Why Do Students Take so Long to Complete College?

Why do Students Take so Long to Complete College?

It is baffling how a five-year degree can take so long to complete. When going to school, many extenuating circumstances caused a five year degree to take almost eight years. Much of this was balancing work, school, and a family. However, there were other circumstances that made completing college a problem. Two of the most common challenges that plagued my progress, and still seem to be a problem for students today, are motivation and procrastination.

Motivation is complex, as it entails both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is how one values and takes pride in learning while extrinsic motivation is solely based upon the external reward such as grade, graduation, and eventual employment (Brownlow

& Reasinger, 2000). A good example of extrinsic motivation is in a study by Dunwoody and Frank (1995) who found that students dropped courses for reasons such as not being happy with their grade, not liking the professor, or not finding the subject of interest. These reasons for not continuing a course are all based on the extrinsic motivation of grade completion that shows a lack of intrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation begins at a very young age with parents teaching children to take pride in their own work. As children grow older and begin school, these motivators must continue to be instilled as the children start to enter into extrinsic motivators such as token economies and grades (Brownlow & Reasinger, 2000). Parents need to continue to encourage their children to want to do well in school for their own pride and enjoyment rather than focusing on grades as extrinsic rewards. A study completed of first-year freshmen showed that students who have family involvement and support are better at completing college than those whose families are not as involved in their children’s education (Pan, Guo, Alikonis, & Bai, 2008); thus,

continuing to encourage children to take pride in...