Analysis of What Causes Students to Dropout of College
Education is a very important role in our lives. It measures our life chances and opens the window of many opportunites to success in. Our education institution not only teaches us how to write, read and communicate thoroughly, but also social skills that enable us to become a productive citizen of society. The U.S. have taken enormous pride of its ability to provide top-notch education and freedom of its access. Nowadays, more and more students are dropping out of college each year. Those who dropped out have various reasons such as due to lack of interest, finacnial incapability, and the need to work and provide for family. In what causes students to dropout of college essay we will discuss possible reasons and results of being dropped out of a college.
It's difficult for some studnts to get a good education. Dropping out of high school is a big issue as just as dropping out of college. The amount of work in college is another of the major factors in dropouts. Most students are unprepared for the rigorous academic effort required for college. Some students get through high school with little or no studying. Therefore, they will face the bitter truth of being completely unprepared once they get to college. One of the underlying reasons for lack of preparation to college is the fact that students at high schools are deprived from being challenged. Many students take classes that do not push them to exceed college level bar. They take inconsiderable classes to avoid homework and any thinking process required for that. When the students attend college, they are boggled by the difficulty of the classes. The students sometimes expect the professors to babysit them and excuse their missing work or an unattended test. However, college professors expect students to read and learn on their own outside of class. If the students don’t this, their grades will decline. A semester of bad grades usually discourages some of the students and ultimately causes them to quit college. This is something that I can personally connect to because when I first started [community] college, I knew it was going to be hard after high school by the amount of warnings my high school teachers said, but I didn't know how much harder it was.
There is a lot more freedom when it comes to college, such as the classes you take - how many you take a semester [part-time or full-time], online, in person a mixed hybrid of the two. It's really dependent on the teacher as well. Some teachers are lenienet and don't believe in giving out too much work and have the students take their time to get their work time [which can result in a bit of slacking and getting everything done last minute before all assignments are due] or are strict in their work but still expect the best out of their students. I had a mix of both effective teachers.
Also, a lack of financial support makes it nearly impossible for students to pay for college. Specifically, parents that struggle with their jobs and are unemployed have trouble supporting their child through college. Some students do not have the financial support from their parents to pay for college and try to use loans to cover their tuition. Students sometimes get overwhelmed in debt and dropout before getting buried in it. Students also take out part time jobs or engage in work-study. They soon realize that they cannot handle the college workload and the job at the same time. From the article Why Do Students Drop Out of College? by Mark Kantrowitz, he says 'Many students who drop out of college have to work while enrolled in college. They often find it very difficult to support themselves and their families and go says 'Many go to college at the same time.... lacking adequate support from parents and student aid'. He follows up by saying that “they often find it very difficult to support themselves and their families and go to college at the same time.' The Hechinger Reports' article '3.9 Million Students Dropped Out of College With Debt in 2015 and 2016' says that those who drop out of collge is due to student debt. 'They took out loans to go to school, hoping for a better life. But without college degrees, many don't find good jobs to help pay back these loans.' Because of these loans, most are unable to pay them back, no matter how small or large they are.
Adding on to this, another article Characteristics of Early Community College Dropouts by Peter Crosta makes brief mention that says 'Dropouts about 40% less likely than early persisters to receive financial aid or a Pell award in their first term of study. This finding also reflects age differences, as older students were less likely to receive
federal financial support than traditional-age students.' This may be assumed because students who are older than 24 are considered automatically independent. Independent undergraduate students are eligible for increased unsubsidized Stafford loan instead. But there are restrictions based on educational background. LikeA student who has already earned a bachelor's degree or first professional degree is no longer considered an undergraduate student and is ineligible for the Pell Grant. However, such a student is still eligible for federal education loans and work-study. 'Older students face substantial challenges. Compared with younger students, they are more likely to be married, working, have children. Older students thus have tighter time and financial constraints.'
