Viewpoint: Graduating late without a good reason? You're lazy

Beyond extenuating circumstances, there's really no reason to take more than four years to finish college, the author argues.

I’ve studied diminishing marginal utility in microeconomics. I’ve learned about psychopharmacology in a drug and human behavior psychology course. I’ve rocked tests on andalusite, greenschist facies and cinder cones in earth science. And yet, as a rising senior in college, the following question has me absolutely stumped:

“Are you graduating on time?”

Scratching my head and looking for the trick answer to this masked trick question that multiple friends have asked me, all I can come up with is, “Why wouldn’t I?”

Really –- why on earth wouldn’t I graduate on time?

Why? Because our generation is coddled -- everything is too easily justified.

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Can’t run a mile? Do what you can.

Didn’t study enough for a test? At least you learned your lesson for next time.

Don’t want to eat your broccoli? Just take a few bites.

Society professes this idea that “as long as you’re doing it (to some extent), that’s all that matters,” and society couldn’t be more wrong.

How does this mentality set us Millennials up for a successful future? What good are goals if they’re transparent and can be constantly pushed back and amended?

They’re nothing. Goals become items on a TTD list and, hey -- they’ll get done, eventually.

College shouldn’t be an item on a TTD list.

I think a lot of my peers across the nation are lazy. Now, don’t get me wrong; I’m pointing the finger at myself here, too. I, too, am lazy. Only, I’m lazy in the sense that I don’t go to the grocery store as often as I should, and I have to resort to my emergency stash of soup and cereal for food (until I run out of milk).

However, I’m not lazy about my future, and I’m sure as hell not lazy about my life.

If there was a death in the family -- I get that. If you got mono from sharing one too many drinks as a party-crazed freshman -- I get that. If you transferred a handful of times, or changed your major -- I get that, too.

But aside from some sort of extenuating circumstance that affects either your physical or mental health, there is absolutely, positively no reason not to graduate on time.

How long did it take you to graduate high school? Did you take a semester off? Graduate a few years late? I’d bet not.

College really isn’t that different. If anything, college should be taken more seriously because now, you -- or someone -- is paying for it.

There is so much wrong with graduating college in five or six years.

First, let’s talk money -- do you have it? Probably not. Do Mom and Dad have it? Eh, maybe. Will the bank front it? Most likely, but, contrary to popular belief, the bank is only your best friend if you’re putting money in.

Next, let’s talk judgment. I’m all for "going against the grain" and "doing what you want to do" and "not caring about what other people think," but, come on; think of your grandmother for a second.

Say she’s burning your ears gloating all about her wonderful grandchild to a stranger in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. How bad is she going to feel when her new friend tells her that his or her grandchild wiped out college in three years?

Probably a lot worse than her bunion feels, that’s for sure.

Lastly, I bid you to ponder your self-pride for a moment. I won’t pose any hypothetical, rhetorical questions here -- just think about it, and think about its importance to you.

College is a time to be responsible, so, shouldn’t we be?

Falling behind, failing a class, not meeting prerequisites soon enough -- these can all be avoided, retaken or completed. All you have to do is do what you need to do in four years.

What can possibly be more exciting than receiving a diploma, cap-n-gown and a pat on the back for doing exactly what society says you should do (and, really, what you’re supposed to do) at no one’s expense?

Doing it all on time.

Allie Caren is a student at Syracuse University and was a Summer 2012 Paste BN Collegiate Correspondent. Learn more about her here.

This story originally appeared on the Paste BN College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.