Quote:
Originally Posted by GlassCity
I didn't mean to generalise, and especially not for graduate studies where people are generally more academically oriented than career oriented and things like research can extend for a while. Of course everyone has their own path and goals. However, just from how Hali87 described Nova Scotia universities, there is an obvious difference. Someone spending more than 4 years to finish an undergrad degree is definitely not typical here in the slightest. People take their university educations in many different ways, but if I was to try and come up with the most common way, it would be 5 courses a term, 2 terms a year, for 4 years. I don't think that's too inaccurate.
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No problem GlassCity. I accept what you have to say. I think its valid experience that a lot of people will relate to. What I am saying is that if we seek some kind of validity or norm in all of this, it will be of an order of complexity that it would be exeedingly difficult to get any sense from. My experience is that your 5-2-4 is a) certainly the goal of the vast majority, and b) is attained by a much smaller segment. I am not looking at any stats here but I have a lot of experience with students (as one, knowing 100's, as a prof. of 1,000's) and I can't agree with using the "common way" descriptor. Its just too complicated to talk that way. Even if we throw in summer study to make up for a lot of inability to keep the 5-2-4 up all the way, at most it might make up 50%. This is an educated guess on my part, based on those who take an extra semester, change disciplines, have health problems (you would be surprised what a large group this is), fail a course (or more), take leaves to travel, work, etc., etc., etc. All of these, easily add up to the other 50%, if not more. So, yes, you are bang on for a lot of students, but there are so many other states that it wouldn't feel right, in normal conversation, to leave the impression that at University X, the student body mostly gets their undergrad done in the most obvious and straightforward way, and then "move out and start a career." On this last point, when postgrad work is part of the equation, I don't think I can agree at all. But we both know that's a different ball game, perhaps one you haven't experienced yet.
So, I accept your position in some sense, but I want to flesh out a more complex one as well.
One last thing: graduate students are as career oriented as anyone. They may be pursuing academic careers at a higher rate (no one else can after all), but an increasing percentage of careers, professional and otherwise, require graduate degrees.