By Amber Childress |Staff Writer|

Although college is supposed to be a four year plan intended for all students, not every student agrees.

Some students see college as a process that every student has to go through at their own pace in order to advance.

“The process of graduating is everything you’ve done to get you to finish,” stated student Jackie Barajas.

“It’s the hard work you put in for years, the long hours of studying, the stress, and everything else that comes with it,” added Barajas.

Other students consider requirements that must be fulfilled as a determining factor in one’s graduation plan.

“Before you start taking classes for your major you have to go through a process of taking the general education classes,” said student Joshua Flores.

“There are a lot of classes that you have to take before you can even start to think about graduating,” added Flores.

At a four year university, students have a set time frame to graduate in. Some students see this time frame easy to achieve.

“Four years is a perfect time to graduate in. Especially since I already had my major picked out before I started taking classes. I just had it figure out my concentration,” stated student Marin Cachu.

“College is a process […] it’s a doable process in four years if you take it year by year, not four years at a time,” stated Marin Cachu.

For instance, some students may change their major to suit what fits them best in order to graduate in the term they desire.

“If I wouldn’t have changed my major I would have finished in four years or sooner,” stated student Susana Alcaraz.

“It all just depends on if you have your major picked out before you start college and if you stick with it throughout the year,” added Alcaraz.

There is also the case students are unsure of their graduation time frame because of non-academic reasons.

“There are seasons where I need to focus more time on other responsibilities and can only take the minimum amount of units,” stated student Jackie Barajas.

“Then there are other seasons when I can take the max amount of units and still perform well,” continued Barajas.

As students set goals to graduate within 4 years, there is also a degree of societal pressure placed on them to graduate within what can be considered an ideal time frame.

“If there wasn’t this big amount of social pressure to graduate in four years then I wouldn’t have pushed myself as hard to finish in four years. The bad thing about it is the attitude towards exceeding the four years,” stated student Jackie Barajas.

“When society has these goals set for people and you go outside those goals it is socially unacceptable, but if you push yourself to exceed those goals you are socially acceptable,” said student Joshua Flores.

The fact of the matter is each student determines their own graduation timeline.