Four reasons to extend your degree
Sometimes it's just not the best idea to finish your undergraduate degree in four years. You might need more time.
Whether it's because you want to take an extra credential or major, do a co-op or work placement, travel or study abroad, or you just need to slow down the pace, extending the length of your degree is a serious but viable option.
It can even make your degree stronger if you plan it effectively and use the opportunity to your advantage.
Here are four reasons you might want to extend your degree, and how you can use them to position yourself better after that degree is done.
Extra major
Completing a double major or adding a credential to your degree can make you more appealing on the job market. If you like languages, you may be able to combine it with business studies for a degree tailored to international business. If you like music, history or sociology, combining these with an education degree opens doors to be a music or social studies teacher.
Double majors and extra credentials show employers and grad schools that you are driven and motivated. And pragmatic combinations position you well for competitive fields.
Co-ops, internships and volunteering
Many of us finish our degrees with the classic problem: lots of education but no experience. But how do you get experience in the first place? You get it during your education as a part of your degree!
Co-ops, internships and volunteering are becoming an increasingly valuable addition to many undergraduate degrees. Some offer you the opportunity to earn while you learn, but each helps build contacts and network in your chosen career. Or you can just use them to give a career option you may be interested in a trial run.
If you choose this path, by the time you finish, you'll already have practical skills, a stronger résumé and important references.
Travel
Taking time to travel is one of the most valuable experiences in life. Extensive experiences abroad show employers you are adaptable, proactive and confident. But travel is often expensive and time consuming.
Study abroad programs and international internships offer another chance to live in another country, experience another culture, and gain a sensitivity to international issues and global concerns. They may last the summer, a semester or an entire year abroad. Some even allow you to count courses toward your degree.
But if you continue to take courses while living abroad, they may not all transfer back to your home institution. Always plan foreign study with an academic advisor.
Personal reasons
The transition to university can be a difficult one, especially for students studying in a new city or province. And the pace of courses in your program might be more than you expected. It's OK to slow down. Many of us also have to earn an income while going to school. Undertaking a full course load at the same time might seem like a necessity in order to finish, but it could do real harm if your grades suffer, or if you fail classes. Repeating them only takes more time and money.
Be sure to look into summer courses, which you may be able to use as prerequisites for other classes, or as required elements for your degree.
It is important to plan ahead, since extending your degree can be costly and confusing. Some programs require that students follow a set plan, and many courses have prerequisites that aren't offered every semester. Make sure to weigh the benefits and consequences of remaining longer at university.
Will you be able to pay for that extra year or semester? Do you want added student loans? Sometimes the answer is yes, but before making any decision, discuss your goals and options with a counsellor or your department adviser.
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Comments
LOLWAT
"If you like music, history or sociology, combining these with an education degree opens doors to be a music or social studies teacher."
Do you have the slightest idea what the job market looks like for B.Eds? There's already a surplus labour pool thousands strong that would account for several years of hiring even without the newly-minted B.Eds going on the market. And that's not even accounting for the fact that people with history and music teachables are in even less demand.
Taking on an extra year of costs (tuition, books, cost of living) plus the opportunity cost of losing a year of even shitty low-wage work? Not worth it at this moment in time for a B.Ed.
I'm a UW co-op alum who majored in the Arts. It was the best decision I ever made. The portfolio materials I came out with and the experience they reflected were worth the summers and extra eight months in school.
At most schools a B.Ed is a separate degree. That's not "extending your degree," it's acquiring a completely different one.
I would strongly recommend extending your degree to gain extra skills. BAs aren't worth much these days; you have to work hard to differentiate yourself from the crowd. I did a double major, and it's true that one of the majors isn't directly relevant to my current career path, but it still required a different kind of thinking that broadened my skills base. I also did honours, co-op, and volunteered with a few campus organizations. After I graduated it only took me a very few weeks to find a full-time job. I've come to believe that the degree itself is only half the equation; you have to have more than that to find good work.
