The merits and pitfalls of a four-and-half-year education

Much ink and bandwidth has been spent on exploring the phenomenon of the fifth-year. Less heralded (or lamented), I know several college students who elected to graduate in December of their so-called second senior year. I happen to know of one of them, for better or worse, extremely well: me.

In less than two months, I’ll graduate college, God willing. Like many of the other December grads I know, I was too involved in outside-school commitments to commit to finishing undergrad in just four years and now I’m far too broke and maxed-out on loans to continue for the full victory lap even if I wanted to. But unlike so many of my friends who I ever-so-slightly jealously watched walk across the graduation stage in May, I’m extremely hopeful about the future. I, my friends, have a job.

I first felt that my second senior year was a hindrance, or at least, not exactly the shining star of my limited constellation of experience. But I took the opportunity of having just a few classes left – and that resume-building, GPA-tarnishing work I did in the first four years – to begin a for-credit internship. Through hard work and, I’d be remiss not to mention, a lot of luck in timing, that internship turned into a paid part-time internship, which then turned into a full-time gig. Literally the day after my graduation ceremony, I begin.

Again, I am extremely lucky to be in this position in this dismal economy, but I don't believe I am alone.

My experience of a four-and-a-half-year undergraduate education has been wonderful. It's afforded me the chance to straddle the world of college student and professional at the same time, providing a graceful transition between two major stages of my life. Like all the December grads I've spoken with, I wouldn't change a thing about how this has played out. I would encourage this approach to anyone, but I also worry I am in the minority in that. The University of Kansas encourages four-year graduation tracks strongly, penalizing students who don't fall in line tremendously financially.

How can I change this? I'm not at all sure. But my views about education comes from my experience, and I do wish I could encourage policy makers to seriously consider a more career-focused approach for all students. I'm a person fascinated by all aspects of the liberal education I've received -- heck, I can even see the merit in my first-year geometry theory class in shaping who I've become today -- but when I graduate, I will become the first person in my family to do so, and, first and foremost, I went into higher education with the goal of obtaining a career that I couldn't have otherwise.

In short, I believe that our entire education system needs to have a holistic approach -- balancing a need to inspire citizens interested in knowledge acquisition for its own sake with the need to actually and realistically prepare these citizens for the working world.