Unfinished

[Alpha]

Why don't people complete their degree programs?
Why do people leave college without getting a degree? - WHYY

[rachel83az]

Not surprising that it mostly boils down to cost.

[dfrecore]

I will say, as someone who has seen thousands of transcripts and hundreds of evals, I also think people just aren't prepared to go to college when they graduate HS - they don't know what they want to do. They've spent zero time trying to figure it out. It really should be a high school course - "What do you want to do when you graduate?" and it should show college and it's costs, how to choose a major, CC-to-4yr, trade school, everything. Instead, we tell kids to go to college, but don't tell them how or why or help them figure it out.

When someone spends 2+ years (and I've seen closer to 8 or 10 years many times) doing GE courses, and then they go to a 4yr and spend 2+ years (and up to 4) taking courses and switching majors, sometimes multiple times, it's just not conducive to getting a degree of any kind. You really need to figure it out sooner rather than later.

I told both of my kids, I'm not sending you to a 4yr school until you can tell me what your major will be, what kind of job that leads to, what you will be doing for that job, what that job pays, how much it will cost to get that 4yr degree, etc. I'm not willing to stick my neck out financially, or let them stick out theirs, for a wishy-washy answer. Nope. You need to KNOW what you're doing before doing it!

[CatsDomino]

I will say, as someone who has seen thousands of transcripts and hundreds of evals, I also think people just aren't prepared to go to college when they graduate HS - they don't know what they want to do.  They've spent zero time trying to figure it out.  It really should be a high school course - "What do you want to do when you graduate?" and it should show college and it's costs, how to choose a major, CC-to-4yr, trade school, everything.  Instead, we tell kids to go to college, but don't tell them how or why or help them figure it out.

When someone spends 2+ years (and I've seen closer to 8 or 10 years many times) doing GE courses, and then they go to a 4yr and spend 2+ years (and up to 4) taking courses and switching majors, sometimes multiple times, it's just not conducive to getting a degree of any kind.  You really need to figure it out sooner rather than later.

I told both of my kids, I'm not sending you to a 4yr school until you can tell me what your major will be, what kind of job that leads to, what you will be doing for that job, what that job pays, how much it will cost to get that 4yr degree, etc.  I'm not willing to stick my neck out financially, or let them stick out theirs, for a wishy-washy answer.  Nope.  You need to KNOW what you're doing before doing it!

This really is spot on.  After raising two kids of my own (and being the mom all the friends came to for advice), I can tell you that most don't have a clue what they want to do after high school.  Luckily for kids in my small county, our administrators realized that their efforts to push all the kids into the 4-year college track wasn't working and they invested in the community college track through a partnership with a local CC that helps them get college credit in high school as well as invested in the vocational programs at school.  Not all people require a BS or BA to be successful or happy in their chosen field, and many of my acquaintance make a very comfortable living in HVAC, plumbing, and getting their 2-year ADN (RN).  

Like defrecore, I helped my children explore the various careers that interested them and the various paths to get there.  My oldest graduated debt free from community college with and AE (associate in engineering), got a great paying job at the place he interned with, and they paid for 100% of the last 2 years of his BS in electrical engineering.  My youngest started off at community college, got his AS, and transferred to a state school.  He's in in his senior year for computer science and will graduate debt free thanks to scholarships, working part-time, and saving on housing and a meal plan by living at home.  He also explored online options (FHSU was one), but he got so much scholarship money from the state university by applying like it was his full-time job for anything he remotely qualified for.

[LevelUP]

How does anyone know what they want to do without doing it first?

Kids want to go to the school their friends are going to or the school they think they'll have the most fun at.

Not much you can do about that.

[dfrecore]

How does anyone know what they want to do without doing it first?

Kids want to go to the school their friends are going to or the school they think they'll have the most fun at.

Not much you can do about that.

Some kids KNOW when they're very young what they want to do, or figure it out before they're high school graduates - but they are the minority.

Plenty of kids don't want to go to college at all, and even more are more than happy to go to the local CC.

What parents CAN do is give their kids more guidance, discuss costs, not agree to student loans, etc.  Parents have WAY more influence than you can imagine.  I got into Stanford, but after my parents saw the amount that I would have to take out in loans (and I could only do part, they'd have had to do the rest) and said "Sorry, but we'll have to figure out something else."  So we did.  There was no question that it just was not an option - I certainly couldn't do it myself, nor would I have done it when they said no.  I figured they knew more than I did.  My kids aren't so committed to going where their friends are going that they're willing to figure out how to foot the bill (neither can BTW, so that's an easy one).  My son's best friend is going 2 hours away (his dad has the GI bill for him), my son is already planning going to visit on a regular basis to enjoy the "college experience" without the cost or having to actually go to a 4yr school.

So the whole "not much you can do about that" is just plain wrong.  There is a LOT you can do if you want to.

[LevelUP]

So the whole "not much you can do about that" is just plain wrong.  There is a LOT you can do if you want to.

