It’s not a widespread problem per se, but it’s probably one of those problems that are exacerbated when students change majors a lot or don’t have well thought out plans on how to get out in 4 years. For a lot of programs at many schools, the faculty available is limited and this means that course selection is also limited. If you switch into a long program in, say, spring of junior year you might not be able to start your prerequisite courses for that program until next fall when there are professors available to teach them. It’s a problem that can be managed in many instances but not every college has the resources to offer unlimited sections of every course that everyone might need every semester/quarter, especially for a smaller school and a school that doesn’t try to restrict people from changing concentrations or majors freely.
I have a hard time really buying that there’s an epidemic of kids staying in college an extra two years to avoid 8 am classes though. When I hear about people getting in college for extra years it’s usually situations like the article listed – someone changing focus, someone working full time and taking classes part time, someone withdrawing temporarily, someone having academic challenges. I’m sure there are some people coasting in college and wasting an extra $50,000 to avoid Friday classes but it’s probably even less common than the other excuses mentioned.
Dmitiri- I have no idea how many kids are taking an extra semester to graduate, but when my company recruits on campus, (and we are considered a highly desirable employer) it is tough filling the 8-10 am interview slots on Friday. Our interview days are always oversubscribed, and we assign slots pretty much randomly, but the recruiting assistants are constantly amused by the number of students who claim they have a conflict at 8 am and need a 1 pm slot.
I think there is a large number of students on campus who expect to be incapacitated early Friday morning. Nothing says “I am ready to be a grownup” like showing up at 7:55 am on a Friday for a job interview! Don’t claim you’ve got a statistics class which meets early Friday morning- we know how to check the online course schedule to see!!!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure people slack off sometimes. I just find it hard to believe that there are a bunch of people spending $50,000 and spending extra years in college to avoid having to wake up Friday morning. There’s lazy and then there’s crazy, and to me it just makes more sense that people are getting in these ‘student loan debacles’ for reasons that are more complicated than not wanting to wake up early.
I realize that it’s probably not possible to really verify this either way though – the articles that talk about graduation rates rarely talk about the ‘whys’ in that much detail.
If parents are denied PLUS, students can take out $57.5K in Direct Loans. If that same student got maximum Perkins loans on top of that, we are talking another $5K in student loans, maybe more, right there. A lot of those Direct Loans are not subsidized, so the interest start right on racking up, the instant the money is disbursed. By the time the first payment is due, we are talking easily close to $70K in loans by the time the first payment is due. Get some deferrals due to no job, no income with the interest meter ticking, and it doesn’t take long to hit the 6 figure point in owing.
"Couldn't get the classes they needed" is probably a blame deflecting excuse for students who did not want to take full course loads or take 8am sections, did not properly plan their prerequisite sequencing for their majors, or changed major too late.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, very likely.
The PSU situation mentioned above is likely more of an outlier. Most families can’t/won’t spend an extra $8k over the summer for a child to take a class. A class at a CC or online program is more likely an option. (and what class costs $8k at a public? even with R&B that is too much. Was the student OOS?)
cpt, that is correct … and it’s possible that articles talking about debt in excess of $100k could be using not amounts borrowed, but amounts currently owed (including accumulated interest).
Stories like these are making exceedingly grateful to the NMSC competition - I do not want to get into debt going to college. Granted that I am going into aerospace engineering, which I hope is a little more useful than PolSci, but still… stories like this are frightening.
Poli Sci is incredibly useful. Brush up on your critical thinking and reading skills if your takeaway from this story is that Poli Sci is a useless major.
One of the unfortunate aspects of this story is that he is not even using his major. He is working at Home Depot - most likely in a position that does not even require a college degree!
@rockvillemom, I have a young cousin who accepted a scholarship (I think ROTC) that came with an obligation of military service. By the time he graduated, he decided he didn’t want to go into the military after all and his full ride was instantly converted to a large debt. Total speculation, but perhaps something like that happened with this student.