Get Out Of School Already, Colleges Urge

It turns out kids are staying in school … for entirely too long, the Arizona Republic reports. Across the country, colleges are urging students to get in and get out in 4 years. The paper found that just 30% of students graduated state universities in 4 years, a problematic number for legislatures looking to stretch education dollars to the max.

"The reality of the situation is: It's difficult for students to pay to go longer," says one administrator at a university that's added a so-called tuition surcharge, billing students 20% more if they needed 150 credits, rather than the usual 120, to get their degrees. "And parents aren't happy about paying to go longer." (More higher education stories.)