The myth of the four-year college degree
Woodard’s not alone in extending his university studies beyond a typical senior year. While undergraduate education is typically billed as a 4-year experience, many students, particularly at public universities, actually take five, six, or even more years to attain a degree. According to the Department of Education, fewer than 40% of students who enter college each year graduate within 4 years, while almost 60% of students graduate in six years. At public schools, less than a third of students graduate on time.
“It’s a huge issue for society,” says Matthew Chingos, an author of Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America’s Public Universities. “It’s a huge issue for the individual students who are spending more money on tuition than they need to. The longer they wait to graduate and get a job, those are extra years of their careers when they’re in college and not working and not making money.” Chingos points out that delayed graduation at public schools also affects taxpayers who are subsidizing students’ education.
Reasons for delaying graduation are numerous. For students who choose to participate in co-ops or internships during the school year, it can be tough to fit in all the necessary courses. Overcrowded classes can make it impossible for students to fulfill degree requirements in a timely manner. And the common practice of changing majors midway through college can make a 4-year degree impractical.
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The myth out there is that you need to go into debt and get a college degree to improve your prospects in EVERY FIELD.
This is not true and being proven to everyone in this Obamaconomy.
wildcat72 on January 10, 2013 at 8:48 PM
Um. I made it through in four years, with an Engineering degree.
Sure, some things can interfere with your education. But for most people, if you’re not making it through in four years, perhaps you need to rethink your path in life.
Mohonri on January 10, 2013 at 8:48 PM
It has taken me 6 years to complete a bachelors and masters degree. nbd
Donald Draper on January 10, 2013 at 8:50 PM
I took four but I still don’t know why I bothered.
forest on January 10, 2013 at 8:53 PM
I did the military first which gave me the focus to get my BS in 3.5 years.
And I wish I had that money back because BS is exactly what it’s worth.
Bishop on January 10, 2013 at 8:59 PM
It really depends on what you want to do.
IMO, you can make some dang good money if just with a HSD or a 2 year tech degree. There is a ship builder here in WI that held a job fair not to long ago, they have great benies, along with an aging workforce. Many of the guys there stick around because the job is so good.
Needless to say the company realizes that they need some new blood infused into the system fast before people start retiring.
Out of the 50+ openings for apprenticeship, only got 6 people. SIX PEOPLE. The whole state ( high school grads ). Training PAID like a regular job.
Want to know what is was for? Pipe fitters and guys to run wire.
Jobs paid 40+K a year STARTING while you were training. After that is was not uncommon to see just above 6 figures.
Yeah, kids now a days think that getting your hands dirty = jobs for low income people… or illegals.
watertown on January 10, 2013 at 9:01 PM
College is just like everything else in life: you get back exactly what you put into it.
If you have a plan and a goal, and good advice from others you can do it in four years.
If you are not sure what you want to do and drift between majors, half-ass it or party too much, it’s going to take longer.
Captain Kirock on January 10, 2013 at 9:24 PM
Is largely the practice of people who have no money worries or who are about to and simply don’t realize it.
College is a big commitment – too many kids treat it as some kind of opportunity to ‘find themselves’ by studying lots of BS until they find something entertaining.
CorporatePiggy on January 10, 2013 at 9:52 PM
This isn’t new; I remember hearing that twenty years ago, BUT….
At least when I went to school, if you failed to get your engineering degree within 4.5 years — not counting co-ops, which we relatively rare at my school — you couldn’t get it at all. That focused the mind. Almost every engineer I know got their degree within four years, and I know more that got it in fewer than four rather than in more. The non-engineers could take five, six, seven, whatever. But I also know my fair share of people who dropped out of engineering, and had a painfully slow climb back to career stability. I’m not sure how much of an improvement that system is on the one that we have for non-engineers.
If you have a good idea of what you want to do with your life at the age of 17, are in it to learn, and are a decent student with no serious physical or mental health problems, four years should be no problem. But that’s not everyone.
calbear on January 10, 2013 at 10:25 PM
I took four years and graduated with two separate Bachelor’s degrees, one in hard science and one in business. Zero job offers.
Seven Seas on January 10, 2013 at 10:35 PM
But that’s kind of what it is. Even an engineer isn’t going to know which specialty he or she is going to be drawn to until it’s been introduced in a course (or internship). A high school graduate isn’t going to know all that. In many fields and for many people, going to college is the only way. If “finding yourself” takes too long, though — or if another route would have been better — then that’s when we have a problem….
calbear on January 10, 2013 at 10:37 PM
The sheer irony is that these sentences are often uttered by a generation who used more drugs than the current, “found themselves” a heck of a lot more than the current, took longer to grow up than the current (some of them never did) and who had significantly more subsidized public education than the current. And then, after going to public Universities where 75c of a tuition dollar was paid by taxpayers, they have grown up, gutted college budgets to where the average student pays 75c of their tuition, and the state a measly 25c. And then they have the nerve to call young people “unfocused.” Amazing.
libfreeordie on January 10, 2013 at 11:16 PM
That is horrific. That is also not the fault of the College or University. They did their job. The job market has to do with huge forces that the University has no control over, in fact it is subject to those forces. I don’t know why the unemployed blame us in the academy for the challenges they have faced in getting jobs. I thought conservatives believed this was a meritocracy. Clearly, the market is not demanding certain folks labor, I believe the Hayek-ian response is that altriusm towards you is totalitarianism…so why complain at all. Who are you complaining to, according to your own philosophy there is no possible recourse other than wait for the market to save you.
libfreeordie on January 10, 2013 at 11:18 PM
We’re told our whole lives that if we don’t go to college we’ll be working retail forever. Now that we went to college, we’re pissed because we were lied to.
Colleges are seen as job training – graduate and get a good job.
It is your fault for marketing and profiting on a lie.
Seven Seas on January 11, 2013 at 10:39 AM