Colleges Consider 3-Year Degrees To Save Undergrads Time, Money

[aephi alum]

I agree with KSigkid. If you are bound and determined to earn a 4-year degree in 3 years, you're not going to be able to set aside much time for anything besides your studies. Forget sports, forget a cappella singing, forget leadership in any student organization - and forget pledging.

If three-year degree programs were devised so that you earn something between an associate's degree and a bachelor's degree, I suspect that any woman participating in such a degree program would be ineligible for NPC sorority membership. NPC sorority PNMs must be in the process of pursuing a bachelor's degree. Even if a woman in a 3-year program were deemed eligible, she would be participating in recruitment alongside freshmen who would be active dues-paying members for 4 years rather than 3 - so she'd be going into recruitment with one strike against her from the get-go.

[sjsoffer]

Originally Posted by aephi alum

I agree with KSigkid. If you are bound and determined to earn a 4-year degree in 3 years, you're not going to be able to set aside much time for anything besides your studies. Forget sports, forget a cappella singing, forget leadership in any student organization - and forget pledging.

That's not always true! I'm graduating next May, which means I will have been in college for three years, with a GPA of 3.76 so far. I have two non-overlapping majors, and am active in my sorority and an officer in another organization. I also work two jobs. It's no problem if someone is dedicated enough for their organization!

[kapsigcub]

Would a 3-year degree fundamentally change your organization's undergraduate programming?

[myopicsunflower]

Originally Posted by sjsoffer

That's not always true! I'm graduating next May, which means I will have been in college for three years, with a GPA of 3.76 so far. I have two non-overlapping majors, and am active in my sorority and an officer in another organization. I also work two jobs. It's no problem if someone is dedicated enough for their organization!

You must have some mad time-management skills!

Many of the collegians I work with have very heavy-duty majors or double majors, work or have an internship, and are involved with the sorority and other time commitments. Honestly, they floor me.

I think that students who opted for the three-year track would be very organized with their time, and those who felt that they could handle Greek life on top of everything else would go through recruitment, same as anyone else. They wouldn't have as long a collegiate experience as students on the four-year track, but they would know that going in.

[PhoenixAzul]

See, I found that last year to be the most important year of my undergraduate career. The first three years were all about learning, topping up the tank. That last year was about growing into an academic in my own right. I was really busy as an undergrad- I worked part time (although I worked the 5am shift to make classes), I was involved in my sorority, I was on councils, I worked for the paper, I had two majors and a minor, honors college, training for a marathon and half-ironman, went abroad, was planning a wedding, planning my move overseas, getting ready for graduate school....and all of that was great for my time management skills. But I felt that at the end of 4 years I had done more than just build a resume, I built myself into a person I was proud of. I look back, and thinking about leaving OC at the end of my junior year (and I could have, if I'd dropped one major)...I would have failed at life. I had just had a revelation about my future career, had a revelation about where I wanted to live, and how I wanted to continue.

I don't know, it definitely works for some people, but I think that rushing through college just to save cash will short some students out of the essential life lessons and growth opportunities gained outside of the classroom. I know that's a bit Pollyanna, and it kills me to hear about students being limited by economic factors.