Job-hunting has become the “real-life Hunger Games” for students

Sophia Sanchez/Contributing Writer

2020: It’s the golden dream year. It’s the year I will have an impressive résumé to capture the attention of prospective employers, the year I expect to be more competent than ever before and the year of my graduation. This is what I have been told, at least.

A study conducted by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center has me believing otherwise. It says that less than half of millennials enrolled in public universities, full- time, are meeting the four-year-graduation goal.

This means that more and more students are falling behind and are not graduating on time; most of them taking up to five years or more to get their bachelor’s degree. More people are enrolled at universities than ever before, but they aren’t graduating.

There is, in fact, a decline in graduation rates as the pressures of college life begins to take its toll on students. Their 2020 comes and goes with discouragement in the air. The image of their classmates in their caps and gowns doesn’t act as an incentive for them to get busy studying, instead, it’s a disheartening one.

As more students enroll in college than ever before, the bachelor’s degree loses its value, and competition in the workforce increases tenfold. It becomes the real-life “Hunger Games,” and there is no feasible way of stopping it.

In the study, tuition costs, student loans, and college preparation are the main reasons for graduation decline. College tuition costs are higher, and students are paralyzed beneath the crushing weight of their loan debts.

As students miss their graduation mark, they begin dropping out of school altogether. The cost, paired with the pressure, becomes more than they can handle and they decide to never reach their 2020. Suddenly, all those years in high school preparing for the immense tidal wave of collegiate level exams, essays, and classes begin to pale in comparison to the numbers presented in this study.

And then, on top of the devastating news that I could possibly not graduate within my prescribed four years, the study went on to inform me that students who don’t meet the four year requirement are hurting the nation’s stance in the global economy.

When did I, a 19-year-old from Miami, Florida, become responsible for the nation’s fiscal ranking in the world? When I enrolled in college, I suppose. The study credits students who don’t finish college as deterrents to the technologically advancing global economy. And with numbers like that, how is anyone supposed to feel any sort of encouragement?

It’s up to each one of us as students to make the right choices that will lead us to our 2020 with our shining degrees in hand. Never mind the fact that just a few short months ago, I was required to ask my teachers if I could use the restroom during class. I am an adult now, and I have to start acting like it.

My 2020 is just around the bend, I can make it. I will make it. I’m not biting off more than I can chew, and I’m not embarking on a mission to drive america’s global economy to the ground. I will make it to graduation, and maybe I’ll do it in 2019.

 

DISCLAIMER:

The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of FIU Student Media Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.

 

Image retrieved from Flickr.

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