College challenge to ensure “timely graduation”: Understanding college students’ mindsets during the financial crisis

Since mid-2007, the United States has experienced the direst economic recession since the Great Depression. While considerable institutional resources have been spent on boosting 4-year graduation rates, many college students purposefully delayed graduation, waiting to enter the labor market until the overall economic situation had improved. The survey results suggested that students who were unemployed, who knew someone being laid off, who were pessimistic about the job market, or who targeted private industry jobs tended to stay in school longer. These results support the well-documented warehouse hypothesis: that students use schools as warehouses to shield themselves from the deteriorating job market.