While listening to the radio the other day, I heard an advertisement for CenturyLink’s 5 year price lock in that attempted to compare how long of time that is to something we deal with every day. What did they compare it to? Your kid could graduate from college in that time….. or they could graduate in 7 years. That was supposed to be the funny part, but it totally distracted me from whatever they were trying to sell me after that point because I was slightly stunned that 5 years is now how long a Bachelors Degree is “supposed” to take.
Over the generation from my older sibling to my youngest siblings going through college (in a span of just over 10 years) the expectations of how long getting a degree has added on a complete year. Do I think that they are getting a better education or the requirements are becoming more stringent? Absolutely not. Even though the average college student is taking much longer to complete their degree they are actually doing less to get the same piece of paper.
Are the College students getting lazier? The professors? Or is it a problem with lowered expectations across the board? Maybe, I am unfairly picking on younger generations due to their perceived laziness? What do you think?
1. College students are less prepared.
2. Colleges do not help to properly assist students in their pursuit of an undergraduate degree which usually means that students have to take extra classes they didn’t realize they had to take until they applied for graduation.
3. Part of #2 above is that UG students do not know what they want to do and are improperly ushered through required courses for a program in which they may change at a later time. Thus after year two they make the decision to move to something else and have 27 useless credits.
Why are the students less prepared? Most of these student’s parents had children and had a lifetime career before the age many of these students will solidify there choice to be a business major.
Many colleges are trying to force these students to be “prepared” by making them take semester long college orientation classes. Many of these kids probably just aren’t college material, yet can spend 7 years at a University because the availability of loans, scholarships, and parental bank accounts.
They are less prepared for a variety of reasons but the biggest is simply that they are not getting the educations they should be at the secondary level yet receive degrees none-the-less.
Colleges want more tuition money.
This is part of it but it’s not as big as you’d like to believe.