Complete College America is a non-profit formed to address the obvious problem of students attending but, seemingly, never graduating with a marketable education. Among the group's publications is the "Four-Year Myth."

Are you operating under the delusion of that myth?

I can't recount how many parents (especially dads) have assured me, "I've told my kid 4 years -- that's it!" Then what? With your students and you into the thing at costs approaching, if not exceeding, six figures are you really going to abandon it? Can you send your children off into the workplace with "some college" as their resume enhancement? In this and several, successive entries I will summarize and comment on the key points.

First: In American higher education, it has become the accepted standard to measure graduation rates at four-year colleges on a six-year time frame. . . .  As lifetime savings are depleted and financial aid packages run out, the extra time on campus means even more debt, and for far too many students, additional semesters do not result in a degree or credential.


There are two, primary reasons students do not finish a "four-year degree" in four years.

• Changing majors mid-stream
• Transferring between colleges even from a community college to a four-year institution.

Think about those:

• How can you reach your destination when you don't know where, from the outset, you're going? Succeed Where It Counts, Inc. offers each student the opportunity to complete a Birkman Assessment. Some parents resist the idea that their 16-year-old can have any clear idea of a career, but the evidence indicates otherwise. Teenagers not only can, but in fact, should know their strengths, weaknesses, aptitudes and interests as measured through an objective, scientific tool. If nothing else, such a strategy offers the opportunity for teens to break free from the trap of less-than-helpful peer influence. Every high school student should be applying for college admission based on a clear sense of career direction from the outset.
• Another vital component to achieving four-year success is research on, and visits to every college under serious consideration.
  • Does the school offer the major you seek?
  • Is that academic major a flagship program, or one of the "we offer that, too" after thoughts?
  • Do you like the campus?  Geography, architecture, campus life and other factors of personal taste matter a lot when you consider that the college you attend will be your place of residence and work for four years 24/7.
  • Meet the professors in your proposed major subject. Are they friendly, approachable, persons with whom you otherwise would be comfortable associating? How do you know? A campus visit.
  • Talk to current students and ask what it is they love and what it is they're not so crazy about. How do you do that? A campus visit.

Next blog will address the hidden costs of extended stays in college. For now we'll leave it with this quote from Complete College America.
However, something is clearly wrong when the overwhelming majority of
public colleges graduate less than 50 percent of their full-time students in four years.
Current on-time graduation rates suggest that the "four-year degree" . . .  [has] become little more than modern myths for far too many of our students. The reality is that our system of higher education costs too much, takes too long, and graduates too few.