It’s no secret that college students are taking more than four years to complete their bachelor’s degree. A study done by Complete College America less than fifty percent of colleeg students finish their degree in four years.

What’s causing young people to take so long to complete their bachelor’s degree. The cost of college continues to rise so wouldn’t it make sense for students to actually start and finish in reasonable time. Well it’s not that simple every student has their own story and reasons. So for this blog we are going to break down student into group A, B, C and D.

Group A students might be forced to pay their own education. The parents may not being able to contribute financially and with tuition increasing every year some students might have to work two or even three jobs just to keep up with expenses . Let’s say that we have a do an observational test where a student (y variable) has a full time job and is a full time student (x variable) at the same time. This means  more work means less time to do homework and study.  The end result low performance in academically. There is a correlation between an increase in the number of hours worked and poor academic performance.

Group B students may decide to switch their major by the end of junior year which will require even more time in school. Then there are other students that double or triple majoring. So that becomes double the amount of credits that need to be completed by the end of senior year.

According to the Hechinger report the  recommended amount of credits that a student  should take each semster is 15 in order to graduate on time. Taking less than 15 credits means that students are more likely to graduate within six or seven years.

Group C student may decide to transfer to another university. Then the problem arises when only three quarters of their credits are accepted. This means that some have to retake a class again in order to satisfy a specific requirement for a major. This also means that students will have to take an extra semester or two in order to complete all of the credits required for their major.  Another correlation lack of accepted credits means more time in school.

Accroding to the Hechinger report, government officials are doing  experiments to see if offering more aid will encourage students to complete their bachelor’s degree within four years. It’s rolling out in a few states across America.

Group D are kids that might feel lost because they don’t really want to attend college in the first place. Their parents forced them or they just followed their peers when it came time to decide what university they were going to spend the next four years at.

Now how are we going to help Groups A-D make it to the end goal of graduation. Well there are few things that can help. One make sure students that talk to their advisors about their major and any other issues in cthat they are having are more likely to stay on track. This is especially important for first year students. Next make sure that students are actually interested in what they are studying.

It important that students get the right  support from the beginning so they won’t get left behind come graduation time.