Why Students Drop Out of College

By Esther Marshall

When you get into college this is the beginning of an important part of life. However, equally as important as gaining entrance to the college of your choice is making sure that you complete your four years successfully and emerge with a diploma. Many students do not complete their studies for various reasons, and a bit of foreknowledge of the obstacles that lay ahead could help you to avoid this fate.

The first reason why many students drop out is that they do not have the proper motivation to be in college in the first place. Many students go to college simply because everyone else is doing it or because their parents expect them to go to college. A student who is not sure why he or she is in college will have a difficult time. So before you even enter college examine your own motives for going to college. Try to understand the importance of college in your overall plans for the future.

Another important contributor to college attrition is that beginning college students can't cope with the newfound freedom that they get when they enroll in college. This problem is compounded for students who are living away from home for the first time. In college class attendance is often not mandatory, which is a far cry from high school, where any absence can result in a call to your parents. And if you live away from home, you can now stay up and party and do things you would never be able to do at home. As you can imagine, if you miss classes regularly and don't establish a proper routine of living, this could spell your academic downfall. Learning how to be self-disciplined will go a long way towards a successful time in college and in your years after college.

If you can't handle freedom well, then you may be prone to the next factor that causes students to fail and drop out. Lots of students are not able to establish a proper mix of social and academic life. It is a lot of fun to spend time dating and partying, but if you do not also give sufficient time to your classes, reading assignments and other academic tasks, then you are asking for trouble. Learning how to budget time and getting the right balance of work and leisure will go a long way to insuring that you remain in college and thrive in college.

Another contributing cause of student failure in college is that many young students do not have the skills needed to deal with the huge amounts of work they will get in college. College lectures are often more difficult to follow than high school classes, and reading and writing assignments are similarly more difficult. If you develop good note-taking skills before you enter college it can help you to deal with the lectures and the reading assignments. Good writing skills are also invaluable for success in college, and if you can develop them before or while you are at college then it will greatly increase your chances of having a successful career in college.

These are some of the main reasons why students face difficulty in college and why they drop out before completing their four year or two year course. There are, of course, other less common ones.

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