Economy Extends College Career by Two Years

Most people think that when students are applying to colleges, they are looking for the most prestigious school; students must want to go to the school that offers the best degrees for their fields. However, this isn’t really the case.
A new study by Public Agenda said that students are more concerned with how much an education will end up costing them than with the prestige associated with each school.
The study also revealed that once more than half of these students get into their “dream” school, they usually take six years to graduate. This is not because they are changing their major multiple times or spending too many nights at the bar, but because they cannot afford to go to school as full-time students. Many attend school for a semester or two, then drop out and find a job until they have saved enough money to pay for the next few classes.
Why is this trend occurring? It is mostly due to the economic recession we are currently in, experts say. Parents are not able to help their students financially, and students cannot afford to attend classes full-time and pay for other living expenses. Therefore, their only options are to take out loans and graduate with a ton of student loan debt, or work their way through college and graduate later than they had expected.
Via The Dallas Morning Star