Sean Penhall

Bryn Evans is heading back to school for the fourth time to finish his degree after taking a detour to work a job

While most of us realize that not everything we learned from the classic campus comedy Animal House was realistic in portraying the post-secondary lifestyle, we do have that image of John Belushi in his typical “college” sweater embedded in our minds. And while generally we know that not every college endeavour ends in the whole congregation cheering your name on graduation day, what of those college endeavours that don’t really end in a graduation day at all?

Dropout students are a reality for every educational institution. While commonly associated with the stereotypical freshman that doesn’t know what they want out of life, there are a number of students far beyond their first year who find out that life doesn’t always work out as expected.

“There are a lot of things that can interfere with academic success,” says Danica Heidebreicht, a student counsellor at SAIT. “A parent dies, a relationship fails, sometimes they’re learning whether or not they might have an undiagnosed disability. It may not be that the program isn’t right for them.”

According to the Youth in Transition survey from Statistics Canada, four out of every five people had participated in post-secondary education by the time they reached their mid-20s. However, approximately one out of seven students (or 15 per cent) withdraw from their program.

For students like Bryn Evans, 27, his sprint from start to finish ended up including a few water breaks and some sightseeing along the way.

“When I started back in 1999, you went to Mount Royal College and did two years there and went on to university,” says Evans. “A year and a half later, I left for a semester to travel.”

After being the arts and lifestyles editor at Fast Forward Weekly for the past two-and-a-half years, Evans has just left the job to return to school full-time to complete his bachelor degree in English this fall, and then plans to attend graduate school. This being his fourth attempt at completion, he has run into more than one detour in the road.

“Whenever I went I was kind of taking stuff that looked interesting,” says Evans. “A lot of it was ‘Oh, this looks like it would be a cool class,’ and I would take it, but I wasn’t paying much attention to what I would actually need to get my degree done.”

Evans encountered another fork in the road when he was offered the position at Fast Forward after returning to school for a third time.

“I had been freelancing and doing lots of writing for the paper while I was in school,” says Evans. “I kind of fell into it because I never took a journalism program, but it was just too good of an opportunity to [turn down].”

According to Heidebreicht, many students face similar decisions.

“Because of Calgary’s good economy, the industry wants workers,” says Heidebreicht. “They’ll often say to students ‘You can work now for this amount without your diploma,’ so they’re doing a job that they would get with the diploma, and the benefits of making lots of money now are drawing some students out.”

Heidebreicht explains that there are risks involved with this decision. “What happens 10 years from now when the economy isn’t so hot, and the person with the diploma is more likely to get a job over someone who doesn’t?”

Barbara Howe, an English graduate program administrator for the U of C, deals only with students who have attended university for a minimum of four years. While the numbers of people who withdraw at such a late stage in their education are low in her department, she does see it happen.

“I do graduate degrees,” says Howe. “With graduate degrees you’re getting more mature students who know what they want to do. A master’s degree or PhD is a specialization in a specific area, so they’ve already done their undergrad and they already know if they like it or not.”

Along with events like divorce and pregnancy, Howe says a move can be a deciding factor in whether or not a graduate student will continue on in their program. In order to get a PhD, the U of C requires a candidacy exam that pre-approves the student to continue on in their work. If a student decides to leave after the candidacy exam has taken place and go on to a different institution, that student has to start the process all over again. Aside from having to redo valuable work, the financial factor can be a great blow.

“Usually there is a two-year full-time fee requirement,” says Howe. “So you’ve paid a two-year full-time fee at one institution before you have to go to the new institution, pay again, and start all over.”

The monetary strain of going to school is common ground for every student, regardless of ambition or background. For people like Kristine Finstad, group editor for August Media in the U.K., it was her financial situation during her school years that gave her aspirations of a better lifestyle.

“I had always worked throughout summer as well as term time so I didn’t have to take out student loans,” says Finstad. “I was getting really tired of the poverty-stricken student lifestyle.”

After taking general studies at the University of Calgary in 1984, Finstad transferred to the University of Alberta a year later to major in French. She remained there until 1988. “I got a bit bored of feeling like I always had to fund my education, and over the five years it began to feel like I would never see the end of it” says Finstad. “I didn’t so much drop out as just never return.”

In 2000, Finstad started worked in the publishing sector of the U.K. After working with many large U.K. and international brands such as British Telecom, IKEA, Co-operative Financial Services and a mobile phone operating company called Orange, she secured her current position with August Media.

“I manage a group of editors and deal with clients to ensure we deliver the right sort of design and editorial for their customers,” says Finstad. “It’s a very senior position and exactly where I want to be right now.”

Heidebreicht advises that students, regardless of year, take part in career planning.

“It’s not just looking at what might be a lucrative career, but it’s looking at who you are, assessing your interests, skills and values,” says Heidebreicht. “It’s looking at careers that might be a good fit for you.”

Career research suggests that one of the biggest predictors of career satisfaction is pursuing something that you’re interested in. By sticking with your interests, you’re more likely to stay in school and experience a sense of fulfilment with your job in the long run.

As for Finstad, she claims that she has no regrets of leaving school when she did.

“I love my job; it’s challenging, demanding and always interesting,” she says. “I got what I needed out of university. I learned to think critically, gained a whole bank of esoteric and occasionally useful knowledge, and most importantly, deeply improved skills in communicating with different kinds of people.”