklahoma, has noted that graduation rates are especially low at OU — only 47 percent after five years — and believes OU's "noncompetition culture" is to blame. In response to a student editorial in the Oklahoma Daily encouraging students not to rush their degrees, he defended OU's new campaign to prevent "student burnout" for the students' own good. "Time is precious," he concluded. This is exactly the preventative attitude we need to have toward our own academic careers at UW. UW's statistics are not as extreme as OU's, so we can't and shouldn't rely on our administration to hold our hands. Whatever the reasons, it is a waste of time and resources to continue without the goal of graduation in mind.
Carla Dogan ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in economics.
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This is a terrible piece. I’m not trying to be a jerk to you or anything, but put more thought into writing, or don’t take up space in the paper.
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what a horrible article
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I’m embarrassed I took the time to read this. I was tricked into believing you were going to say something.
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why is this a horrible article? It points out a very real development, with suggestions for those who might be stuck. You might not try to be a jerk, but you sound like one.
well written, Carla.
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The problem is that post-secondary education is filling the deficiences of public secondary schools in the US. High schools have become holding tanks, teaching entitlement, victimization, rote thinking, mass consumerism, and, generally, fear of growing up.
What students were suppost to figure out through mentorships, part-time jobs, grandparents and neighbors, and volunteerism, has now been postponed until college.
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Not to be rude but this is not only horrible writing but the article is a waste of space and the arguments are elementary.
The biggest problem I have with this is one of the groups of people you call out are first time generation college students, and you seem to be discouragin them to working towards a degree even if it takes 5-6 years. To me thats saying people who come from presumably lower income families with less education should continue that cycle and give up. Some of those students like myself who were first time college students have to work a lot to support going to college, and just because it may take some longer to complete the degree doesn’t mean they should not try. And besides whatever happened to going to college to become educated and learn more about the world around you??
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I feel stupider having read this. I thought I was going to graduate in 4 years, this May, but now I think it’ll take another year of upper level classes to regain the brain cells.
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this is a terrible piece. If people want to take a 5th year, let them. What do you care and what business is it of yours to tell them what to do?
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The 5th year is to make up for the year you should have spent getting good grades at UW-Whitewater or Stout.
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So what if it takes 5 years, or longer, for someone to finish school. I worked hard and finished school in 4 years, and I think it was a huge mistake. I had so much fun in college, and the real work is horrible compaired to that experience. Once you are done with school, you will be working for the next 30 to 40 years, so take the extra year or two and have some fun.
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I agree, this column is awful, especially this:
“but for some reason, these students do not choose to leave now and cut their losses. Instead, they take fewer credits per semester so they will have time to work, even though the minimal course load will only prolong their time to earn a diploma and rack up expenses”
If they keep going to school and earn that degree, even if it is a year or two late, their earning potential increases greatly. Cutting their losses may save them money in the short-term because they focus on work, but you can say that for all college students. College is important if you want to earn more money in the long-term, and apparently Carla can’t see that.
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A large number of college students need to work while they take classes, and can only take the bare minimum course load. If they weren’t privileged enough to go to a rich school that offered a variety of AP classes, this means that it takes them 10 semesters to complete their degree. Others have different motivations for staying in longer, and who are you to judge? Some like to learn, and don’t see undergrad studies as merely job training, but a way to enrich themselves intellectually. I personally was lucky enough to come in with a sizeable number of credits, and could have graduated a year early, but didn’t feel mature enough to head off into the real world and wanted to take additional courses that I found interesting and thought would be beneficial to my development as a person. Do you have beef with me too?
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“yet nearly one-third of the students who entered as freshmen in fall 2003 IS still among us” Looks like someone needs a few more years of college.
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This is just more proof that far too many people “go to college”.
They should go to a tech school or enter an apprenticeship program so they can get a job that pays a good wage and get on with their lives.
Instead they party for a few years, whine about how hard it is and then end up in debt with no no job skills or prospects.
Yeah, yeah, I know - it’s a terrible thing but the fact remains that half of all people are below average.
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don’t slit your wrists
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You have no reason to criticize someone else for taking 5 or 6 years to graduate. That is their choice, and doesn’t affect what you do with your life whatsoever. You’re going to graduate in 4 years, whoop-dee-freaking-doo. No one really cares. Nor does anyone think any less of me because I’m graduating in 6. Do you really think an employer would ever say “Wow, she graduated in 4 years. We’ll hire her over this guy that graduated in 6.”? No, so write about something that actually matters.
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6 years? Dumbass.
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They should go to a tech school or enter an apprenticeship program so they can get a job that pays a good wage and get on with their lives.
Oh yea, tech school really brings in the bucks. You are clearly a moron.
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this was absolutely terrible. It’s riddled with unfounded assumptions that people who are here for more than four years are not only wasting their time, but are hopeless people who should just ‘drop out’ and ‘cut their losses’….you need more friends outside of college. Let them tell you about ‘cutting losses’
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ugh, this is what’s wrong with America. People like this, who study study study, then work work work, then 40 years later find their lives unfulfilling and meaningless. Slow down and enjoy the ride…like others have said, college is for more than just preparing for a job. It’s for learning about the world and enriching our lives. It’s for taking bullshit courses just cause they sound interesting. It’s for drug experimentation and getting sloppy drunk while we have the chance. And I don’t know what marshmallow rainbow planet you live on where no college student ever has to work, but in the real world, most people don’t have Daddy’s credit card to pay the bills and the leisure to take 18 credits a semester. I’ll be graduating in 4.5 years and will be sad to see it over so quickly.
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Yea, I’ll cut my losses and drop out when I decide I want to live in a cardboard box the rest of my life.
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“yet nearly one-third of the students who entered as freshmen in fall 2003 IS still among us” Looks like someone needs a few more years of college.
Actually, I think “is” is correct here. Think of it like this: nearly one out of three students IS still with us. The word one determines the tense, not the word students. It sounds and looks awkward, but I have to agree with the author.
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I came in with 40ish credits from high school… And I’m graduating in 3 years, 13/14 credits a semester… Should I have taken all 18-credit semesters? Man, then I might have figured out a way to graduate in two years.
….does that make me trash as well, having stayed longer than necessary?
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what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it… and may God have mercy on your soul.