An Ohio University student discusses trends in graduation rates and how those rates affect total education costs for students.
One of the recent trends in higher education is the increasing growth of five and six-year graduation rates at four-year degree-granting institutions. There may be many reasons for the sudden elongation of college for most students. One apparent answer is that students don’t know what to do, so they tend to mess around for a year or two in the wrong major and put themselves behind. A recent article written by Liz Freedman of Butler University stated that an estimated 75 percent of students change their major at least once before they graduate. This is a huge contributing factor in delaying graduation.
Arriving at college without having a declared major can also be problematic. For some, this may seem like the logical thing to do, if an incoming freshman has no idea what they want to do. “If you don’t know what major you want, go as an undeclared student. You can decide on your major after a few basic courses.” This, according to Dan Johnston, regional director of Pennsylvania’s Higher Education Assistance Agency, is the worst thing a student can do. Going to college undecided to ‘find yourself’ can cost anywhere from $20,000-$50,000 annually. Doing this, depending on how long the student is undecided, can also add semesters or years before the student can graduate. This — especially if what students end up deciding is that they do not need college — leads to a tremendous waste of money.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the five and six-year graduation rates at four-year institutions have both gone up roughly five percent in the last nine years. Students overall are taking longer to graduate from college, raising costs of college by more than $40,000 in some cases. For example, at Ohio University, an in-state student would pay $11,000 a year extra in tuition if they stayed for a fifth or sixth year, and upward of $20,000 including living expenses. Out-of-state students would be hit even harder, having tuition and living expenses around $35,000 per extra year spent at OU. This contributes immensely to the growing college loan debt crisis.
When it comes down to it, this generation of college students puts finding their passion ahead of money. Changing their majors one or more times, students are delaying their graduation, knowing that it will increase their student loans. Is this wrong in any way? How can we blame anybody for wanting to be happy?
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This begs the question, how can we ensure students can graduate within four years so that they don’t rack up even more student loan debt, yet still graduate with the major they want? The answer that immediately comes to mind is that we must start at the high school level, so that students are surer of their major entering school. Allowing opportunities to high school juniors and seniors to explore potential areas of interest outside of the four main subjects is vital for them to discover their passion. The opportunities are there, but they are not known to high school students. Post-Secondary Enrollment, where high school juniors and seniors are able to take courses at a college in their area is incredibly useful. Most colleges also offer major-specific exploration days. How many current college students knew this was an option for them? Not many.
Changing societal norms and expectations is a huge step in raising four-year graduation rates and, in turn, alleviating student loan debt problems. Students don’t have to go to college simply because everyone else is. They certainly don’t have to go directly out of high school if they don’t know what they want to do. They should be able to take a gap year and explore rather than spend money to find themselves. It all starts with affording high school students every opportunity to search for their purpose whether it be college or not. Most 18-year-old, recent high school graduates don’t know what they want to do on their own. They need opportunities to explore in order to find their true passion in life.
Will Vosler is a junior studying accounting and sports management.
