Why It Takes So Long To Earn a Bachelor’s Degree
Prior to reading the article below, I had my own theory as to why it takes more than four years for students to earn a bachelor’s degree. It all comes down to money. I included a few more factors in my theory, but I was mostly right in line with the study. Basically, higher tuition, decreased school budgets, a depressed economy, an increased population of young adults hell bent on pursuing a college education (because they’ve been told since birth that only educated humans will ever make enough money) mean more time spent earning a degree.
I was scared like a little girl to look up tuition rates for 1972 and present day, so I don’t have that information for you. My cojones are a force to be reckoned with, but I do have my limits. Eviscerating tuition hikes are one of them. But I think it’s common knowledge that tuition rates have increased since 1972, the economy is less than healthy, more kids head for college these days, and school budgets have been cut many, many times.
The crappier the economy is, the more the school budgets are cut, which leads to increased tuition and fewer faculty and staff. Higher tuition means more working for students and a decreased course load, leading to a longer stay in college. Less budget money means fewer instructors, fewer courses offered, and a more difficult time for the students to get into the classes they need in order to graduate, leading again to more time spent earning that bachelor’s degree.
According to the study, the fact that bachelor’s degree acquisition takes longer than four years is due to the type of institution a student attends; higher tier state schools and private schools vs. community colleges and lower tier state schools. Institution type and how a given school is affected by, and subsequently deals with, decreased funding is what it all comes down to.
Top-level schools with better faculty-to-student ratios offer an improved learning experience for the students. This gets them in and out in a more four-year manner. Public schools, like community colleges and state schools, cram a few more kids into every classroom, which decreases the learning experience and mucks up the four-year works. Hence, four years to complete an undergraduate degree at a top-tier school and closer to six years at a lower-tier school.
Interesting. And I don’t totally buy it. I mean, I understand what the study is saying and how a decrease in funding can affect the learning experience. But I think there are more factors involved. A students-per-faculty ratio of 25.5 to 1 vs. 29.8 to 1 is enough to cause the learning experience to suffer so much that two more years are tacked onto the end of the original four-year bachelor’s degree plan? Really? Or, you know, maybe, the less-than top tier schools are more selective when choosing faculty, staff, and students, and have a lot more private financial backing than do the community colleges and state schools. Less crowding, supah-focused students, publish-or-perish faculty, and enough cash to be able to keep both the crowding and the lay-offs down to a minimum.
Any institution relying on public funding has historically been screwed when the economy hits the crapper. And may I remind everyone that in 1972, the helicopter parent insanity hadn’t quite begun. Although parents were starting to push the importance of a college education, it was nowhere near the life-or-death situation that it is today: College or sweatshop-work, kiddo. You pick!
These days, there are more college students in the system and no one has money to pay for all that education, not the parents, not the kids, and certainly not the schools. Loans and financial aid are harder to nail down as well. I really don’t think it has only to do with a few more students per classroom and whether or not a student hits the higher education jackpot and manages to attend a top-tier school.
Here’s the summary from the study:
Time to completion of the baccalaureate degree has increased markedly in the United States over the last three decades, even as the wage premium for college graduates has continued to rise. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of the High School Class of 1972 and the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988, we show that the increase in time to degree is localized among those who begin their postsecondary education at public colleges outside the most selective universities. In addition, we find evidence that the increases in time to degree were more marked amongst low income students. We consider several potential explanations for these trends. First, we find no evidence that changes in the college preparedness or the demographic composition of degree recipients can account for the observed increases. Instead, our results suggest that declines in collegiate resources in the less-selective public sector increased time to degree. Furthermore, we present evidence of increased hours of employment among students, which is consistent with students working more to meet rising college costs and likely increases time to degree by crowding out time spent on academic pursuits.
Posted by Alexa Harrington
I would advance that the root of the difficulty, or, at least one of the roots, is the idea that one may own a degree. The elaboration of “earning” a degree, as if this were some task of work, a job as it were, follows directly from that idea.
As originally constituted the degree was conferred by the college (university) based on a student attaining a level of knowledge, comprehension, expression, and creativity. These were usually cumulatively observed in written and oral examinations by a board of other attained or degreed individuals. In most instances this did not involve the enumeration of books read, classes attended, or courses endured, but individual response to individualized questions.
The evolution of the degree from a bestowed thing to an acquired thing carries with it economic and social forces that transform into something similar to a prison sentence. Instead of being altered by incarceration, the period is more something to be endured or even short circuited. College attendance is similar. Most students are uninterested in education, only in degree. Designation of a minimum or normal period to attain a degree has become a period of imprisonment to be endured. Learning, much less comprehension or creativity, are channeled only into directions that ameliorate the period of incarceration, not attainment.
Great post! As a working college student, it most definitely took me longer…..the 2-time major change didn’t help, either
The stresses that a college student faces could also be a factor. Money, parental pressure and time management all play into the fact that students need more time to complete a degree. Finding a university and a degree program that best suits you is the first step to succeeding and graduating.
@TTU_BGS