Why do College Students Decide to Drop Out of School?

Fruzsina Eordogh is a graduating journalism student at Loyola University in Chicago. But last spring she decided to drop out of school. It was a hard decision on her part but she decided to quit because of her $50,000 student loan. Instead of pursuing her studies, she quit and took the opportunity of getting a job.

Since June, Eodorgh at 26, has been working as a full time on line reporter. While her former classmates have pursued their graduate school, she is busy working at Daily Dot, a digital publication which covers culture through internet. She has to work in order to pay her student loan.

There are other cases similar to what happened to Eodorgh. In fact, some of them are Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. These drop outs made good but the majority of those who dropped out from school were not successful. According to Harvard’s analysis, the U.S. has the highest rate in dropout among industrialized countries. The data for analysis came from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

U.S. Tops In School Dropout Rates

In 2011, Harvard graduate School of Education through its study known as “Pathways to Prosperity” has recorded that 56 percent of college students taking up four-year course could make it in six years and only 29 percent of those who are enrolled in a two-year course could finish their course in three years.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in its report at “Education at a Glance” supports the analysis of Harvard that among the 18 countries with dropout rates the United States tops the list. In Japan 89 percent of students finished college, Slovakia’s record is 63 percent, Poland 61 percent while U.S has only 46 percent.

Student Loans Create The Financial Hole

“Is College worth it?” This is the question commonly asked by students according to Pew Research Center report in 2011.

The cost of college has tripled for the past two decades, from 1980 to 2010. The study shows that the average student loan on the average is $23,000. This is the reason why many students decide to drop out from school and instead pursue a job to pay their loan.