Completing a bachelor’s degree in four years used to be the norm, but some students take longer and become “super seniors.” Reasons for this include taking extra classes, working full-time, or having a learning disability. Some students also take a year off to travel or take additional courses, leading to more units than necessary for graduation.
A college education that results in a bachelor’s degree used to mean that students graduated in four years. In a semester system, the student took an average of five classes per semester to graduate within that period. As long as the student only majored in one subject, passing all of your classes at an average of five classes per semester tends to mean you earned your degree in four years. There are some significant economic advantages to completing college as quickly as possible, as students pay less and some even complete their degrees in three years instead of four.
The flip side of the four-year plan led to the term super senior, students who, instead of attending four years of college, attend five or more. Each year of college, like each year of high school, is tied to a named status. First-year students are freshmen, sophomores, sophomores, third-year juniors, and last-year seniors. A word had to be developed to explain people who stayed in senior status for more than a year.
Students who become super seniors can have many reasons to do so. One of the most common is that they choose to dedicate a little more time to education or to attend more classes. This is sometimes called a five-year plan for higher education. However, the super senior can remain at the senior level for more than one year. Some completed six or seven years of college before earning an undergraduate degree. Others are what might be termed a “professional student” and choose not to graduate so that they can remain in the college environment for as long as possible.
A freshman who does not complete five courses per semester is not really a sophomore when the next year begins, as class rankings are based on units purchased. Students on the five-year plan cannot technically achieve senior status until midway through their fourth or fifth year of college. This means that they are only super old for a short time or maybe never super old. The term is sometimes used more loosely to describe someone who has studied in college for more than four years.
While being a super senior can be more expensive, it can get in the way of student loan payments, and is sometimes the only economically viable way to make it through school. If students have to work full time, it might not be possible to manage five classes a semester as well. Some students may attend only part-time, while others may attend at least full-time, taking approximately four classes per semester. The term super senior can be a bit of a misnomer when students don’t take the necessary units to qualify them for a particular class, even if they’ve been in college for more than four years.
Occasionally, students take a year or semester to travel and earn college credits through university-sponsored education programs. These courses may not be in most students. These students would be true super-elderly people, as they would have acquired more units than what is technically necessary for a student to graduate. They simply may not have met all of their graduation requirements.
Another reason for the growing super senior trend is that some students take double and triple courses. This means that the requirements for graduation are much more extensive. Even picking a minor in another subject could mean taking an extra semester of classes. Some students find that they do better if they take fewer classes per semester. A student with a learning disability may succeed in four lessons but not in five. In addition, some students may need classes that do not count as units earned toward graduation, such as remedial courses or English as a Second Language (ESL) classes.
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