Asklemmy

The two things I always tell my type-A kids:

1. There is no “on time” or “on schedule”, and
2. You can’t min/max your way through life

Both are great ways to stress/burn yourself out.

It took me 7 years to get a 2 year degree. I work with one of my best friends who got his masters in that same time. We're both successful and excell at what we do. It does suck that you have to wait to be done, but one silver lining is you may have a better job market since you won't be graduating with the vast majority of college students competing for the same spots.

I had to retake one of my university units over the summer after failing the final exam. It was the most embarrassed I think I’ve been to tell my parents, as I’d always been pretty solid with schoolwork.

In the end everything ended up perfectly fine, parents didn’t give a shit (I was an adult after all) and it made no difference to my future career prospects at all.

No, it makes very very little difference, I graduated late by about two years and took a gap year after that, too (most people getting PhDs take a gap). People getting into the workforce immediately usually don't have a huge advantage, either, although they go get a little more pay since they work slightly longer in their lifetime.

What's generally more important is how you position yourself after graduation. Internships if business, lab if grad school, etc. It's very easy to shoot ahead or fall very behind, though, as life after graduation is pretty much a matter of luck.

I'd be pretty hard-pressed to name any of my friends who graduated "on time"

I'm well into my 30s now, a couple of my friends are still working on degrees or just graduated.

Changing majors, bullshit scheduling nonsense, life

Shit, there was a whole fucking pandemic that fucked up a year or two of your high school years, it's pretty damn amazing that anyone your age is graduating even roughly on-time as far as I'm concerned.

Maybe it'll throw a bit of a monkey wrench into your social life because you gotta skip out on a couple things because you have class. That's life as an adult, we all got scheduling conflicts all the time.

Otherwise, it's never gonna matter. You'll have a degree, that's the only "important" thing about graduating. Unless you're looking to get into some highly-specialized, super-competitive field, no one gives a shit how long it took you to graduate, how your gpa stacked up against the rest of your class, etc. It's like the old joke "What do you call the person who graduated at the bottom of their class in medical school? You call them 'Doctor.'"

No. I swear it doesn't matter.

I'm in Québec. Here we have 6 years of elementary school, 5 years of high-school, 2 or 3 years of Cegep (college) depending if it's pre-university or a vocational degree, then 4 years university to get a bachelor's degree.

I was pulled back from advanced math to regular math back in my last year of high-school because the teacher hated my guts for some reason, and had to redo my advanced math to get into Cegep in computer science. Then, when I graduated after 3 years, my degree wasn't good enough and I had to go to university. At uni we had 3 semesters a year instead of 2 because it was an engineering degree and because of internships. But I worked in the summer to get some money to pay for my school expenses. Ended up finishing uni in 5 years instead of 4.

Yeah I got set back a couple of years, but it's okay. And honestly nobody cares if you failed a year in high school. As long as you finish, that's all that matters.

Listen to the other folks, but also if you graduate in the fall semester you have way less competition for a job since most people graduate in the spring.

So you’ve got that going for you.

I didn't graduate until I was 28. I think you'll be okay! I get how it feels like you're falling behind though!

I’m graduating at 29 after 6 years! When you are just out of high school, it feels so important to be in line with your peer group. As you get farther from that point, no one carries the same timeline anymore. It’s okay to take more time, and more importantly, it’s okay to fail a class.

Some of my classmates finished their masters before I even started!

Nothing to worry about whatsoever. My high school cohort and I ended up all over the world - some in countries with 3 year programmes, others in countries with 4 year programmes, others who dropped out or changed fields and started over.

I promise you that it does not matter. What matters is that you achieve your own goal of getting a bachelor’s, at your pace. :)

My class was set to graduate right around the time the pandemic hit and a lot of people ended up graduating late because the school literally couldn't offer the classes they needed to finish their degree. Anyone to whom your date of graduation is actually relevant likely isn't going to bat an eye at anyone who was in college within the last 5 years graduating a couple months late.

And, of course, there's that old stand-by moral of "the only reason it seems like all your peers are doing better is because the ones in the same situation as you aren't going on social media to brag about it." So don't rely on that as a metric too heavily.

22 and it's looking like I'll be failing units in my second year. It sucks for sure. I don't judge you one bit though, and think you've done extremely well so far. Congrats on what you've already accomplished, good luck with all you still have to.

When I was still hiring, I barely even read the education section except out of curiosity or to come up with interview questions. The only thing disqualifying would have been if the school was fake (like a Trump University MBA or whatever). It matters for “prestigious” white shoe law firms, major investment banks, grad school, etc. but not really anyone else.

