I am so over people telling me that I am behind because I won't be graduating college in 4 years. But you know what. That's okay. It's totally fine that I won't be done in 4 years. My program is a 5-year program.
Some of the things that people have said to me are things like "well you're obviously not going to school full time then." actually I am going to school full time. 12 credits is considered full time at my university and I've always taken between 12 and 15 credits a semester. And no I will not take more than 15 credits. Yes, I have tried to take more; one semester I attempted 17 credits and couldn't handle that and working.
I've also heard "take spring and summer classes" but the truth is that I've done that math and doing that isn't going to make me graduate in 4 years because they only offer a handful of courses in the spring and summer and they typically aren't the classes that I need to be taking. Why should I take one or two classes in the spring and summer if it won't make me graduate any earlier? I would rather enjoy my summer and work to save money to pay for the upcoming school year.
The third thing that I have heard that really grinds my gears is "take classes at a community college over the summer and have the credits transferred over." No just no. They either don't offer what I need or they won't transfer the class and accept all of the credits that you would have earned for the classes. Or the very worst case is that they will not even transfer the class at all. So why should I waste time and money only to have a class either not transfer or to only have part of the credits transfer.
For my program, I have to do a field placement and I can not start it in the winter semester it has to be started in the fall semester and it goes for the entire school year. So maybe taking spring and summer classes would have gotten me a semester ahead credits wise but it won't make me graduate any earlier.
So for the sake of me and every other person that will not be done in 4 years please stop telling us to take more credits, take spring and summer classes, or to take classes at other schools and have them transferred in if our university doesn't offer the classes we need during the spring and summer semesters because chances are we have already looked into all of that.