The Reason Why College Students Dropout

So what’s the reason why college students dropout? Some college students dropout because they are simply bored with college coursework or they simply have to dropout to get a job to pay for their living expenses. That’s true according to a new survey by Public Agenda.

More than 600 students between the ages of 22 and 30 were surveyed. For more than 50 percent of the survey participants, the need to work full time was a major factor of keeping them from going back to college.

“The conventional wisdom is that students leave school because they aren’t willing to work hard and aren’t really interested in more education,” said Jean Johnson, director of Education Insights at Public Agenda. “What we found was almost precisely the opposite. Most are working and go to school at the same time, and most are not getting financial help from their families or the system itself. It is the stress of this juggling act that forces many of them to abandon their pursuit of a college degree.”

Public Agenda points out that the Department of Education reveals that less than half of college students graduate within six years. Yet, 89 percent of those surveyed said that they have thought about going back to college.

Public Agenda is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that provides research that bridges the gap between American leaders and what the public really thinks about issues ranging from education to foreign policy to immigration to religion and civility in American life.

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