Global Economic Crisis

In what’s become a brutal and cutthroat rat race for employment, young professionals need every possible advantage to land a job, which is why a college degree is almost essential on a resume these days. So why would students jeopardize their futures and give up on school, especially when landing a job is so difficult? Evidently, they have their reasons.

Academic Unpreparedness

Too often, high school students are able to scrape through class, only to get into academically challenging universities on the strength of their extracurricular activities or family legacies. Unfortunately, they arrive on campus unprepared for the piles of assignments and long hours in the library – and ultimately decide to opt out.

Financial difficulty

It’s no secret that the cost of post-secondary education loans are astronomical. Many college students rely on scholarship money or federal and state grants to cover tuition expenses. When the economy bottomed out in 2008 and 2009, a lot of those funds dried up, leaving dependent students unable to continue coursework.

Switching Majors

Many students choose schools based on course offerings and future plans. But what happens when a freshman in a nationally recognized engineering program decides he or she wants to pursue creative writing or theatre performance? Often, switching majors can lead to switching schools – which can lead to such a paperwork and financial nightmare that a student never earns a degree.

Full Time Employment

Especially for students paying their own tuition and simultaneously maintaining full-time employment and a full course load, the paying job takes precedence when their schedules become too hectic.

Party Hardy

This self-explanatory reason why college students drop out is tragically common, and completely preventable.

Homesickness

Ambitious high school seniors plan to travel far from home and conquer the world with that shiny new diploma, only to miss Mom and Dad, hometown friends and free 24-hour access to a washer and dryer once they settle into campus across the country.

Heartbreak

Whether a long term high school relationship newly on the rocks thanks to long distances, or new college love gone wrong, a badly broken heart can send both young women and men packing for home.

Family Hardship

A sick grandparent, move, or layoff in the family all cause emotional and financial shifts that sometimes require college students to move home.

Lack of Structure and Schedule

Over-scheduled high school students often have trouble adjusting to college life, where class doesn’t start until 12 noon and there’s no soccer, field hockey, voice lessons and calculus tutoring sessions to attend.

Lack of Guidance and Mentors

Young adults accustomed to constant attention from parents, older siblings and school guidance counselors often find themselves lost on campus, where their class schedule and future rest solely on their shoulders.

Most employers in today’s tough job market expect that traditional four-year degree on job seekers’ resumes. If you’re thinking about going back to school to take control of your finances, you may want to consider an online degree alternative to forgo all the hardship above. To land a lucrative career, it’s certainly in students’ best interest to stay enrolled in college – that is, if it’s a good fit, and that student has the financial means and the academic prowess.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 19th, 2010 at 5:44 am and is filed under Money Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.