College isn’t for everyone, but sometimes the timing is just wrong.
Not everyone is able to graduate high school and go straight to college. Some people aren’t able to go to college in their thirties, but they still have dreams of going. There are some people who went to college and weren’t able to finish due to financial problems or their own personal issues.
College students who leave college before they finish shouldn’t be looked down upon by the masses. Everyone has their own story and their own reasoning behind the decisions they make in their life.
As far as I know, there isn’t a lot of attention paid to those who leave college with the intention of going back. There aren’t any well-known programs that help and provide those who want to re-enroll and work towards their degree with the resources they need to accomplish their goals.
Over the past week, PBS reported on studies being conducted to better understand those who went to college and didn’t earn a degree.
College leaders and policymakers are now shining a light on those who took the time to apply to college, got accepted, attended a few classes, but didn’t earn their credentials. Many colleges are in the process of recruiting people from this demographic, but before they can recruit, they noted they needed a better understanding of the people from this demographic.
The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center gathered data from several institutions on the backgrounds of those weren’t able to complete their degree. They found that as of December 2018, 36 million people from the center’s database were no longer attending college and this number has increased by 6.6 million since the center originally opened.
Some common trends among the former students include: an average age of 42; 56 percent of them left during their 20s; 51 percent of the former students are women; 53 percent of former students left within two years of them being enrolled, most of them attended one institution; and for 67 percent of former students, community college was the first and last enrolled institution.
After better understanding former students, The Institute for Higher Education Policy started recruiting these individuals.
According to their website, their program “Degrees When Due,” “is a completion and equity initiative to help states and colleges increase degree attainment among the ‘some college, no degree’ population.”This program has been on-going for the past three years. Their data has shown that about 10 percent of people with college experience have a high probability of going back to college and completing their credentials.
According to PBS, “These 940,000 credential holders comprise 25 percent of the 3.8 million people with some college, no degree who re-enrolled sometime in the past five years, the center found. Another 1.1 million re-enrolling students were still in college without a credential as of December 2018.”
I would say these programs are successful, and they provide many with the extra push they need to accomplish their dreams.