Editorial: Graduating in four years is so high school

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons

 FIUSM Staff

Students that find themselves still in college after four years shouldn’t fret about not walking across the stage sooner.

Not only do the majority of college students in the United States not graduate in four years, according to an analysis by FindTheBest as cited in the Huffington Post, but college students who delay graduation may benefit more in the future.

The University’s initiative — a direct result of the Board of Governor’s new performance funding model — is to have students graduate within four years. In that time, University officials maintain that students will apply their knowledge through internships and other job opportunities, increasing their chance of a post-graduate job.

While only about 28 percent of college grads in Florida get their diploma in four years, more than half do within six years.

Completing a four-year program throughout six years can be attributed to numerous factors.

“Many of our students work. They take longer to graduate because they work,” said Stephen Sauls, vice president of Governmental Relations, in an interview with FIUSM.

University students work part-time and even full-time jobs, not just to cover living expenses, but to pay for school — and employers value this juggling of responsibilities.

No matter if a student works at CVS and studies something unrelated to retail or medicine, employers and peers alike will respect a person with a strong work ethic and ability to budget their funds to pay for school, more than a “straight A student” whose greatest achievement is graduating college within the anticipated four years.

Some students have families to look after, which makes studying full-time a challenge or not an option. Others put off graduating to complete internships in their respective fields — opportunities sometimes only available to them because they are enrolled at a university.

The idea is that students are better off taking longer than four years to complete a four-year program so they have time to gain experience in their fields and leave college with more than a diploma in hand.

However, that isn’t to say students can’t get in and out in four years with decent grades and several internships under their belts.

The altered ranges of graduation times are reflected in our own e-board.

Sofia Galiano, editor for At the Bay, graduated high school in 2011 and will be graduating fall 2015 — within the four years. Meanwhile, Opinion Director Diego Saldana-Rojas also expects to graduate in 2015 and was in the high school graduating class of 2010. Editor-in-Chief Junette Reyes also shares the same issue as Saldana-Rojas.

In the end, it’s a matter of what you are willing to sacrifice: time or money. Just make sure the time spent in college will pay off by propelling you into the workforce.

eboard@fiusm.com