<p>to all parents, dont you think undergraduate should be for six years (agreed, just an arbitrary number - but you get the point)..... i mean i have been lucky to been accepted to a few good places, and the course diversity on the college websites is WOW... i wanna study everything economics, theater, dance, history, computer science, physics, politics..... everything.... if only i had time and money ..... what are your thoughts or am i just being utopian and geekish ? since hindsight is always 20-20, may the experienced share both their pragmatic view points and their unfulfilled (college / academic ) aspirations.....</p>
<p>Oh, I think it's fine to go to school for six years, as long as YOU are footing the bill beyond a certain point. But if you're not, for many parents, 4 years is long enough to pay tuition (5 if you're an engineering student). The financial burden has to end sometime and students need to start transforming into self-sufficient adults, as hard as that may be. </p>
<p>I just had a minor tiff with my 18-year old daughter last night as she tried to cajole me into buying her a Coach handbag, even though she has a part-time job and plenty of her own funds!! Just ain't happening, especially if I don't own one myself!</p>
<p>It seems to me that for awhile, quite a colleges were making it so that many students had to take a 5th year to get all of their requirements. However, parents started pushing back on this state of affairs. Now, all of the colleges that we visited (Georgetown, UCLA, and CU-Boulder) all stressed that most students graduate in 4 years. Some even had a guarantee, or the school would pick up the tab for the extra tuition (CU, I believe).</p>
<p>As for my unfulfilled aspirations, I would have loved to have been an Art History major. I didn't even get to take any courses in that realm, but it sounds fascinating. Boring old me got a B.A. in Political Science and Public Administration and then got my J.D.</p>
<p>If I didn't have to earn a living, I would love going to school for the rest of my life, taking writing workshops, making films, studying string theory and Shakespeare and Chekov and Proust. My opinion is that this kind of education is a privilege, and to the degree that others pay while you get the gravy, there needs to be a limit unless your family is very rich. Let me ask you this: Why can't I go back to school while my kid, after 4 years, works to pay my bills? rofmlao. As it is, I have tried to keep learning on my own because it is quite possible and easier to afford.</p>