Universities are seeing more students stray from a traditional path after high school of immediately attending college in a continuous, full-time time period.
Roughly one in four male and one in five female students either take college classes part-time or take a break from college before resuming, according to a 2010 study published in American Educational Research Journal, “Male and Female Pathways through Four-Year Colleges: Disruption and Sex Stratification in Higher Education.” These numbers also do not account for students who take time off before beginning college at all.
David Chalfant, an academic advisor and adult focus adviser, works with students who take time off before entering college. Chalfant said the numbers of students taking nontraditional paths might seem higher than people would expect, but they aren’t overly concerning.
“Staying out a year, maybe making some money, getting your financial situation in better condition, thinking more about what you’d like to major in and do with your career might not be such a bad choice,” he said. “The hope is that they don’t deviate from the path of still going to college.”
Jennifer Feick, a senior telecommunications major, took some time off from school after transfering to Ball State from Butler University.
“When I came to [Ball State’s] program I realized that even though Butler’s program was great, it was still steps behind Ball State’s,” she said.
Feick left school in order to work beginning in 2009.
She spent four years employed with an immersion program at Newslink Indiana and with multiple nonprofits, including Mental Health America, where she was the executive director for three years at the Delaware County branch.
Feick was named one of M Magazine’s Top 20 Under 40 this year, a title awarded to Muncie residents younger than 40 who show commitment to the community.
After figuring out her finances, Feick returned to Ball State in 2012, and she will soon graduate, finishing what she called several years of senioritis.
Since coming back, Feick said her professors have been a large part of her support system.
“Professors have always stood by me even in my weakest and my most successful times,” she said. “That right there is just phenomenal.”
Feick said her best advice for someone else in her situation is to not give up.
“When you give up and you become complacent, that degree is so much farther out of reach instead of taking it one class at a time, one day at a time,” she said. “When days are tough and you’re feeling overwhelmed and you’re wearing a baseball cap because you’ve been up all night and if you just don’t know who to go to, go to that professor who will look at you and say, ‘Okay, come on. Let’s get moving, get your head out of your ass.’”
Some of her biggest supporters have been telecommunications instructors, Phil Bremen, Terry Heifetz and Mike Spillman. She said she received more help from within her department than the university in general.
Chalfant said some of the positives of delaying college include taking pressure off and building up finances, but students do have the downside of not entering the job market as soon. He said Ball State basically treats nontraditional students the same as any other students, and is unsure of how many there are at Ball State.
Gloria Pavlik, a retention and graduation specialist, said the university is working on plans to better accommodate nontraditional students because anything is better than no degree at all.
