Interesting Report on Why Students Fail to Finish College
Yesterday (December 9), Public Agenda released With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them, a report funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which explores the reasons why college students drop out prior to completing their studies and earning their degrees. There is an interesting YouTube companion piece that presents some personal stories that reflect the report’s themes.
The report is worth a quick read, which I have given it, and deserves a deeper dive, which I will give it when time permits. It sets out four pairs of myths and realities which contrast what one often hears in public policy debates about why students leave school with the truths the students themselves report. It begins by presenting a clearer picture of today’s college students: in the workforce more than 20 hours per week, only a small percentage (about a quarter) enjoying the traditional residential college experience, and a quarter with dependent children.
These students are on their own and are more stressed by trying to balance family, work, and school responsibilities than is often assumed in the public discourse about higher education. Moreover, most students see their choices about higher education as narrow and constrained, and they do not have as good an understanding as they should have about the long-term impact of not completing their course of study. They leave because the immediate pressures they feel, including financial concerns, outweigh in their minds the longer term costs of dropping out, which they may not fully understand.
As to why students leave, the outcomes of this study are consistent with our experience at Concord Law School. Our exit surveys report that work and family considerations - not the quality of the curriculum and faculty, cost, or the online nature of the program - are the primary reasons students leave. And our students are more likely to be in their 40s than their 30s and are all college graduates when they come to us (indeed, approximately 40 percent of our students have already earned another graduate degree prior to enrolling at Concord).
Inside Higher Education makes an interesting point about the results of the study: “Young adults who attended college but left without graduating are likelier to attribute their departure to the need to work and make money than to the price of college. They also say that to get students like them to go to college, colleges and policy makers should focus as much on flexible scheduling and financial aid for part-time students as on cutting college prices.” Another interesting point is how much higher those surveyed score “having more classes in the evenings and on weekends” as a means to improve access compared to “put more classes online.” Those of us who are passionate about online learning still have a ways to go, even with students seeking more flexible study programs, to make clear how helpful online programs (full degree, blended, or just the occasional online course in a primarily residential program) can be in our overall system of higher education.
11 Responses to “Interesting Report on Why Students Fail to Finish College”
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Interesting Report on Why Students Fail to Finish College
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I would be curious to know how many students drop out because their needs are not met. My understanding is that federal law states that schools must have programs in place to assist those with developmental delays or learning disabilities. I have Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of high functioning autism. When I dropped out of school I had a 3.8 GPA. I was told for 3 semesters that someone would contact me to assist me with my courses, and no one ever did. In order to get the grades that I did I had to work an average of about 6 hours a day. With some assistance (someone to help explain what was expected of me in any given assignment for example), I probably could have cut that time in half. With the demands of three children and a military husband, most of those hours were done at night which caused me to get very little sleep. This made life too difficult. I feel that schools of Higher Education should be held more accountable for their assistance programs, even if it means that additional fees are to be paid by the student for things such as tutoring by someone familiar with the students area of learning disability. Conventional means of education don’t work for everyone. The online environment is great in many ways, but we (as a society) still have to continue to strive to reach a broader population and make higher education less intimidating to those who could otherwise be very successful.
Thanks for the comment, Michelle. You raise an important question. This survey, as far as I can determine, did not zero in on it.
Laws do require colleges and universities to provide appropriate support to students who need special support. Those where I have worked, in my view, do a very good job of trying to provide it.
You are correct to observe that the conventional does not work well for everyone. Technology can help us do better, not only by providing online options but also in supporting students in residential programs.
Those of us in higher education need to be ever aware of how we can better serve individuals such as you who want and would benefit from the programs that we offer
I am totally blind have bipolar disorder. I had some mental health issues at my first college. I did a medical withdrawal and moved away from my home town, I was then homeless for a while and things got better when i found a new apartment in fact that apartment sits between the home town i grew up in and where my first college is. One thing that holds me back from returning to college is this accessibility my first college was great about that. I went to a community college where i live, I had some more issues with a relationship i was in and transportation to college. They said i could withdraw from classes but demanded part of my refund from the department of ed from the left over money of my pel grant. When i did the withdraw they said no penalty i call that a penalty. So, I cannot get a transcript from them unless I come up with nine-hundred dollars. There is currently no services for someone with a mental illness that i know of. I would have done online with grand canion university but rehab for the blind would not of covered that. I am not sure what the department of ed would say, I owe the community college part of my refund from the department of ed. Honestly, how would you pay them? I get $674 a month how am i supposed to cover that my bills back credit cards and the student loan i took out with my first college! I just do not understand how anyone would not have a solution. The loan is subsidized so is my rent however people do not think of debt for disabled people as being crippling. It is though because we often have no way to pay the bills. I tried getting a job, but with no college degree no work experience and my blindness thats impossible. I just don’t know where to turn I decided to get information from Kaplan but if its more than my pel grant will cover i cant attend plus even though i completed nothing from the community college don’t i have to get a transcript? the first college is easy, I only owe them for a bill rehab did not pay when they requested transcripts i just don’t know its depressing.