There's nothing you can do about it once that legal adult 18-year-old makes a decision what he/she wants to do.

[dfrecore]

So the whole "not much you can do about that" is just plain wrong.  There is a LOT you can do if you want to.

There's nothing you can do about it once that legal adult 18-year-old makes a decision what he/she wants to do.

Most parents of college kids hold the purse strings - they can tell their kids they won't support them in any way if they decide to take out loans (take the car, or stop paying for insurance, take the cell phone and not pay the monthly bills, not give them a cent, etc.).  They can not co-sign any loans, nor take out ParentPlus loans.  In essence, they can tell the kid their life will be pretty miserable with no help from mom & dad.  How is a kid who wants to go away for college going to pay for it, without any help from their parents?  The max you can take out for your freshman year is $3,500 subsidized and $2,000 unsubsidized.  $5,500 is not going to pay for tuition, room & board anywhere in the country (assuming they want to go away to school).  So I'm not sure where you think they're going to get the money to pay for this endeavor, but it's not going to be student loans.

The problem is that parents are as dumb about these things as the kids are.  They take out loans to "help" because there's no way the kid can do it themselves.  Take that off the table, and kids won't be able to get very far.

So again, sure, an 18-yo can "make a decision" but if the parents don't cooperate, there's not a lot that 18yo can do.  I know my almost 18yo wants to move out as soon as he graduates, and I'm like, "figure it out."  He's decided to live at home, work a FT and PT job over the summer, continue to stay home and work PT while he goes for his AAS at a local CC for 14 months, then he can move out.  He'll be 19 ½ and hopefully making good money with a bunch saved by then.  But once he sat down and crunched the numbers, he knew that he couldn't do anything on his own right away.  As long as we continue to say "we'll help pay for your education but not for a ridiculously overhyped 'college experience'" he's pretty much stuck here unless he wants to live in a cardboard box.

[LevelUP]

So the whole "not much you can do about that" is just plain wrong.  There is a LOT you can do if you want to.

There's nothing you can do about it once that legal adult 18-year-old makes a decision what he/she wants to do.

Most parents of college kids hold the purse strings - they can tell their kids they won't support them in any way if they decide to take out loans (take the car, or stop paying for insurance, take the cell phone and not pay the monthly bills, not give them a cent, etc.).  They can not co-sign any loans, nor take out ParentPlus loans.  In essence, they can tell the kid their life will be pretty miserable with no help from mom & dad.  How is a kid who wants to go away for college going to pay for it, without any help from their parents?  The max you can take out for your freshman year is $3,500 subsidized and $2,000 unsubsidized.  $5,500 is not going to pay for tuition, room & board anywhere in the country (assuming they want to go away to school).  So I'm not sure where you think they're going to get the money to pay for this endeavor, but it's not going to be student loans.

The problem is that parents are as dumb about these things as the kids are.  They take out loans to "help" because there's no way the kid can do it themselves.  Take that off the table, and kids won't be able to get very far.

So again, sure, an 18-yo can "make a decision" but if the parents don't cooperate, there's not a lot that 18yo can do.  I know my almost 18yo wants to move out as soon as he graduates, and I'm like, "figure it out."  He's decided to live at home, work a FT and PT job over the summer, continue to stay home and work PT while he goes for his AAS at a local CC for 14 months, then he can move out.  He'll be 19 ½ and hopefully making good money with a bunch saved by then.  But once he sat down and crunched the numbers, he knew that he couldn't do anything on his own right away.  As long as we continue to say "we'll help pay for your education but not for a ridiculously overhyped 'college experience'" he's pretty much stuck here unless he wants to live in a cardboard box.

Take away the Cell Phone?  Oh please. They can buy a new Cell Phone for under $100 and an unlimited talk/text + data plan for $15 a month.

Take the car away?  Well, they can buy a beater car for $1000.

Insurance? Who needs insurance? They got nothing to lose.

Room and Board?  Kids can live with roommates to save on rent.  Hardly a cardboard box.

Money?  $15 an hour jobs are everywhere now.  Even a part-time 30hr a week job would be paying $23,400 a year.  $23,400 + $5500 is a lot of money.

Kids could take 1-4 classes in college instead of the 5 classes and spend extra time doing all the CLEP's/DSSTs the college allows.  Kids could go around parents and create a GoFundMe page on Facebook asking other relatives for help explaining the situation their parents put them in.

Parents can try all they want, but determined kids will find a way to follow their hearts and dreams.

Slow them down?  Maybe

Stop them?  NOPE!!!

[Pats20]

Affordability for college , cell phones , rent , and food are mostly a middle class issue. These are not issues for the wealthy and there are a magnitude of programs out there to make sure the poor can go to college and have a cell phone. It’s unfortunate that the middle class continues to be squeezed to the breaking point. Yes kids can take 1 or 2 classes at a time , Yes they can delay graduating Increasing their chances of never completing  ,  yes they can give up their cell phones , I completely agree. That’s how it should be if necessary. It’s just unfortunate that has to happen so that someone else can get both for free.