There was twelve years of circling your O’s and dotting your I’s in elementary school four years of algebra, English literature and chemistry in high school and now…college.
Well, with a degree at Temple time is not a constant.
Your degree may take four years, five years, ten years… whatever.
Many seniors gradually wake up to the fact that it will take nothing short of divine intervention to graduate in four years and all because the numbers just don’t add up.
And you thought climbing the rope in gym class was scary!
Earlier this year Temple president Liacouras stood before the Pennsylvania State legislature asked for funds and accepted the praise of elected officials. The praise we received, the funding was another story.
What the Pennsylvania State legislature wanted to know was, why Temple students are having a hard time graduating in four years? After all, a portion of your Temple education comes at taxpayer expense.
So, why don’t a large number of Temple students graduate in four years?
Let’s do the math.
Let’s say you’re interested in rounding out a few credits and starting a new career in tourism and hospitality management. Hold on, not until you stare down 128 credit hours. That’s far more than 15 credits a semester.
Journalism majors like myself have to manage 129 credits. Business administration majors manage 123, and film majors are 126 credits shy of their next film. Those who dare a career in music must wade through 134 credits!
In fact, after searching over the 1999-2000 course bulletin I struggled to find a major or degree that did fit into the classic 30 credit a year schedule.
The shocking reality is that most students will not graduate in four years unless they decide to haul ass one semester and play catch up.
Putting off graduation for another semester was not an option for me. And after an internship and two extra courses taken at another institution over the summer, I barely made it through the graduation gauntlet.
From personal experience let me tell you. Taking 18 credits will wreck you. Eighteen plus will leave you like a slug gyrating on the floor of your dorm room and dreaming of spring break.
It’s bad enough to have to face the stigma of graduating in more than four years, but nobody wants you spend another year’s life savings on your education, except maybe Temple University.
And you have to wonder when the Tourism school requires 128 credits whether or not Temple wants you to have an unexpected layover in your senior year.
Temple University is a university of working class students. The majority of students here are working and learning at the same time. This isn’t an educational escapade where we can fully saturate ourselves in the learning environment on a 24-hour basis.
We run from class to school, to dinner to bed to class, and a good number of us do that for more than four years.
In this case, it’s either a conspiracy or it’s a mistake.
One way or another, it’s costing you, the taxpayer and your parents. Plus, it’s testing my sanity.
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