Attending college for four plus years is the new norm

Michelle Hennessy – News Writer

NEW HAVEN, Conn – Only 49 percent of students entering college will graduate on time, if at all, according to Forbes.

According to Forbes’ website, more students are now taking five years to complete four-year programs resulting in an extra year of tuition fees and time in the classroom as opposed to in the work place.

Communications senior Jacklyn Jandreau said she thinks a lot of students that arrive as freshmen aren’t given enough guidance in the first year.

“You arrive and it’s just so overwhelming and such a big change that people don’t realize how much you can fall behind,” said Jandreau. “I think a lot of people end up dropping out or withdrawing from classes.”

She said advisors play a pivotal role for student graduation times, though there aren’t always enough.

“For the advertising major we only have around three for 350 students which isn’t enough,” said Jandreau. “We only get to meet with our advisors a few times a year and I think if they had more, more students would graduate on time.”

According to the Institute of Education Sciences, the six year graduation rate in 2005 was 57 percent in public institutions, 65 percent in private nonprofit institutions and 42 percent in private for-profit institutions.

Other students like Nicole Bairos, who double majors in secondary history education and special education, while also minoring in psychology, said she will only end up doing one extra semester. She said this is down to having a good advisor.

“A lot of advisors won’t tell you that you have to take a certain class before another class, so they don’t tell you about your prerequisites,” said Bairos. “I think they should just help out more. I have a really great one so I can’t complain but from what I hear from other people, they’re not always as lucky.”

Biology student Cheryl Cote highlights some of the other issues that hold students back from graduating.

“My major is bio and I’m a senior for like, forever. I’m going to be here for six years,” said SCSU student Cheryl Cote.

She said one of the biggest reasons why students at Southern struggle to stick to their four year plans is the number of transfer students who end up losing credit.

“I lost credits so that’s the thing,” said Cote. “I had 35 or so, nearly 40 credits and then they only took 15.”

She said the way Southern makes students take electives also slows down the process of graduating.

“I think Southern also makes you take a lot of BS classes that you don’t really need or they don’t count towards your degree at all,” said Cote. “I understand that they want to give us a liberal education but I feel like sometimes it’s a little bit ridiculous.”

Scheduling can also be a problem with students when they don’t know if classes will be available in the fall or spring which can mean students have to take a whole extra semester for one class, according to Cote.

“In biology I have the problem that most of the classes I need are only offered in the fall so if I want to register for them in spring I’m s**t out of luck,” said Cote. “I don’t think anything’s being done for it, I think Southern just likes keeping us here.”