College Taking Longer Than 4 Years?

You read the title correctly. College is becoming a longer and more grueling process as our world becomes a global mesh of businesses and industries. How does that affect college students? In preparation for their jobs in the marketplace and beyond, colleges need to instill a sense of competitiveness and rigor in their students which lead to a delayed graduation and stress. Even so, institutions will schedule their majors around a 4-year curriculum.

The norm for an education at a post-secondary institution is about 4 years. Some people graduate in fewer, but most will take longer. If a student really wants to be prepared and ready for a job in society, he or she will need to have prior work experience, as companies hate hiring students who went through college without a semester or 2 of work. The reason this delays graduation is simple. If you co-op or intern at a company, you are delaying your studies for that semester. Also, most companies would like to make their investing in a student worthwhile, so they prefer you stay 6 months to a year rather than a short 3 months. With this being said, it will take you longer to graduate in 4 years.

If a student chooses to do research, he or she will most likely need to apply to an undergraduate research program which will pair him or her up with a professor to work one on one with. This can be done for credit or for pay, but most students will likely choose to do research for pay. The thing about this is that it will dig into your school time as you find that research is like a class in itself. Not only will it be hard to manage work and classes, the space your research takes up will cut into your track to graduation as you could have spent that time taking another class. Most research will be done in during the daytime - don't expect to be able to take all the classes you want and still work at night.

Then there is the question of a student double majoring. Unless you are a super genius, you will most likely stay at a university for longer than 4 years if you should decide to double major. As the job marketplace becomes smaller as man professions can be replaced with outsourcing, it is vital for an employee to develop skills not related to his or her job. This is why many students choose to double major. If I have 2 majors, one of which a competing candidate for a job position also has, then I have an advantage as his skills are only a subset of mine. Don't be mistaken though; just because a double major must satisfy 2 curriculums doesn't mean he or she has to take 8 years of college. For most schools, the track to a degree will involve a lot of big prerequisite classes such as Biology, Calculus, and English. With these all out of the way (only taken once), then you are set to take on each major's specific courses.

Another reason your graduation could be delayed is because of change of major. Plenty of students enter college planning on majoring in Physics and through 3 years of college end up pursuing a degree in Psychology. Securing practical interests and developing hobbies and a niche is very difficult for the kids of today, as we have access to things such as television, internet, and video games. Children raised in these types of environments don't develop interests in practical subjects such as writing, engineering, politics, and science. Without these interests being discovered until college, students are spending more and more college time and tuition money to find their interests - something that should have been done earlier.

Studying Abroad, although invaluable to one's life experiences, is another reason that students are delaying their 4 year graduation. Although there are classes offered (hence the "Studying" abroad), that you will take at the partner university, many of the courses will be to develop your interests about the current environment and culture. Students who travel to China will most likely take some sort of language courses before they go in preparation for the surroundings, and once they are there they will spend at least 2 of their 4 or 5 classes learning about Asian History. Don't get me wrong - if you really enjoy traveling (and even if you don't), studying abroad should definitely be one of the things to consider during college. Even so, this is yet another reason your graduation will not happen in 4 years. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.

If you really want to get out of school early, it is possible although college shouldn't be rushed. It depends on your priorities.

It is imperative that no matter how slowly you continue your schooling, make sure you do well in all of your classes, as your grades are more important than how young you are when you graduate. If you want to make the most of your college experience, I suggest you take your time in studying abroad, taking part in summer programs, and interning at a company. This is the only point in life where you are making that transition during which you can experience anything and everything.