College students dropping out

More colleges are gearing up for graduations this week, but roughly half of Utah's students may have been lost along the way.

Higher education leaders are worried that many students never reach the procession line because of bottleneck courses, too few advisers and an increasing amount of time required to finish a degree.

While the average length of stay for Utah's baccalaureate schools is just below five years, students at some schools, such as the University of Utah, are taking an average of 12 semesters — about six to seven years — to get their degrees.

The real concern for Utah Higher Education Commissioner Rich Kendell is that many students may give up on their degrees after getting bogged down in college. About half of all Utah students who enter college directly out of high school do not finish a bachelor's degree within six years or an associate's degree within three, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

"There's a possibility of people dropping out, looking at a program and saying, 'It's just going to take me too much time.' It's a little discouraging," Kendell said. "If you say, 'I'm one year short of a degree,' I'm not sure what that buys you."

Much of the challenge to finish a degree within four years, or ever, lies in bottleneck courses that keep many students waiting just to get into a program or a prerequisite course they need to graduate, Kendell said. High-demand programs such as engineering or nursing often have students biding their time while waiting to get into requisite classes.

At Salt Lake Community College, for example, slots for the nursing program are booked up until 2010 with students who have already been accepted into the program, Joyce Barra, nursing director, said earlier this year. Others, Barra said, are either on waiting lists of hundreds or have given up and are now trying to get into private schools.

Fifth-year U. senior John Poelman said most students accept that getting a bachelor's in four years is no longer the norm. Poelman will be graduating this year and served on a task force looking at why students are taking longer to finish school.

Often called "super seniors," many students stay on long after their fourth year is up trying to get into classes, changing majors or just trying to squeeze out every last college experience, Poelman said.

In addition to a need for more sections for key classes, Kendell said, many students are left trying to navigate their college careers without help from advisers. In some schools, Kendell estimated there is only one counselor for every 500 students, a situation that leaves many students dragging on for years taking the wrong classes and switching majors.