I can absolutely identify with the comments I have read. I am disabled with genetic, chronic, degenerative, advanced osteo and rheumatoid arthritis, my whole body is affected by this disability, I worked 22 yrs in the medical field and am now a high risk employee due to my weakness and deformities. I started with my local comm college after my doctor diabled me for the work environment. I will be having total knee replacements soon, and have had alot of trouble with being granted medical leave for ant medically related situations, operations..etc. I have practically begged the disability center at my college to help with things that would enable me to be a more productive student. I have a 4.0 and work my tail off to maintain this. I am also still raising my youngest child, after my two oldest left home a couple yrs ago, but was raising them at time I was attending the local college. The accessibility in winter is a joke, I have been stuck on the sidewalk for over an hour several times, how humialiating!..I have been told that being disabled, the government is not as likely to continue helping me with my education, that was humiliating as well. I also live on 549.00 a month, how are people with disabilities expected to pay rent, utilities, bills, raise their children, and attend college with a smile on their face, I am mortified by the lack of working programs. I was raised by my mom who lost her legs at the age of 22 to a drunk driver, she went on to become one of the first female above knee amputees to model all the new up and coming prosthetics at U.C.L.A. she went on to bear and raise 7 children in the wilds of alaska, she was a shut in due to the absolute disrespect of society to make the world a little more accessible for people with disabilities,which always amazed me because of the amount of veterans with disabilities, who fought for our country. anyways after being totally discouraged and worn out from trying to keep on keeping on, I tried an online college, Virginia online, I was horrified at the prices, I was charges on my fin aid printout for housing..lol..and a misc column that charged me over 5oo a semester..for what I have no Idea, and when i would ask repeatedly, i would be transferred, I owe a loan for a semester at this online college that will take 5 or more yrs to pay off, i dropped the school as i was again told my disability would be a problem. People may not think these things go on in this day and age, but it does, and because i have a disability I may not be able to continue on with my college education, which i have dreamed of doing since my first child. I am intelligent, able minded and have alot to offer, yet to maintain an upbeat attitude when i am running into a brick wall and the real world is on the other side is daunting. I can understand why in earlier years people like me were put into institutions so there would not be such a problem on what to do with them..this may sound bitter, but i worked all my life up until I could not, and I get 48.00 in food stamps, a month because my ssi, is deemed UNEARNED income..lol..but my neighbor, a male of 32, able bodied, residing with his mother , complaining all the time on how there are no jobs to be found, recieves over 200.00 in food stamps..???..I want more than anything to be attending college, to know I am building a future for my daughter, showing my kids and grandkids that anything can be done to better yourself, your dreams can come true, yet this struggle i have been dealing with has made my faith waver. I am praying my daughter keeps up her honor roll status, and recieves alot of scholorships, as she does not stand a chance trying to attend college, unless she works a couple full time jobs to maintain rent, and college fees.
I get everything your saying, but what about the drive in people’s personna that they lose? I go to a community college right now and I’ve faile dout of more classes than i like but the friends i knew that dropped out have just dropped out and become some bland off shade in grey. They’ve blamed it on stress and their balance but haveing them lose thier will in a higher education has me in why would you want to stop growing as a human? Am I crazy for thinking this or could they be the ones who grow older and wish they’d go back when in their 30-40’s? As for the prices for college, yeah its hard to look for a job and pay but I don’t get why you HAVE to have a semi-permenite job. What happened to the odd jobs? I know nothing of law but I know I don’t under stand it. Oh, another one. Why do most students refuse a lot of help from faliculty? We all know their there to help but I don’t get why people are to afraid to ask for some help?
Totally agree. When you are younger you find that you have to work / pay bills and education takes a back seat. But something happens around 40 years old. You realize the clock is ticking and you should get an education because for 20 years or more you have watched those who went to higher education right out of high school fare much better when it comes to promotions and getting the good jobs. You have to give it a go before it is to late.
Technology rules(kind of)
hate-e
lots of interesting responses
This makes me lauggh
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