My pet peeve is that I did an intense 4 year Bach of Commerce with a specialty in Economics. Eight semesters of detailed accounting, economic analysis, mathematics, finance etc. and employers look at my Bach degree as no big deal...yawn...next, but some guy with a BA or soft science takes a one year "executive" MBA where they basically condense the easiest concepts we tackled into one year. How much can you absorb or cover in one year?...and then holy cow...an MBA! WOW we better snap you up. How about you start as Vice President of our brokerage house or be a senior manager in gov. No kidding my buddy with no undergrad at all did a one year MBA at prestigeous Oxford (for $150,000) and his first job was as a CFO of an established high tech co. Moral: Take music or pottery and get an MBA...and give out high risk loans on commission
This article is fine and well, but what it fails to address are the potential drawbacks an extension can have for applying for a graduate and/or professional degree afterwards. Law school committees for example will frown on an extended degree and will ask you to give an explanation. If you are planning on extending your degree but are also interested in postgraduate education, make sure that you do don't come across as having had an easier ride than the other applicants.
...or you could do what more and more uni grads seem to be doing and go to a college to learn something practical in order to find a decent job.
A lot of recent grads in Engineering are heading back to Grad School after testing the entry level job market. At some University ECE departments have a policy/standard that Faculty will pay the tuition for their Grad students.
My 2 oldest children finished double majors in the past 12 months, taking more than 4 years, but saving money by living at home.
My son has both a BA in History and BSc in computing. He has funding for the Masters in history he starts this fall and won't have to dip into the nest egg he accumulated before graduation and expanded working as a web developer over the past year. His grad school clawed half his funding when he was confirmed for SSHRC funding, but it will look good on his Resume, along with the NSERC subsidy funding for his last coop work term.
Both graduated without any debt, from earnings in coop jobs or research assistant summer jobs.
My daughter is taking a year out after getting her double major with distinction in Chemistry and Earth and Ocean Science. I may have to subsidize her Grad School fees (USA $40K).
Here's a tip to all of you would be lawyers out there. I busted my hump and got an Honours PoliSci degree from an Ivy League school. I minored in a language and learned three others. Notwithstanding that, the only law school I could get into was Windsor. Hell, anyone can get into Windsor (so I chose to do something else).
My point is this - Canadian law schools get WAY WAY more applications than they have seats. So all they do is look at your GPA and your LSAT. The school will tell you that they look at who you are holistically - that is TOTAL BUNK.
IF I had it to do all over again, I would have taken Pyschology, Early Childhood Education or something where the A's were pretty easy to come by. I would have also gone to an easy school and taken bird courses like 'The Art of Listening' and 'Planets, Stars and Galaxies' to bump up my GPA.
In retrospect, my life turned out pretty well for not having become another lawyer. But it wasn't my choice.
This article is a typical example of how academic people get so caught up in academics that they loose sight of the whole purpose of education! The primary reason that people get an education is to learn to do a trade and become productive (thus earn a living). Unfortunately, most teachers and professors can't understand this simple principle. If you are going to college or university to get an education so that you can be ready to get in to the workforce, why would you extend it in the first place? Wouldn't you want to get in to the workforce as soon as possible and start making a living from the trade that you learnt? I'm sure, universities would love to have you for longer years (more you pay on tuition), but you're missing the whole purpose - making yourself useful as soon as possible. Isn't that why you're going to college to start off with?
Is this article a joke. Who's paying for this. Four years is expensive enough, I can't imagine being approached by my daughter requesting an extra year of tuition and living expenses to take some time off or volunteer. Come on wake up and join the world of people who work for a damn living.
It's better to extend your education by:
a) few practical courses where you can show clear evidence of some applicable skill.
b) finish your undergrad. Work for awhile. Then return for graduate degree or go to college, etc.
c) Travel? Well, at least show what your learned. At minimum, relate it to your degree since your knowledge is so fresh. Hey, blogging helps. Be focused about it. Show some research. Not just lying around the beach for days in a foreign country oblivious to its history and peoples.
d) Volunteer? Again show what you learned...blogging is great for this now.
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