Don’t half-ass your cover letter and interviews, though. For people without experience, especially, I, personally, was always trying to make sure we had a good match. I read every cover letter in part to make sure (a) people were literate, (b) knew what the job entailed, and (c) could be put in a position to succeed. You don’t want to hire someone who doesn’t match. A person applying to a non-profit working with schools and a person applying at a rocket launch start-up aren’t equally qualified regardless of skills and that’s fine.

I know needing a job sucks but there are always qualified people who just aren’t a good fit. So, don’t take it personally if you get rejected. I’ve been to third interviews because I got along with someone and then not chosen for jobs that, in retrospect, I really shouldn’t have been hired to do. I would have been miserable and left. Maybe it was a culture mismatch or maybe I’d didn’t care about the product but thought, “I could live in that city and get another job in a year.” There’s always “finalists” and sometimes, it comes down to a coin flip.

It could make things slightly more difficult straight out of college, but beyond that? Not really. It took me 8yrs to get through college. The fact that you're almost done means you're doing great!

Edit: if anything I should have stopped and listened to the voice in my head telling me that the path I was on wasn't the one I should have been going down. The voice didn't start showing up until about 6yrs in to a 4 year degree, and listening to it would have meant it probably would have taken another 3~4yrs to finish, but I would have also actually had a career; one that I would have enjoyed, no less.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with this at all. Some people don't even start college until their mid 20s or even later, if they have the opportunity at all. Finishing a few months later than some of you peers is a minute difference in the grand scheme of things and you should try not to stress about it and focus on doing the best you can with the work that's left. You will look back on this and find it amusing you were concerned about it - enjoy the extra time you have studying before you move on to the working world where you most likely be for the next 40+ years. Good luck and all the best.

Define bad. There is nothing worse than going into debt. As long as you aren’t locking all your income behind monthly payments, you can rebound from anything. The time you take to graduate is meaningless in the grand scheme of success.

One of my corporate managers took 10 years to graduate with a bachelors degree. He makes about $450k a year.

You’re fucked you should give up. That was sarcasm.

You're fine, friend. I know the feeling. I dropped out of high school when some credits weren't gonna transfer and I was gonna graduate late. I got my GED and started college classes during the second semester of my senior year. Guess what? I didn't finish that either. I work in tech, where you can be self-taught and make a nice living; that isn't true for most industries, I'm just saying there's no requirement that we approach education as a cookie cutter absolute.

You know who else is graduating late? People your age who took a year off to travel abroad. People who had tuition struggles. People who fell on hard times and had to take time off. People who had a family member get sick and they had to care for them. Literally tons of people.

You're frustrated and that's valid. But it's really a very small issue in the grand scheme of your life. You're also at an age where things like that feel more important than they really are. Keep your head down. Study. Use the extra time this summer to try to get some experience at an internship or work on some way of furthering your knowledge in your field so you can be first out of the gate when you graduate. Get a tutor if you think that will help. You got this.

I took 5 years to consecutively not get a degree and I'm about to go back to finish 5 years later.

Yeah it sticks not graduating with the people you started with, but that really isn't any more of a signifier of success or failure than graduating at all.

Sometimes things happen and at that point everyone is mature enough to but be a dick.

On your cv/resume, are you putting the month-year you started and finished college, or just the end month year, or just the graduation year? As time passes, it'll be just the year you graduate. (Some day you might just say you have the degree from school name)

I was 2 years "too late". I had an extra test in accounting to determine if I were allowed to attend the finals. It was only then that I understood a subject I didn’t understand for the whole time at college. I got an A on that test and crushed the finals with a B.

Nah, you're fine.

It isn't the worst, but I would evaluate why you need to retake two classes and how it might your life going forward.

I retook 6 classes and finished 2 years late. I'm regarded by my colleagues as a good person to work with and they think I'm good at what I do.

Don't let school define you, some people excel, others don't. Also, working for money is completely different than intrinsically motivating yourself to complete assignments.

I had mental health issues that I probably should have dealt with. If you feel like you're struggling, talk to a counsellor or a therapist, mostly because the college or uni has to listen when they say you're struggling. Also because they can look without judgement and tell you what you might be doing wrong with motivation and study habits. For me, I needed someone to remind me I mattered even if I didn't do well. That's just my 2c worth.

i was 44 when i got my bachelor's, some of my friends got their PhDs 18 years prior, i got a masters a year later. fortunately i got a job in a place that offers really good retirement options, so i can catch up

Look back in ten years and do the figures yourself.

It's not bad unless you want it to be bad. In ten years it'll be nothing.