Most college freshmen think they’ll go to college for four years, pocket their bachelor’s degree and get on with their lives. Yet although nine out of 10 new college students think they’ll get their degree in four years (according to UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute), less than half finish in four years. In fact, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Education, 45 percent of incoming freshmen still will be working on their bachelor’s degree into the sixth year.

That’s kind of a big deal. An extra year of college will cost the average public university student another $63,718, according to Complete College America, between tuition, housing and ancillary costs that go into education. Also, they’ll be losing wages for every year they’re still in school, which means they won’t earn as much during their lives as their earlier-graduating peers. (Time)

Paul Asay has written for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for PluggedIn and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He recently collaborated with Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, on his book The Good Dad. He lives in Colorado Springs with wife, Wendy, and his two children. Follow him on Twitter.