Graduation! To some this word is something that is in the near future. Something that actually comes at the end of four years of hard work. Those are the people that most college students hate.

For most students, graduation is more of an illusion or a mirage. Something that is dangled in front of your face, yet after four or five years of school, it still seems you’re no closer to achieving it than when you were a freshman. Whether it is because of switching majors, money issues, or just life, many factors arise that make graduating in four years an impossible task.

I have had many friends who have become these people. Friends who have been in school non-stop since they graduated in 2001. Others who have changed their major so many times that they are looking to graduate in 2010, and they graduated high
school in 2003.

I began college in the fall of 2002. After going to Northwest, dropping out, coming here, becoming a double major, dropping one major, 5 ½ years later, I am finally in my last semester (knock on wood, cause things could still go wrong).

However, looking back, there were several steps I could have taken that would have knocked off a semester or two from my college career.

One of my major mistakes was checking to see if I was actually declared. Coming from Northwest, I assumed that since I was a declared Journalism major there, that I was a declared English/Journalism major here. Nope, didn’t work that way.

Since that realization, I have been trying to have classes count from the requirements when I thought I was declared, it’s a long, unnecessary process. Also, make sure that if any classes are being transferred in, that they actually get counted, don’t wait until the semester before you’re suppose to graduate.

Keep your own record of the classes you have and haven’t taken, paying attention to which classes are only offered on certain semesters, certain years. Some core major classes are only offered once every two or four years.

Also, when you first come out of high school, a lot of students are still burnt out. Many have bad first semesters. I know I did. But in the long run, if I had actually tried my first few semesters, I would have easily been graduated already and had a little better GPA. This does actually still matter, especially if you join a sorority or fraternity.

Finally, I know underclassmen usually aren’t completely sure what they want to do in life. Many students take extra random classes to find out what they are passionate about. If you are clueless about your future, that’s a good way to go. But if you have any sense of what you want to do the rest of your life, don’t take to many random classes. When you are about to graduate or are reaching those few semesters before graduation, you look back and think, why did I take 30 hrs of art classes. It’s not like I was good enough to make any money that way, it was just a hobby, now I have been in college a year longer because of it…