Okay, the title is a little hyperbolic, I just thought it sounded good.

However, that aside, this post is about the college dropout rate in America. In general, 30% of first-year students will drop out from their chosen college. Another study also found that 51% of college students dropped out because of financial issues. These numbers are staggeringly higher for students who are the first in their family to attend college (89% dropout rate).

What do these all mean? Well, I don’t know, it’s not my field. What I do know, is that this is an issue close to me and it scares me, a lot. This is close to me because my oldest sister, Colleen, dropped out of Temple University.

I’ve watched this weigh on her a lot. She is eight years older than me, so it’s been about 10 years since she felt she couldn’t do it, or whatever her motivation was. The funny thing is that, in Colleen’s case, she doesn’t talk about what it felt like, or why she did it, or any of the other thousands of questions you can ask someone who drops out of college. I don’t think I’d want to talk about it either. It feels like something America makes you feel ashamed of. I don’t think there’s a reason to feel ashamed, though. I understand the idea of the shame of dropping out., especially considering that there is a mentality that a college degree is the only way to be successful or get anywhere in life.

THIS ISN’T TRUE.

With my sister’s loans, my first gripe with the higher education system, she ends up living a life of few extras or many wants without my parent’s help. However, had she not had to sign up for a life of debt to enter college, she would be making a considerable earning with her salary without a college degree. College degrees don’t mean the only path to success, and my sister has shown you can get a good and decent paying job without a college degree. The problem is that somebody shouldn’t have to.

How can this be fixed? Honestly, I’m sure there’s a lot of people with a lot of solutions a lot better than mine. So I’m not sure how one would fix this issue. I think considering the statistic of income based dropouts, significant drops in loan requirements and college costs would probably alleviate some of the stress on these students. I know it would alleviate my stress of wondering whether I’ll be able to come back next year. But, these problems don’t fully account for all of the dropouts, so what accounts for the rest?

Well, I think a big part of college dropout numbers is that perhaps some people aren’t made for the college formula. Classes everyday, and intense pressure to succeed, and most definitely piles of work and exams on top of each other from every class is most definitely not for everyone. It’s really not the forte or favorite activity of most people, as far as I know. So maybe, to avoid college dropouts, there could be an imposition of workload limits to alleviate stress of these students with 4 exams in one day and 200+ pages of reading.

College dropouts can be avoided by a number of programs, I’m sure, but alleviating immense stress loaded on the shoulders of teenagers and young adults is a great place to start.