Most are working part-time [and full-time] to support themselves, their familties and paying down these debts, which at times will lead to intrudion of school hours, homework, no time for studing, especially to major exams and various school actiivities which can lead to failing grades. I once told myself that I wouldn't personally take out any loans. But, eventually I did. I didn't want to but I need to. Just to only pay for the semester's tuition and textbooks only. It wasn't a large amount in the ten digits, but definitely four digit amount. It's not something I'm honestly stressing over as much as other people, but I don't want this student debt to get too high to where I won't be able to pay it off by the time I am done with school. So while the interest is accuring now, I still made bi-weekly, sometimes monthly payments to chip slowly away at it whenever I can. There were definitely times where I had the lack of funds to attend a semester of class or two so I did withdraw and drop my classes for that semester even if I had a small amount of Financial Aid to cover [even though it wasn't enough to pay for my textbooks]. I only work part-time while attending school full-time. I don't have any real family obligations [i.e. dependent children], but I do feel like my current work place can somtimes interefere with my school work, studying, and schedule [even if my classes are currently online] beccause I mostly work evenings during the week and one morning shift during the weekend.
Furthermore, many students become homesick and get tied to family commitments. Students that end up going to a college far from home, tend to miss family, friends and relatives. They can lose focus on college and travel home more often. The students are most likely to drop out of college and enroll in a community college near home instead. Students with families to support have to put their family and children first, which is more important than their classes. For example, students have to take care of their struggling family and attend college. Some have babies and children and they have to hold a job while also studying. Sometimes that becomes overwhelming for the student to where the student will start dropping classes and college. I do not have any real family commitments [no dependent children], I do live close to campus. I could not imagine living so far away and taking a long commute from home and school and work every day. I mostly rely on public transportation or walking as it's very beneficial to me. But that's also a downside because that alone will give me the excuse of not attending calsses because I live so close.
Moreover, it is often the case that students pick wrong colleges to attend and wrong majors to master. For instance, some people can become overwhelmed by a large number of students on campus causing them to leave the college. Students may begin to experience negative feelings towards college as a result of their uncomfortable state; and the effects of this are likely to occur in the classrooms. One of the oldest problems with education is choosing a wrong major. For example, students who want to go into the medical field will need to struggle through the variety of biological courses and suddenly realize that this is not something they want to do. If they are too late to change their major the students are likely to get frustrated as they face the career they don’t like. This scenario is far too wide-spread to neglect it. It is important to help young people choose the field of study that suits their abilities and potential. When I first got accepted into community college, I didnt know what I wanted to do. I took many regular general education classes, and then random classes just to see what they were like. My very first major I chose was Art. I was a very artistic person back in high school and had kept up with drawing and painting. Of course, I realize Art was something that was not a very valuable degree for me int he future so I eventually switched to Psychology.
I feel like Psychology is a major that people chose because it's, in a way, easy. There's definitely a lot fo things that can be done with Psychology but most of thsoe professions require a higher degree that's not an Associate's. But eventually, I changed that too. Mty current major right now is Accounting. Only because I took the intro class out of interest and I found myself doing pretty well. I took Finaical and Managerial, a Intro to Business course that is required for my degree and did well in those classes too. But I feel like I want to change my major again and this only because I think I found something that I've been interested in a long time: Healthcare. Both fields are very valuable and it's soemthign I definitely have to choose. I was thinking of just finishing and pushing myself through my Accounting major, grauduate, and then return to persue something in Healthcare afterwards, because, why not both? Both professions will always need people to work.
Finally, students have family emergences that affect them at college. A death in the family, an unplanned pregnancy or a chronic health problem can all occur out of nowhere. For instance, if a student’s family member has a stroke and is in need for critical care the student will likely dropout of college to take care of a family member. To avoid dropping out, the students need to be careful when choosing a college with good academic leave programs. It is beneficial when colleges allow the students to have flexible schedules and possibility to have an academic leave without any academic penalty. Although students who do drop out of college, do at some point plan to return in the future.
To conclude, dropping out is caused by many factors and is increasing by every year that goes by. Students need to be part of the college in order to be comfortable and lower the chances of dropping out. Many factors and boundaries prevent students from staying in the colleges, but some necessary chances in education to improve college level readiness and rules to prevent students from partying could help decrease dropout rate.
