A non-profit group known as Complete College America (funded largely by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) points up the importance of being organized and working quickly if you actually hope to finish a college degree.
Although it’s quite difficult to get clear statistics specifically on adult learners who return to college, it’s known that about only about one in five actually finish a college degree in six years. Unfortunately, a byproduct of taking too long to finish school is that the student tends to amass more credits than are actually needed for his or her degree – a significant waste of time and money. Moving through school too slowly also reduces the chances that a student will ever finish. The report said pointedly: “Time is the enemy of college completion. The longer it takes, the more life gets in the way of success.”
A key problem standing in the way of many adults trying to get back into college is that they need to spend time taking remedial or “developmental” courses to give them basic skills and knowledge before they can even start taking real college courses that give them credits. Complete College America recommends that remedial learning strategies be incorporated into the college curriculum so that these courses no longer present a blockade to students.
A key takeway is that for adults going back to college, it seems clear that getting through school on a tight schedule or through an accelerated program can significantly boost the chances of graduating successfully.