When I first entered junior college at Mt. San Antonio College, I thought it would be just like high school but with older students, less class time and more homework. “I’ll be out of here in no time!” I thought.
Obviously, I was wrong.
It took me eight years to graduate from there, and that was all because I took five years to decide on a major.
I took whatever sounded good to me in addition to the general education (GE) requirements.
It just so happened that the writing and journalism classes clicked best with me. That was when I made my mind up.
Then in three more years, I graduated and transferred here to Cal Poly Pomona.
Honestly, my first five years at Mt. SAC were pretty much filler classes, but I don’t think they were a complete waste of my time. Taking a wide range of elective courses did ultimately set me on my current path since that was how I found journalism in the first place.
And now that I’m on a major path, things are set for me to graduate within the next two or so years. However, that’s only a prediction.
Students have their own ways of going about their college studies.
They might have other responsibilities in life or plans for certain times of year.
Like anything in life, there’s no certainty as to how fast students will finish their graduation requirements.
Students can speed the process up by taking intersessions such as the newly-opened winter term.
There is risk to speeding studies up, though. Life can be stressful, and schoolwork is just another stress in life. It’s always good to have a break.
The reason the summer and winter intersessions are shorter than the main spring and fall terms is because summer and winter are usually the times people go on vacation.
To students with particularly stressful lives (or to people who simply have contempt for school environments), those vacation times are the best possible thing.
Of course, saying everyone needs a break at those times would be a lie. Some students are fine with taking those intersessions.
Perhaps they want to graduate faster, or perhaps they don’t want to add a lingering GE to their already busy spring or fall semester schedule.
The pace a student decides to complete their college studies is entirely their choice.
Winter intersession just ended, giving students an opportunity to speed their studies along.
Did you enroll in winter classes over the break? Excellent! Did you take the winter off from school? Excellent!
It’s entirely up to the students to decide how they will go about finishing college.
There is no obligation to finish at the pace their education plan predicts. I’m not obligated to finish in two years; that’s just a webpage’s prediction.
Nobody has such an obligation. College is the students’ to finish as they please, fast or slow, intersessions or not.
Whichever way you study is up to you, students. Good luck with your education, everyone!
